Burma

"Finding George Orwell in Burma" by Emma Larkin is one of my favorite books.

If you have any interest in George Orwell, or his works, you should read it. It is the story of a journalist (Emma Larkin is a pseudonym) who travels to Burma in order to understand more about Orwell, why he wrote about Burma, and to learn about his experiences there. He spent five years in the colonial army serving in Burma, and officially wrote one book, "Burmese Days" about Burma, but many (especially Burmese) feel "1984" and "Animal Farm" are as well, and in Burma he is often referred to as The Prophet.

I hope I can travel to Burma one day, and I have a secret wish to live there for a while. But mores than that, I just feel some sort of connection. Perhaps the connection is really just due to a well written book. But the more I research the struggles of Burma, the more my heart breaks, and the more I want to be a part of it.

For example, in the book Ms. Larkin discusses the fall of the education system. When Burma was a colony, it had an extremely high rate of literacy, and the majority of the education was done in monasteries. However, when Burma was granted independence and the Military Regime took over, the education system fell apart. In the book one of the reasons is the ability for educated people to fight back. The lower the literacy rate and the less intelligent a people are, the less likely they will be in understanding their oppression. It also makes it easier to isolate the people in Burma from outside media sources. I want to do something about it.

One way Burma has accomplished the destruction of the education system is by requiring the citizens to pay for, build, and staffing of their schools. A third is by requiring all education to be done in the language of Burmese. Although this does not seem to be an issue, Burma is populated by many different ethnicity's and has one of the richest and most diverse collection of people. Forcing everyone to speak Burmese is an effort by the Junta to give an advantage to the Burman ethnic group, and essentially "tax" other ethnicity's.

And Burma is home to Aung San Suu Kyi, my absolute hero.