February 2007 Archives
I was feeling really ugly and unlovable yesterday (don't ask, I have issues) and I was talking to Tanya - and Kin - (and Harley to an extent) who always make me feel better about myself and I know that I shouldn't let people get to me, even if they are the closest ones to me, and I don't understand why they would want to say things to hurt me. But sometimes, there are no answers to questions like these.
So to make myself feel better, I am posting this wonderful poem by Maya Angelou. Enjoy.
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Maya Angelou
Oh wow! A 10 Day Holiday in Burma - for the Burmese new year!!! (this happens in April). I'm jealous. I never get 10 day holidays. Now if only Singapore government would grant me that as well. HAHAHA.
Oh and if the Burmese Junta thinks that all is forgiven because they decided to give the people 10 day holidays a year - WRONG!
Myanmar designates long new year holidays for first time
Myanmar has designated for the first time a 10-day-long new year holidays for the country's people to mark the upcoming Myanmar new year to replace the traditional five-day holidays, according to a notification of the government published on Saturday's all official newspapers.
To enable Myanmar people to take part in the traditional water throwing festival, go to pagodas and stupas to perform meritorious deeds and keep precepts, pay respects to elderly persons and do charity and for the state service personnel to be able to take a vacation for rest and recreation after a long work of the whole year, the long holidays were designated, said the notification of the ruling State Peace and Development Council.
please don't ask me why i run
i know sometimes, it's not for fun.
it hurts when i sit still for too long...
and when i say you don't know me
am i wrong?
faded dreams and local wine
monsoon seasons wrapped in sunshine
i'm in too deep to look back and sigh
though i was sad there was no goodbye?
random things will make me smile
and it will go on for miles and miles
emotions sat aside and emotions piled.
it was my own prediction,
it didn't become fiction..
i guess i had a part in making it come true.
perhaps, us... we are only fools..
I just realised a few days ago that RFA Unplugged , a Radio Free Asia blog....Written by RFA staff has me on their blogroll. Awwwww.. I'm glad someone else besides my friends read my rantings on Burma and life in general.
I'm very flattered because my father was a big fan of Radio Free Asia. We would have it on in the house at night all the time - back in the days on little transistor radios and then via online streaming when that became available.
You can listen to Radio Free Asia here in Burmese.
RFA also has a very insightful article on the plight of Burmese construction workers in Qatar
excerpt: “The agents in Burma manipulate and cheat us,” general worker Ko Aung told RFA’s Burmese service. “All they do is squeeze from us as much as they can and then put us on the plane to Qatar. The rest is not their concern.”
Actually the same thing happens in Singapore. I have met many labourers who look for help because after selling all their belongings in Burma to pay an agent to help them get a job in Singapore that pays little more than 3 or 4 dollars an hour, many of them are cheated of their pay. Often, many of them do not get paid for months at a time or some, at all.
It is sad because the Burmese authorities do not check or care about the conditions of Burmese workers in foreign countries. And many Burmese agents know that this goes on but again, I have no say in how they do business. Again, foreigners can't bully us, if we don't actually assist them, so I think it's time that agents and governments and hiring companies took some responsibilities.
Maybe we can actually set up an online information portal. I'm going to look into that. I think that education and information is extremely important because ignorance only breeds ignorance.
CHLOE paddington leather journal
I know everyone wants a Chloe Paddington Leather bag. But me, being me, I want the Chloe paddington leather journal instead. Seriously, my journal is running out of space. I need a new one. OK, so maybe the Chloe one is too expensive... so then I shall be happy with a: Moleskine
Or this: View image
So I can do something like what Will Chau did below:
Gosh, in order to do that I need:
some Acrylic paint
Some Water Colors, 
i would like some brushes, even though finger painting is fun...
And this one looks really fun - a Sketch By Number!
Yeah, that's about all I am kind of wishing for right now in terms of material things. OK, I lie, I want a whole new set of clothes but I always want those, so no point in mentioning that.
Dear U Ohn Than,
thank you for trying. I hope you are safe.
60-year-old lone protestor Ohn Than, left back to camera, holds a placard calling for the convening of parliament as he staged a rare protest in front of plainclothes police officers who were watching the Union Day ceremony held at the National League for Democracy headquarters in Yangon, Myanmar Monday, Feb. 12, 2007. Ohn Than, a former political prisoner who was released from prison last year demanded convening of parliament with elected parliamentarians of the 1990 election. The NLD was holding the 60th anniversary Union Day celebrations to mark the signing of an agreement in 1947 when Myanmar's independence leader General Aung San and ethnic minority leaders agreed together to take independence from Britain.
