Nancy and Nori
..in Thailand
Leave Us Alone
A recent article on the displacement of Burmese, by Phil Thornton:
Park Slope really may be the best neighborhood in the country for us
http://backcountrybeacon.com/2010/02/brooklyn-boulders-an-nyc-climbing-hub/
Yep, that’s right. The woman going for the far hold is me and the men planning their next route are Nori and Anthony. :-)
I really miss BKB.
Evocative and inspiring words of Dr. Cynthia and powerful images of Mae Tao Clinic
Please view this short video on YouTube, In the video are many clips of Mae Tao Clinic which will give you a sense of where I work, what some of the major clinic issues are right now, and what I see everyday when I come to work at the Counseling Center. I continue to be amazed and impressed by all that happens on the grounds of Mae Tao Clinic every day, by the dedication of the staff and volunteers, by the healing that occurs in every department, and by the inspiring presence and forward-thinking visions of Dr. Cynthia Maung. Please share this clip with others to raise awareness of Burma-related issues as well as the current needs of the MTC community.
No Beer from 2-5pm…but 11am is ok
The work week here is 6 days, yes 6 days. It was initially a challenge for me, as I was previously enjoying a 4-day work week in Brooklyn, but over time i have found many ways to adjust to these long weeks. One silent protest to Saturday work is having an occasional Friday night beer while watching an episode of some downloaded show. Yes, I still wake up at 6:30 Saturday morning, but for that 30 minutes on Fridays, I like to imagine that I am winding down for the week and that I will be able to sleep in the next morning. This ritual of mine was recently thwarted, however, when the worker at one of the many Mae Sot 7-11 stores refused to sell me my Archer beer. Yes, Archer - my budget is getting tight these days. She refused the sale in Thai, I expressed confusion in English and slightly nudged the beer closer to her register, she again kindly protested in Thai, and I again smiled and gave an affirming nod and held up my Baht for her to see. At this point, it was obvious to both of us that this conversation was getting nowhere. She smiled and pointed to an English sign behind her: “Selling of alcohol is from 11:00-14:00 and 17:00-23:00.” It was 4:55pm. No beer for me. So, I thought, had I come at lunch time, I could have purchased my beer, but I cannot buy it on the way home from a tiring day at work. I lowered my head, put my Baht in my pocket, put my ear buds in and resumed my listening to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, as I left the 7-11 empty-handed. Water and an episode of The Wire would have to do this Friday night.
I later learned that this break in alcohol sales is the compromised result of the Royal Queen’s efforts to reduce alcohol consumption in Thailand. Go Queen! I support this, but 11am and not 4:55pm, really? Ok, I’ll just go out at lunch time next time. That will be my compromise. Maybe I’ll even treat myself to Singha next week then.
“When it rains is the time you collect the water”
These are the words of a wise man who was responding to my concern that he is working so many hours and so many days without rest. This exchange occurred when we were deciding whether to hold an evening session for a mental health/self care training that I recently co-led to mobile medics who, on a daily basis, risk their lives in order to provide medical care to communities in remote jungle areas. We agreed to have the session and for an hour that evening, the water was collected, in the form of learning yoga skills, enhancing coping skills, and learning to recognize stress in ourselves. I feel, however, that here it is always raining. There are always new skills to learn, more trainings to attend, more visitors to talk to, more collaboration to be done, more experts to consult, more information to gain, and more reports to read. I suppose that is why this is a called a “movement” - forever moving, never resting. But I do worry about what happens when our bodies and minds just can’t move anymore. In the words of a dear friend, “I want to work, but my body won’t let me.” That is what can happen. But she will move. She will push through. She will continue. She will keep the movement going. And she will inspire me to do the same.
A Reflection on Naw Louisa’s Life
The Irrawady
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17739
Louisa Benson Craig Dies Aged 69
| By SAW YAN NAING | Thursday, February 4, 2010 |
Louisa Benson Craig, an inspirational Karen community leader and former Miss Burma, passed away after a long battle with cancer in California on Feb. 2. She was 69.
