Dear friends of Myanmar/Burma,

I made a recent trip to Myanmar and saw the growth of the digital industry in our country.

I wish to start a debate here to put our thinking caps on and find out ways and means of using the digital media for promoting education in our country.

I saw a lot of VCDs, DVDs and CDs providing entertainment and lectures by famous and popular meditation teachers and Sayadaws.

What we need to do now is for the private sector and the NGO community (both local and international) to get together and join forces to produce more educational digital media (videos, CDs, VCDs and DVDs) for helping the students and other older citizens of our country.

Regards,

Kyaw Myaing

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

For the start, how about letting us know how effective was the library project that you've started some years ago. For instance, how many students have access to those books that you sent? Does the library have records of those and so on.

Whether it's the digitial age or stone age as long as the military government does not want 'educated people' what's the point?

You should be the one to know. When there is no 'political will' nothing can be achieved in Burma or anywhere else. China may have very restricted policies on the Internet but they are not that stupid to throw away the baby with the bath water. They do take advantage of the Net.

The thing in Burma is to ask first, "How will you change the mentality of the people?" In particular, the military and it's leaders!

In any humane society you will find that people find ways to level the field by providing 'access' to services. In Burma only a few want to have that privlege of "access". That is the key difference.

Ireland was a poor country but with their use of 'information technology' to their advantage they have a very robust economy now and people from other countries in Europe are going there to work.

You have to remember that Burma wasn't a 'basket case' before. You've worked in the Consular Division before and you must know how the silly policies have brought the country to this state and how selfish and cowards like us in the service didn't have the courage to confront those policies.

I think the best education that we could give to the youth of today is to teach them about 'fear' and how to get rid of it. We must teach them, as Paulo Freire said, that the conviction of the oppressed that they must fight for their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientizacao (conscience).

Warazein

Dear U Warazein,

I think I know who you are. So how are you and I am glad to know that you are in good health and contributing to these discussions on the Burma/Myanmar forum.

As you know I am still doing work for helping the education sector of our country as much as I can. However, you know as well as I do that whatever we do as MYA - Myanmar Youth Association is limited by funds and support.

I find that unfortunately, our people who live abroad are either too busy trying to make an honest living, trying to get a good education or a good job or trying to make their businesses profitable. That is fine with me. This is the business of all of us who are still in this world. First we have to help ourselves before we can even think of helping others.

So I am sticking to doing humanitarian works to the extent of my ability.

I am now advanced in years and my idea is to contribute as much as I can in this forum by expressing my ideas in a positive way.

We have now sent in total more than 70,000 books and our books have gone to government and private libraries. With the support of the government they have gone to many university libraries and technical institues. I have a large collection of photos and I will put them on our web site. It is now being re-designed and I will announce it to you and all the others when it is ready.

I am happy to let you know that we are getting more voluntary labor from youths in America who help us in packing books.

Myanmar youths are too polarized (for the government, against the government or couldn't care less). So I am trying to do the best I can given the present situation.

My goal is clear and my path is clear.

My goal is a workable, representative government that has the support of the majority of the people.

I still believe that there cannot be any type of sustainable development without peace.

For peace, there has to be unity in our country. That is the work for the politicians, wherever they may be.

Some of my friends have criticized that the books are old. But, come on, when there are very few books in our country even if a book is one or two years old, it is better than nothing.

I believe that books have an intrinsic value and even old books are valuable. In fact books on history and literature are valuable even though they may be old.

When I make this proposal to utlize the potentail of the digital age, I am thinking more in terms of producing more CDs and DVDs about educational subjects that will be of benefit for our youths no matter where they are.

The fact of the matter is this. Digital CDs or DVDs can contain a lot of data and they are not expensive. Easy to produce and duplicate. We will encourage peolple to copy and the government will be happy as it will be helping the education sector.

If they have a small TV and a small DVD player, it can provide many hours of entertainment and education to our youths.

I know, I know -there is the problem of eletricity. But, if there is a will there is always a way.

What we need to do is to mobilize those who wish to donate their money and time to donate money for these simple machines and also to donate money for the gasoline that will be needed to run the generators.
Yes, we will need donors for the generators also.

But the most important thing is to get a curriculum, get the content and them make the DVDs.

For this we will need a lot of support from the young people living abroad and educators who would be willing to help out in this humanitarian effort.

Of course, we will need to present one set to the government ministry concerned so that these educational CDs can be shown in all places inside the country.