Myanmar Extends Opposition's Detention
The military government on Tuesday extended by one year the house arrest of the deputy head of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, despite calls by the party and international community to release him.
Officials from the Home Ministry visited the house of Tin Oo on Tuesday evening to read out the order extending his house arrest, according to a relative who asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisal. Myanmar's junta tightly controls the release of all news.
You know, I understand that running a country isn't the easiest job in the world. Especially if you have crazy acting neighbors whose rebel armies are always seeking refuge in your country and especially if you are doing a lot of business with the said country and you are profiting and of course, you are thinking of yourself before the other country. Everyone is a capitalist nowadays and everyone wants to do business with everyone else in order to survive. I know I get that it is a necessary gesture, I did learn something in Econ 101 after all.
I read the news in Singapore about how the ASEAN is trying to help the Burmese by negotiating with the Junta and all that and how they are trying to help the soldiers who run the country have an ounce of decency and act like human beings that they claim to be.
But ASEAN, did, after all, let Burma into the ASEAN chapter. ASEAN is not, really putting any sanctions on Burma at all. Is that a surprise, I wonder? I mean, it is a well known fact that Singapore invests a lot in Burma. One has to be blind not to see the number of "Tiger Beer" signs all over the cities. And this is the only visible sign; the invisible investing goes on much more. Thailand - well, I can't say much about Thailand as it is, having its own problems now but again, I bring up the fact that the Thais have a lucrative deal in getting energy from our dams, and seafood from our seas, teak from our forests and so on... The government just kind of said, take them, so I can't blame them for taking what is easily offered. Thailand benefits. And another well known fact that China supplies Burma with arms and a lesser known fact that Russia trains our military intelligence. All these countries gain to benefit from the military government staying in power because any crazy disruption would mean crazy disruptions in their profits, etc.
And I think that these countries think that the more carrots they throw the way of the Burmese Junta government, that the government will suddenly have a change of heart and become nice to the rest of the country. This way, then the investing countries won't look so bad to the rest of the world. (But for some reason, I do not think Russia and China care - just guessing - but they did try to get the UN from discussing the Burma issue.)
Hello? - How many years has it been -10? 12? - since the full on investing in Burma started and the junta is still in power, opposition parties still under house arrest and jailed and all kinds of craziness goes on in the country?
I mean, sure, there are loads of differences. Now, all the Burmese city girls dress like they are Korean girls from the K-dramas. Now, more of them speak English. Now, there are so many malls, I have lost count.
But are the Burmese people living in a democratic society? That would be a NO. A BIG NO. So I ask, isn't it time that countries who have a lot of business invested in Burma did something about it? After all, they come from democratic societies and they are supposed to be proper decent humans aren't they?
The Burmese junta doesn’t need anymore carrots. They need sticks and they need to be beaten with it. OK, if you aren't going to beat them, at least could you starve them? A little? I mean, most of the rich generals in power are so fat anyway, they will thank you for lowering their cholesterol.
At least, please stop giving them more weapons to kill the innocent.
Influx of weapons frightens dissidents
PRO-DEMOCRACY activists in Burma fear the hardline junta will use arms supplied by India to suppress opposition and slow the process of democratization in the military-ruled nation.
The Indian Government says the arms are meant for use by the Burmese army against the north-east Indian rebels based in jungles on Burma's side of the border. But pro-democracy activists say they and ethnic minorities will be the targets.
I need a holiday. Jamaica, Hawaii, whatever, somewhere else sounds good. I'm this close to just taking the ferry to Bintan. LOL.
Today was frustrating; cabbing all around town, in order to get things done and then I find out that I've been given the wrong information. So I couldn't do everything that I wanted to do. Went Grocery shopping. And for the love of God, I could not find a soap dish, in perhaps the biggest supermarket in Singapore. No one makes soap dishes anymore????
Then proceeded to come home to try and figure out how to upload a video from the camcorder to the computer so I can edit it into a short piece with music dubbed over it. The camcorder refused to oblige. My computer refused to oblige. and after 3 hours, I gave up and went to watch the movie Babel. And it was such a downer that I fell asleep. And then I wanted to tell people things but I dont tell them the things I want to tell them and I spend way too much time debating if I should be telling people the things I want to tell them. Gosh, I sound like a tongue twister.
But sushi saved the day!
Sushi always saves the day!
I don't pretend to know anything or pretend that I understand the universe or the psyche of the human mind. But I do feel the way I feel and I can't figure it out and I can't crack it. Sometimes, I don't want to feel or think. I just want to be a blank canvas. A blank canvas where new ideas, new colors, new beginnings can begin. A new canvas where someone else gets to try and figure it out.
Just a thought.
