Teaching Begins
As the new Cold Season Semester begins for the AEIOU Programme, I am surprised by several changes. First, the program affiliation to Chiang Mai University is clearly closer. This year, we manage to have a faculty office in the Political Science building along with air conditioned, technology filled classrooms.
This is quite a relief after years of trudging up to a barren the fourth floor room and dripping onto my lecture notes before the first fifteen minutes of class was over.
I am even more surprised, however, about changes in the kinds of students attending the program: far fewer Karen and Karenni refugee
students, far more Shan, Mon, and Burmese students from inside Burma. Along with this change is a clear improvement in the level of English spoken by these students and what appears to be a higher
socioeconomic level of students. While the former certainly eases my own personal struggles to communicate clearly, the later troubles me a little. The students certainly seem more privileged than those in past years.
Modern jeans and smartly “logo-ed” jackets replace the simple but beautiful hand -woven ethnic sarongs and inexpensive tops. I was startled by the ring of cell phones in my class and surprised at how casually students spend their allowances.
As much as I understand the need for younger generations from Burma to gain a closer understanding of democracy and community development by consensus, this particular program has a history of limiting its resources to refugees, internally displaced people, and migrant workers. I see few of those this year. The students I do see appear to come with a level of affluence that might allow them access to other types of educational programs.
This all leaves me rather disappointed. My own resources are not limitless and I choose to do what I can where it is needed most. As lovely and as good-hearted as these students are, their needs are far from those of the Karen and Karenni refugees whose camps we have visited. Norbert and I both take some comfort in the fact that other branches of EWOB are still hard at work inside refugee camps. All the clothes we brought, so kindly donated, have in fact reached the neediest of children.
This change that troubles us so much is explained by our director as the result of U.S. policy. This year, the Bush administration approved relocation of many Karen refugees to the United States. In an attempt to respond quickly before the door shuts again, local refugee camp administrators have selected the brightest and the best for relocation. Among them are many who would have been student in the AEIOU Programme. Among them are also most of the camps’ teachers and program leaders. The result has been a tremendous “brain drain” away from the camps leaving a serious gap in leadership.
Our hope is that, in future years, the AEIOU Programme will help fill this gap by again recruiting large numbers of students from the camps for training as teachers and leaders. Unfortunately, our hopes may not be in line with the program’s leadership. As a result, we are feeling more and more it is time for us to bow out of our work here or at least to refocus it on more urgently needed EWOB projects. For now, we will finish the work we agreed to do.
Sunday “Walking Street”
Both of us were itching for our first Sunday in Chiang Mai to arrive. Of all the
sights and sounds of this area, our favourite has always been Chiang Mai’s Sunday “Walking Street.” That is code for a special Sunday pedestrian zone, blocked to
smelly traffic and open to crafts people and artists living in Chiang Mai. The result is a sensory overloading opportunity to enjoy everything from great creativity, to
interesting oddities, to astoundingly delicious exotic foods in a relaxed, evening atmosphere.
Alas, that too has changed at least in part. Of course, all the creativity, oddities, and foods are still available, but the “Walking Street” has been discovered and invaded by thousands of tourists, both foreign and Thai. Perhaps we speak too harshly. Perhaps it is Norbert’s increased disability that makes navigating the river of people a greater challenge. We were certainly quite a bit more exhausted by the event than in previous years. Maybe we are just getting older. At any rate, we will not give up.
Our newest strategy is to avoid the greatest crowds by heading to the market earlier, perhaps around 3 p.m. To be sure, there may be fewer vendors out at that time and the tropical sun can still be a challenge at that hour, but if we manage a relaxing stroll and actually have the opportunity to see what is available, we will consider the event a success. So, here’s to better luck next Sunday!
“Burma: A Reality Check”
Neither of us was at all sure we were in the mood for a political lecture, but we were pleasantly surprised. The AEIOU Programme arranged a CMU lecture by Derek Tonkin, British ex-ambassador to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and South Africa (at different times of course). A sharp, witty 77 year old, Tonkin raised some pointed questions about the recent U.N. Security Council vote that failed to support a U.S. backed resolution against Burma.
It was clear to Tonkin that the vote was more about the future of the Security Council and how far it will go to intervene in a country than it was on the situation in Burma. He pointed out that the greatest problem with the resolution was lack of support from countries immediately surrounding Burma. Not one sees the Burma situation as a threat to the safety or security in their country, potential threat perhaps, but present threat, certainly not Knowing this, failure of the resolution was easy to predict. For him, the question is: why did the Bush administration push for a vote on the resolution at this time?
If the administration was truly concerned about the situation in Burma, he suggests, a far better strategy would have been to avoid a vote. As long as the resolution remained open, it would stay on the agenda and Gambari’s reports would still receive the attention of the Security Council. As it is now, the issue is closed, a sad commentary on human rights concerns.
- Carol
On a Personal Note
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At the restaurant next door we order a large bottle of cool Singha beer with two glasses and spicy pork salad with rice. A second dish we share is dom kha gai which causes our eyes to water and burns our mouth making us feel like dragons spitting fire or like the mythical dragon I had painted earlier on my rollator.
The beer cools our mouth a bit. On the street at the corner of the garden restaurant a pretty young woman stands at the spirit house with burning incense sticks between her hands held high against her forehead, waing (greeting gesture) to the ancestral spirits. She stands like that for several minutes. I wonder what she is thinking. Two mahuts walk up to our table with their elephant. For 20 Baht (50 cents) we buy a bag of sugar cane. Carol gets up and feeds the elephant. Too bad we left the camera at our apartment.
- Norbert
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