My strategy is this. Instead of complaining about what we don't have, do something, whatever is possible with what we do have. That is the positive spirit!!

Well then, that is my plan.

Good luck in your work and I hope we get to meet each other one of these days.

Kyaw Myaing

Dear U Warazein,

I think I know who you are. So how are you and I am glad to know that you are in good health and contributing to these discussions on the Burma/Myanmar forum.

As you know I am still doing work for helping the education sector of our country as much as I can. However, you know as well as I do that whatever we do as MYA - Myanmar Youth Association is limited by funds and support.

I find that unfortunately, our people who live abroad are either too busy trying to make an honest living, trying to get a good education or a good job or trying to make their businesses profitable. That is fine with me. This is the business of all of us who are still in this world. First we have to help ourselves before we can even think of helping others.

So I am sticking to doing humanitarian works to the extent of my ability.

I am now advanced in years and my idea is to contribute as much as I can in this forum by expressing my ideas in a positive way.

We have now sent in total more than 70,000 books and our books have gone to government and private libraries. With the support of the government they have gone to many university libraries and technical institues. I have a large collection of photos and I will put them on our web site. It is now being re-designed and I will announce it to you and all the others when it is ready.

I am happy to let you know that we are getting more voluntary labor from youths in America who help us in packing books.

Myanmar youths are too polarized (for the government, against the government or couldn't care less). So I am trying to do the best I can given the present situation.

My goal is clear and my path is clear.

My goal is a workable, representative government that has the support of the majority of the people.

I still believe that there cannot be any type of sustainable development without peace.

For peace, there has to be unity in our country. That is the work for the politicians, wherever they may be.

Some of my friends have criticized that the books are old. But, come on, when there are very few books in our country even if a book is one or two years old, it is better than nothing.

I believe that books have an intrinsic value and even old books are valuable. In fact books on history and literature are valuable even though they may be old.

When I make this proposal to utlize the potentail of the digital age, I am thinking more in terms of producing more CDs and DVDs about educational subjects that will be of benefit for our youths no matter where they are.

The fact of the matter is this. Digital CDs or DVDs can contain a lot of data and they are not expensive. Easy to produce and duplicate. We will encourage peolple to copy and the government will be happy as it will be helping the education sector.

If they have a small TV and a small DVD player, it can provide many hours of entertainment and education to our youths.

I know, I know -there is the problem of eletricity. But, if there is a will there is always a way.

What we need to do is to mobilize those who wish to donate their money and time to donate money for these simple machines and also to donate money for the gasoline that will be needed to run the generators.
Yes, we will need donors for the generators also.

But the most important thing is to get a curriculum, get the content and them make the DVDs.

For this we will need a lot of support from the young people living abroad and educators who would be willing to help out in this humanitarian effort.

Of course, we will need to present one set to the government ministry concerned so that these educational CDs can be shown in all places inside the country.

My strategy is this. Instead of complaining about what we don't have, do something, whatever is possible with what we do have. That is the positive spirit!!

Well then, that is my plan.

Good luck in your work and I hope we get to meet each other one of these days.

Kyaw Myaing

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

I'm glad that you know who I am and since I do not take you as a dill sooner or later you will be able to make out who I am. So let's not kid ourselves and have a discussion about what can and what cannot work.

Even with good intent, it may not be the right time or the right thing to do. I'm not underminding your good intent and the good you are trying to achieve. But would you be able to sway the minds of the military government towards that end? I don't think so.

You're not a stranger to their means and ways. What kind of power can a minster be able to exercise these days? They are no better than the servants in the household of the generals, aren't they?

If they have an iota of goodness for the country and the people they would have overcome their 'raw animal instinct' and sheer greed long ago. The thinking within the military is that 'it's free for all and gourge while you can'. The trouble is that not only that they are making hay while the sun shines they are also making love while it's raining.

Why would they want the education for the people improved? They don't want people who can think? They have their ways with 'yes men' all their lives, don't they?

We have been part of the problem by not having the courage to face up to their flawed policies. In the name of 'obedience to authority' all of us have been part of the machine that runs their system.

Your project is good. For good intent, I'll give it ten but for its feasibility I can only think of numbers on my one hand. You must be an 'economist' to be 'idealistic'. Good luck with your project and if it works you can count on my support in ways I can be able to help. You know me so I don't have to spell out in what way I can help.

