Wednesday, 3 October 2007

The Road to Mandalay














I was in a different planet for a whole month and woke up to know about the 'Saffron Revolution'. It happened in Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon - there was this rainy rally to support democracy fights in Burma, and then some sms, mails and adherence requests just came with an unusual intensity. I needed to know what was it all about.

So Myanmar is a quite young place. I read once this description of the countries by their 'age' and how as time goes by the maturity is reached.

Two things amazed me about what is happening in the world. The first one is that when you ask: has this happened before? the answer is yes. Then how come it gets to affect even my way of dressing when my friend asks me to wear a red shirt to show support? Well, information has never been as powerful and accessible as it is right now. When I think about my future children, I just get dizzy figuring out how fast might data get into their brains with the hyper-stimulation we are living.

The second amazing thing is to read the story and figure out more than one angle. So here it goes: after independence from GB, things started to be shaky. The military junta took charge in the sixties and now everything is burning. From the side of the junta, such a young country cannot be controlled but by exercising the force; the drug traffic, the lack of development, the post-colonialist mayhem. From the side of the people... is where it hurts. And it hurts globally, even to people that have tons of social security and have just a very light idea of what's going on. So what's actually going on? The price of diesel was increased by 500% in order to cover a raise in public servants wages. People is just fed up. To everybody out there: do something. That is the message I got and I agree to. But we, humans, do not learn. How come we cannot reach an equilibrium ever?

Will not solve that riddle now, but will keep an eye on this human nature experimentarium.

PS: The picture is Amm's. I think it is fantastic!

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