Born in Rangoon in 1941 to a Portuguese and his Karen wife, Louisa became renowned for her beauty and won the Miss Burma contest twice––in 1956 and 1958. She also acted in a number of Burmese films.
 |
| Beauty queen and rebel Naw Louisa (Photo: Karen Museum) |
After studying in Boston in the USA, she returned to Burma and in 1964 married Lin Htin, the former Brigade 5 commander of the Karen National Union (KNU’s) military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army. Lin Htin was responsible for an attack in 1961 on the Thai border town of Mae Sot, but had surrendered with Saw Hunter Tha Mwe to the Burmese government in 1963.
Louisa was among the Burmese beauty queens who were once reportedly invited for a dinner with Gen Ne Win, the infamous Burmese dictator who seized power in 1962.
After her husband was killed by Burmese soldiers in 1965, she led his 5th Brigade back into revolution. In 1967, she married an American, Glen Craig, and settled in California. She was a founder member of the Burma Forum and a board member with the US Campaign for Burma. In recent years she suffered from brain cancer.
Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the KNU, said she met with Naw Louisa three times in 2003-04, the latest meeting being in northern Karen State. She described Naw Louisa as a very active person who loved her Karen people and loved working for them.
“She encouraged us to work hard for the Karen people and was very active,” Zipporah Sein said. “I believe she worried about the Karen in Burma until the final days of her life.”
Louisa Benson Craig constantly lobbied for the Karen resistance movement, raising the profile of the plight of internally displaced Karen people in conflict zones in Karen State and encouraging unity among Burma’s ethnic peoples. She was known as a staunch supporter of federalism in Burma.
A statement by the US Campaign for Burma on Wednesday read: “It has been an honor to have Louisa Benson Craig as part of the US Campaign for Burma family. Her decades of service to the Free Burma movement and plight of the Karen people has brought much needed attention, hope and inspiration to those of us who will continue the struggle for a free and democratic Burma.”
Maung Maung Hla, a Karen pastor in Rangoon who was close to Naw Louisa during her youth, remembered her aloud: “She had a little mole on her left cheek and she had a kind heart. She was also a very good singer.”
Emergency appeal to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate Karen refugees back to heavily land-mined zone
February 2nd, 2010
The Karen Women Organization is urgently appealing to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate over 3,000 Karen refugees staying in Tha Song Yang, Tak Province, back to a heavily land-mined war-zone in Burma. The majority of the refugees are women and children.
This group of refugees have been told by the Thai Army that they must all be returned to Burma by February 15. The refugees were told that actions to remove them will begin on February 5th, this week. They are now living in fear of imminent forced repatriation into an area which is heavily land-mined, and where active conflict can re-ignite at any moment.
On January 28, the local Authority Thai Army and his men forced 50 refugees from this group back across the border between 9 to 11 am to start cleaning up their homes in the village of Ler Per Her in preparation for their return. This included 20 women and girls, some under 16 years of age.
However, KWO would like to state clearly that this area is not safe at all and refugees groups are not willing to return at this point in time. In recent months, five refugees from the area have been either injured or killed by landmines when slipping back into Burma to look after livestock they left behind. This included a 13-year-old boy whose leg was blown off in August last year, and a woman who was 8 months pregnant had her foot blown apart on January 18, 2010.
Blooming Night Zan, Joint Secretary 1 of KWO said, “This evidence of people stepping on the landmines is a sure sign that the situation is still very dangerous. Sending refugees back against their will into such a dangerous situation violates the international law of non-refoulement. Although the Thai government is not a signatory of the Refugee Convention, the KWO is very grateful to His Majesty the Thai King, and the Thai government, for a long history of kindness to refugees. We appeal to the Thai authorities now to show your humanitarian kindness again.”
The Karen refugees fled from fighting in the Ler Per Her area in Karen State, Burma, in June 2009. The refugees were granted temporary refuge in three locations, Mae U Su, Mae Salit and Nong Bua, but have not yet been allowed to move to Mae La refugee camp in Tak Province. Since their arrival, local Thai authorities have repeatedly pressured the refugees to return home despite evidence that the area is still very dangerous.
The Karen Women Organization is gravely concerned at the planned forced repatriation of these refugees into such a dangerous area and we urgently appeal to the Royal Thai Government to halt the repatriation and continue to provide these refugees with protection on Thai soil.
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