Warazein

Dear U Warazein,

Some people may ask "what is the right time, what is the right thing to do"

Those who are creative and have leadership ability will make their own decision about what the right time is or what the right thing to do is.

My friend, whatever I do I always ask the question, will it be beneficial for the people. Will it benefit the majority of the people.

When I make decisions about the timing, I always ask myself, "why wait for something that may come or may not come. What is certain is that we are all growing old and it is better to do something good while we are still able. So I say to myself, the sooner the better. Time and tide waits for no man. Even those colleagues who are younger than I are no longer alive.
Remember, the average lifespan is 75 years.

Improving the education of the people is the job of any type of government (Military dictatorship, democracy, socialist of kingdom). Do you agree with me on this point.

Thanks for your promise of support.

Regards,

Kyaw Myaing

Ko kmyaing, If you say you are truth seeker, you must find what is the truth about within the governing body of so-called State Peace and Development Council,first. Do they make peace and development? Then you should start to think what you want to do.

Not only that. Could you tell the truth to those military generals in terms of what they have been terribly wrong-doings all these years? Do you think you found the truth?

If you are unable to say what is the truth, why do you want to be yourself as a truth seeker?

The regime's generals don't even think to boost the educational standard of the people but to strengthen military , why do you want to be hero of doing so? I don't mean to criticize you like this but it could only make to be clear.
Don't be .

Dear U Kyaw Myaing,

You may not know me but I know you and your family very well. I even know the happening at the Nay-Pyi-Daw as well as the appointment at SPA relating though not direct but concern with your surrounding.

I am sure that you have a reasonable success with your project in Myanmar despite some obstacles.

I have nothing against you or your project but according to my past experiences, I found out that most of our readers are very weak in English and always try to avoid reading anything in English. ( I am not saying that my English is good)

Based on that experience, I tried to convince my younger generation to read/listen anything that is in English in my own way.

Let me shear my own experience and you may call it Micro project which started about six years ago.

My principle aim is to encourage our younger generation to understand and (DARE) to speak English and most of all, to have general knowledge about the world and our sorroudings..

What I did was (with my hard earned money) I bought educational programmes (CDs) from Animal planet, Discovery and National Geographic, BBC sponsored animal programme, Sport, Guiness Record Books etc and took it to Myanmar. With these CDs and old comics books of my younger years (such as Beano, Dandy, cowboy and war picture comic books), I encouraged the kids around my neighborhood to come and watch or read what I have.

Although it cannot be called a library, I convert my garage into a small reading room. As for the Video shows, I found it very difficult to show the videos as we have less than three hours of electricity everyday and are not at regular time. Sometimes they will supply the electricity past mid night and cut before dawn. With help of my friend who is in the solar business, I managed to buy two solar panels (on installment basis) and started the show.

At first I will have only about two to five students a week (I open my reading room only Friday (after school) Saturday and Sunday only, even then, they will come and see of the show only and sometimes they will get up in the middle of the show and go back. No books were touched.

Now I have around fifteen to twenty people at any given time and even the adult and retired people joined the group now. It gives me a great joy of hearing the kids reading aloud the weekly journals and enjoy the talks with retired people like myself.

I am happy and contended with what I have now and have no intention to expand my Micro project as I am afraid the authority will have some different ideas but to be on the safe side, I have informed the concerned authority about my micro project and they will drop to see (may be check) my micro project occasionally.

In my opinion, if we can have similar project in every ward, I am sure that we can enhance our kids’ general knowledge about our world and our environment.

With better financial and good connection, I would like to request you to try a similar project which I believe you will able to do more and better than what I am doing now.( I am not preaching you but a simply suggestion )

T MYO

Dear Friend,

I wish to call you "dear friend" rather than "gyogoat" which does not sound too auspicious.

Anyway, I consider myself as a "seeker of truth" or "truth seeker" at the spiritual level. I leave the political positioning and mudslinging to the politicians.

I see that you have a username that hides your identity but I am not writing under any assumed name. So, I have to be responsible and fair to both sides. If I say only one side is good and the other side is always bad, then I am not being truthful to myself or the facts. What we need now most of all in our country is "unity". Think of all the things we could accomplish as a country and a people. Think of all the indignities we had to meet at the immigration counter because we are holding a "red" Burmese passport. All these years of political fighting among different groups with different political beliefs have created a bad name for our country and our people. We need to change that as soon as possible.

