The Road to Change - Both Sides of Paradise - CycleBlaze

November 4, 2014

The Road to Change

Which could be for the better

When I first set foot in Burma in 1979 it was called Burma. Britain, Burma's former colonial controller, had chosen the name because it referred to the dominant and most populace group, the Bamar people. But there are dozens of other ethnic groups within Burma's borders and the military dictator-led government in 1989 changed the name to Myanmar claiming the term referred to ALL the people. The controversy about whether this is true or not still swirls. I actually don't know what the facts are since I'm neither proficient in the language or a Burmese scholar.

What I do know is that the Burmese government slaughtered thousands of students on the streets of Rangoon in 1988 simply because they were demonstrating for democracy. One attempt to divert attention from such an atrocity would be to switch things around - change the rules to keep everyone guessing, on their toes and in the dark.

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Along with changing the name of the country they changed the name of most cities back to the names they had before the British renamed them. Most street names that had any association with the British were also changed. Overnight Pegu became Bago: Prome - Pyay, Rangoon - Yangon, Maymyo - Pyinn Oo Lwin, Edward Street - Konzedan Street, Canal Street - Anawrahta Street, Scott Market - Bogyoke Aung San Market and on and on. The city of Mandalay was lucky to already have the older name but maybe more important than that was it's wonderful onomatopoeticness. And, 'The Road to Mandalay' is such a famous saying it's namesake had to remain.

But, wait, that was just the beginning. Either the government wanted to rub out the memory of British rule in the worst way or they really wanted to put the nation in disarray. What would be the worst way? Well, that's easy, just change all the street signs around so you have to drive on the opposite side of the road! Driving switched from the left side to the right, again, overnight. No matter that all the steering wheels would now be on the wrong side. Passing? No problem.

Just imagine it. One day it's Portland and the next it's Wallamat. Washington St. becomes Kabetogama St. The name of the country is not the United States anymore and driving has switched to the other side of the road!

I know it's good to distance from past colonial rulers but I think it also shows something about how the government in Burma was grasping at anything to divert attention away from their seriously flawed and failed policies and leadership. It was a combination of conscious effort and complete ignorance by and of the government that led to years of disarray for everyone.

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But now things seem to be getting on the right road. The government is slowly changing for the better. There is less repression and imprisonment and more freedom of speech. The people now for the first time in generations can speak freely and criticize the government (however a journalist was killed recently by the military). There is more trade, more commerce and best of all the people are excited about having actual opportunities for the first time in a half a century. I compare what I feel here to other years when I've visited and I definitely feel the excitement of the Myanmar people. Maybe they needed the new identity and distance from colonial times it's just too bad they then had to wait another 25 years for other changes to begin.

Six years ago Aung San Suu Kyi was still in house arrest, we saw only one photo of her in a month, and she was only referred to as "The Lady", and only when there was nobody else around. How things have changed. The street bookstores in Yangon are now full of books about her and her father, General Aung San, the father of Myanmar independence.
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As we were driven in from the airport I asked the taxi driver if things were better in Myanmar than five years ago. He excitedly said they were. "Are you happier?" His reply, "Yes, yes, very happy now." As we whizzed through the lovely night air and deserted streets we passed many brand new glitzy car dealerships with names such as Future Auto, Lucky Auto and, of course, Golden Auto. Everything is Golden this or Golden that in Myanmar. It's referred to by most Burmese as the "Golden Land". But the infrastructure, mostly set up by the British a hundred or more years ago, is ailing - not Golden at all. I wonder how the roads and bridges can handle more vehicles. I wonder how horribly congested the road to Mandalay will soon be.

Even though the government officials on the whole are still far from perfect I think there are finally a few sane people with educations and intelligence within the government that have a tiny bit of influence. Because of that I have confidence the people of Myanmar will figure out the many problems an inept government of fifty years has left them. I have more confidence in the Myanmar people than I do in most of the other S.E. Asian countries. I see industriousness and a desire to move on - make up for a lot of lost time.

It may sound odd but much can be learned about an entire society from observing a large rat walk, not run, through a packed tea house. Sitting outside of a busy tea house our first night here I observed just that. Our table was literally on the street, one of the busiest in Yangon. Just a couple of years ago our table and chairs would have been on a wide sidewalk but the city has undergone a program of narrowing sidewalks to make way for more parking. It's one more bad idea by the government. To do away with the street/sidewalk life in Yangon and replace it with more cars is to do away with the charm and soul of Yangon. But, at least for now, that tea house has ignored the disappearance of most of the sidewalk and had taken over the new parking spaces with their tables and chairs as if the sidewalk had never been removed.

Less sidewalk, more parking.
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We sat in the humid evening after a torrential downpour sipping the tastiest, sweetest tea and I marveled at how comfortable we felt. We felt at home in this other worldly place and I know exactly where the feeling came from. It was from the wonderful character of the people of Myanmar who surrounded us at similar low tables. And I'm sure we would have the same feeling anywhere in Myanamar. They don't stare at us or make us feel as if we don't belong. Just by the fact that we have traveled a long distance (paying for expensive airfare) makes us rich in their eyes but instead of acting resentful or jealous I felt honored that we traveled half way around the globe to visit their country. They may not interact with us sometimes but that's because of a language barrier. It's accepted as such and they do everything they can to make us feel comfortable.

There is a very interesting hospitality the Myanmar people possess that I've never felt by any other people as a whole. This place is another world to us - so different is Myanmar than anywhere I've ever been - but, yet, the people somehow know how to make us feel at home. I'm convinced that the Myanmar people possess a hospitality gene.

So, as we sipped our tea and were having all these good feelings of hospitality directed at us, a large rat walked under the tables inside the tea house. I watched as no one paid any attention at all. They saw the rat but no one moved their feet or stopped their conversations. I think what it means is that the people here have dealt with much worse. Maybe rats are fairly commonplace too. It also speaks of tolerance. The Myanmar people are pretty devout Buddhists on the whole and Buddhism stresses tolerance as well as respecting the life of any living thing.

I think it also shows that there is a great energy and excitement about what is finally possible here in Myanmar now. A rat wandering underfoot is nothing. To dwell on the bad is a waste of time. The Myanmar people are well aware of what a waste of time it was trying to deal with their government. For years I saw them educating themselves, creating jobs, skirting the government and always trying hard to move ahead without the help of their country's leaders. Place names, country name....it's all superfluous as a rat running underfoot. With their generous warm character still intact the people of Myanmar just want to move forward undeterred. There's no reason to give a rat the time of day.

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Jacquie GaudetI remember many narrow sidewalks in Rangoon when I was there in 1986. The walkways were narrow because there were chain-link fences installed about 2 metres from the walls of colonial-era buildings, presumably to keep pedestrians out of the path of things falling from the facades of the unmaintained buildings.
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