The line of disappointed Burmese wandered down the dirt road from the polling station to the betel-nut shack. Perhaps a hit of the addictive chew would soothe their nerves. On April 1, Burmese went to the voting booths for just …
rangoon
As Burma Heads for a Historic Vote, the Opposition Decries Campaign Infractions
The Burmese campaign irregularity was round, hard and launched from a slingshot. In March, an unknown assailant fired a betel nut at an opposition party candidate for the April 1 by-elections, nearly causing an injury. The …
Burma: Election Fever Heats Up and Even the Military’s Party Plays Along
At the campaign rally on the outskirts of Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, much appeared as it should be. A sweaty crowd, thousands strong, dutifully waved green-and-red party flags; many sported baseball caps with the Union …
Burma’s Armed Forces Day: Men in Business Suits, Not Uniforms, Seize the Moment
March 27 was Armed Forces Day in Burma, the 67th anniversary of the founding of the modern Burmese military. Given that Burma was ruled for nearly half a century by a military regime and even today is helmed by a hybrid …
Going Home: Exiles Venture Back to Build a ‘New Burma’
He went from protesting on the streets of Rangoon in 1988, to a guerrilla camp on the Thai-Burma border, to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Now, Aung Naing Oo, a policy analyst, peace advocate and …
Clinton in Burma: As Ties with U.S. Strengthen, Will the Country’s Ethnic Minorities Be Forgotten?
Nestled next to a placid lake in Burma’s largest city, Rangoon, the villa of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi is a pleasant spot—although no place can be so comfortable as to merit spending much of two decades under house arrest there. In 2009, before the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released from villa detention by the ruling …
The Barefoot Diplomat: Hillary Clinton Begins Landmark Visit to Burma
One of the most surreal experiences in Burma is to leaf through the New Light of Myanmar. The English-language newspaper, which refers to the country by its official name, is among the most retrograde publications in the world. With tidbits like “True patriotism: It is very important for every one of the nation regardless of the …
The Road to Naypyidaw: What Hillary Clinton Will See in Burma
As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her historic visit to Burma from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, she will be touring two vastly different cities. Clinton, the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit the isolated nation in more than half a century, first stops in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital. The vast, surreal city, which …
Burma: Could a Small, Peaceful Protest Signal Real Reform?
Four years ago, as columns of burgundy-robed monks marched peacefully through Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, security forces opened fire, slaughtering at least 31 people, arresting thousands more and extinguishing hopes that the ruling junta was receptive to political reform. On September 26, dozens of Burmese again gathered …
Senator John McCain Set to Meet Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi
Will they swap stories of life in detention? Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who languished for five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, is to meet on June 2 with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy activist who before being released from house arrest last November spent the better part of two decades in confinement. The …
On the Road with Disaster Vets in Burma
Veterinarians notice things walking around in this world that you and I do not. In December, I traveled to the far north of Burma with a team of disaster response vets who work for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). Two months earlier, the region around Sittwe, the capital of northern Rakhine State, had been hit hard …