I do not enjoy hearing "Oh, Burma, the poorest country in the world". I hate that. We are not poor in natural resources nor are we poor in human resources. Our wealth or poverty depends on our own actions and our own attitudes. Most of all, we have a very valuable guiding philosophy - the teachings of the Buddha and the Sangha (who are doing a great job of keeping the people united as much as possible). We however need unity at the political level so that we can move ahead and move from this political stalemate towards progress in all spheres of life.

What I wish to suggest here is to change this bad image of our country and change the bad impression that others have about us. They usually say, "Oh these Burmese people, if there are three of them, one wants to be Chairman, one wants to be Vice-Chairman and one wants to be secretary. They can never get their act together. They are always arguing about minor things and forgetting the big picture."

So what is the big picture, my dear friend? The big picture is that we are way, way behind. Don't talk about the whole world. Just look at South East Asia. Look at Malaysia. They got independence after us. They have a parliamentary system as well as the traditional Heads of State at the state level called the Sultans. So it is a mixture of a modern system with traditional rulers. Look at Thailand. It is a Kingdom with parliarmentary system. They have a good economy and their prices are not sky high. I was there recently. They have their leader who is the King and he is well-respected and loved by all his people. It would take many years for us to catch up, let alone be able to walk shoulder to shoulder with all these countries.

There are different types of resouces: natural resouces, human resouces, financial resouces and institutional resouces. We need to build up all these resources. We need to unite all our people to work for the country and not only for this party or that party. A nation divided will not last long. A nation divided will not stand up with proundly but walk among other nations in shame and indignity. We can all change that. It is within our power if we have the good intentions and the willingness to succeed.

What MYA is trying to do is tackling the human resouces part; we are doing our little itty bitty bit to help the education sector. A few people cannot do it alone, but one man or one woman can inspire others to follow this idea. Many international students joined our cause and we are not disheartened because some Burmese students think that we are doing the wrong thing. Let them think what they think. We will keep on explaining to them whenever we get a chance.

When I came to this country, I did not have a lot of money to buy computer books so I bought old books (maybe three years old) to read up on Information Management. They gave me this idea that books can help people who are willing to read and learn. The lazy ones will keep on saying, "we don't have books". The energetic ones will seek out books and read them.

Go to our country now and you will see that many self-help libraries are cropping up in all parts of the country. The Burmese people are not stupid. They know that only knowledge can free them from poverty and only Vija (Weizzar) can free them from the rounds of life and death - Samsara. They have good teachers who are the Buddhist monks who live in all towns and villages and do their daily work of spreading the dhamma.

Even if we look back into history we will see the vision of our great kings like Anawrahta (who brought Theravada Buddhism to Burma) and King Mindon (who organized the Fifth Buddhist Synod to keep our religion pure and put the Tripitakas on Sagyin marble. Thanks to him our tripitakas are still there at the foot of Mandalay hill.) Were they not helping the education sector. A good education can help us all in lawki and lawkuttara (lawka uttara - to escape from Samsara). They knew very well that it was very important to preserve lumyo, bartha and sasana (race, language and religion). I am not saying that all Burmese kings are good. I am talking about the good ones from whom we can learn and get inspiration in our nation building tasks that lie ahead.

It is not enough to seek the truth. Once you have found it, you need to take appropriate action, whether at the worldly level or spiritual level.

There is a strategy in strategic planning called "SWOT". It means Stengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. We need a proper assessment of ourselves and our country as a Nation.

So we need to take a hard look at our Strengths and Weaknesses for a start.

Let me tell you one thing. What is the difference between a politician and a seeker of truth. A politician will say anything and do anything for the sole success of his or her party. A seeker of truth has to look at all the facts from all sides to see what is true and what is not. He has to look and talk to people and then look again.

I have nothing against politicians or politics. I know that in a multi-party system, all political parties have to prepare their platforms and campaign to win. However, let us not destroy our economy nor our country in the process.

I am not saying that the present government is free from faults. There is no government in the world that is not free from faults. For that matter, there is no man or woman who is free from faults. Only Buddha would be considered as a person free from all types of kilesas ( defilements, negative thoughts).

In this age of the Internet and the WWW and Utube, no government is free from criticism. Any good thing or bad thing will spread like wild-fire on the Internet within minutes or seconds.

However if you are doing humanitarian works, you have to take whatever the situation presents. You cannot sit down and wait and say "I do not like this type of government, let me wait for the ripe time".

If you see the truth you have to speak out and speak up. I read a lot of dhamma books and also do meditation whenever possible. So let me give you an example from Buddha's teachings. He said:

"Avija pyissaya sankara"

It means we do certain actions because of a dull mind, delusion or ignorance.

The best way to do something for our country now is to do whatever you can for the education of our people, especially the young ones.

I am not worried about the rich kids. I am talking about the poor kids in our villages, our wards and our towns. Some of them do not have pencils to write.
So what do we do. We started a "pencil project". This was started by one of our members. A lot of people donated pencils and many donated money to buy pencils. Then we made pencils with the MYA logo and gave out to these kids. You might say it is a drop in the ocean. Yes, it is. But look at the symbolism and the goodwill we created. First of all, we went there personally, spent time with them, talked to them, listened to their stories and brought back pictures to show their faces to the international community. What we wanted to show was not their clothes (which are simple, may look poor but well washed and clean). What we wanted to show was the look in their eyes. Their smiles and their eagerness to learn.

Then we started the "rice project" where we collected money and donated rice to the local monastery in Chaung Tha. This way the villagers get to eat the food and that is a very fair and effective way of distributing food. We donated many bags of rice to that monastery. This way we are supporting the teachers (monks) and the people at the same time, not to mention the Buddhist faith.

So I urge all of you (those who can still travel to our country) to look around, talk to people, listen to their stories, listen to the soldiers, the captains, the farmers, the workers, all at all levels) and you will find the truth.

There is so much to do and so much to learn but time is getting short.

Those who have died will not come back to living. It is the living and the new babies that are going to be born in the future that we have to care about.

I think the best way for us, those who are still living and in good health to think about ways and means to:

"Do someting good".

I will let you know when the MYA website comes up and you will see for yourself.

Do not believe what I say or write. Look for the facts yourself and seek the truth.

Best regargds,

Kyaw Myaing

Dear Friend,

I wish to call you "dear friend" rather than "gyogoat" which does not sound too auspicious.

Anyway, I consider myself as a "seeker of truth" or "truth seeker" at the spiritual level. I leave the political positioning and mudslinging to the politicians.

I see that you have a username that hides your identity but I am not writing under any assumed name. So, I have to be responsible and fair to both sides. If I say only one side is good and the other side is always bad, then I am not being truthful to myself or the facts. What we need now most of all in our country is "unity". Think of all the things we could accomplish as a country and a people. Think of all the indignities we had to meet at the immigration counter because we are holding a "red" Burmese passport. All these years of political fighting among different groups with different political beliefs have created a bad name for our country and our people. We need to change that as soon as possible.

I do not enjoy hearing "Oh, Burma, the poorest country in the world". I hate that. We are not poor in natural resources nor are we poor in human resources. Our wealth or poverty depends on our own actions and our own attitudes. Most of all, we have a very valuable guiding philosophy - the teachings of the Buddha and the Sangha (who are doing a great job of keeping the people united as much as possible). We however need unity at the political level so that we can move ahead and move from this political stalemate towards progress in all spheres of life.

What I wish to suggest here is to change this bad image of our country and change the bad impression that others have about us. They usually say, "Oh these Burmese people, if there are three of them, one wants to be Chairman, one wants to be Vice-Chairman and one wants to be secretary. They can never get their act together. They are always arguing about minor things and forgetting the big picture."

So what is the big picture, my dear friend? The big picture is that we are way, way behind. Don't talk about the whole world. Just look at South East Asia. Look at Malaysia. They got independence after us. They have a parliamentary system as well as the traditional Heads of State at the state level called the Sultans. So it is a mixture of a modern system with traditional rulers. Look at Thailand. It is a Kingdom with parliarmentary system. They have a good economy and their prices are not sky high. I was there recently. They have their leader who is the King and he is well-respected and loved by all his people. It would take many years for us to catch up, let alone be able to walk shoulder to shoulder with all these countries.

There are different types of resouces: natural resouces, human resouces, financial resouces and institutional resouces. We need to build up all these resources. We need to unite all our people to work for the country and not only for this party or that party. A nation divided will not last long. A nation divided will not stand up with proundly but walk among other nations in shame and indignity. We can all change that. It is within our power if we have the good intentions and the willingness to succeed.

What MYA is trying to do is tackling the human resouces part; we are doing our little itty bitty bit to help the education sector. A few people cannot do it alone, but one man or one woman can inspire others to follow this idea. Many international students joined our cause and we are not disheartened because some Burmese students think that we are doing the wrong thing. Let them think what they think. We will keep on explaining to them whenever we get a chance.

When I came to this country, I did not have a lot of money to buy computer books so I bought old books (maybe three years old) to read up on Information Management. They gave me this idea that books can help people who are willing to read and learn. The lazy ones will keep on saying, "we don't have books". The energetic ones will seek out books and read them.

Go to our country now and you will see that many self-help libraries are cropping up in all parts of the country. The Burmese people are not stupid. They know that only knowledge can free them from poverty and only Vija (Weizzar) can free them from the rounds of life and death - Samsara. They have good teachers who are the Buddhist monks who live in all towns and villages and do their daily work of spreading the dhamma.

Even if we look back into history we will see the vision of our great kings like Anawrahta (who brought Theravada Buddhism to Burma) and King Mindon (who organized the Fifth Buddhist Synod to keep our religion pure and put the Tripitakas on Sagyin marble. Thanks to him our tripitakas are still there at the foot of Mandalay hill.) Were they not helping the education sector. A good education can help us all in lawki and lawkuttara (lawka uttara - to escape from Samsara). They knew very well that it was very important to preserve lumyo, bartha and sasana (race, language and religion). I am not saying that all Burmese kings are good. I am talking about the good ones from whom we can learn and get inspiration in our nation building tasks that lie ahead.

It is not enough to seek the truth. Once you have found it, you need to take appropriate action, whether at the worldly level or spiritual level.

There is a strategy in strategic planning called "SWOT". It means Stengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. We need a proper assessment of ourselves and our country as a Nation.

So we need to take a hard look at our Strengths and Weaknesses for a start.

Let me tell you one thing. What is the difference between a politician and a seeker of truth. A politician will say anything and do anything for the sole success of his or her party. A seeker of truth has to look at all the facts from all sides to see what is true and what is not. He has to look and talk to people and then look again.

I have nothing against politicians or politics. I know that in a multi-party system, all political parties have to prepare their platforms and campaign to win. However, let us not destroy our economy nor our country in the process.

I am not saying that the present government is free from faults. There is no government in the world that is not free from faults. For that matter, there is no man or woman who is free from faults. Only Buddha would be considered as a person free from all types of kilesas ( defilements, negative thoughts).

In this age of the Internet and the WWW and Utube, no government is free from criticism. Any good thing or bad thing will spread like wild-fire on the Internet within minutes or seconds.

However if you are doing humanitarian works, you have to take whatever the situation presents. You cannot sit down and wait and say "I do not like this type of government, let me wait for the ripe time".

If you see the truth you have to speak out and speak up. I read a lot of dhamma books and also do meditation whenever possible. So let me give you an example from Buddha's teachings. He said:

"Avija pyissaya sankara"

It means we do certain actions because of a dull mind, delusion or ignorance.

The best way to do something for our country now is to do whatever you can for the education of our people, especially the young ones.

I am not worried about the rich kids. I am talking about the poor kids in our villages, our wards and our towns. Some of them do not have pencils to write.
So what do we do. We started a "pencil project". This was started by one of our members. A lot of people donated pencils and many donated money to buy pencils. Then we made pencils with the MYA logo and gave out to these kids. You might say it is a drop in the ocean. Yes, it is. But look at the symbolism and the goodwill we created. First of all, we went there personally, spent time with them, talked to them, listened to their stories and brought back pictures to show their faces to the international community. What we wanted to show was not their clothes (which are simple, may look poor but well washed and clean). What we wanted to show was the look in their eyes. Their smiles and their eagerness to learn.

Then we started the "rice project" where we collected money and donated rice to the local monastery in Chaung Tha. This way the villagers get to eat the food and that is a very fair and effective way of distributing food. We donated many bags of rice to that monastery. This way we are supporting the teachers (monks) and the people at the same time, not to mention the Buddhist faith.

So I urge all of you (those who can still travel to our country) to look around, talk to people, listen to their stories, listen to the soldiers, the captains, the farmers, the workers, all at all levels) and you will find the truth.

There is so much to do and so much to learn but time is getting short.

Those who have died will not come back to living. It is the living and the new babies that are going to be born in the future that we have to care about.

I think the best way for us, those who are still living and in good health to think about ways and means to:

"Do someting good".

I will let you know when the MYA website comes up and you will see for yourself.

Do not believe what I say or write. Look for the facts yourself and seek the truth.

Best regargds,

Kyaw Myaing