Are we marching backwards?

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Columns/20051228090901/Article/indexb_html

This article from a Malaysian journalist made me smile.

We should be very clear that this trip is a mission that must deliver results. It should not degenerate into a courtesy visit for the Myanmar authorities to trot out their usual platitudes about "step-by- step" democratisation efforts when it is patently clear that they have been marching backwards.

I wish there were a bit of freedom of speech to speak out our frustrations. While I was living in Burma the last two years, I self-censored my speech on my diary. I still do now. :-) I want to know the true situations of Burma. Sadly many bloggres inside Burma can't speak to their hearts. I was afraid to say everything while I was blogging inside Burma from December 2002 till December 2004.

I think we have been marching backwards the past ten years. It seemed to have some signs of improvements around the late 1990s. Now in 2005, the situations are not improving. Let's hope the best for 2006. If you are blogging from inside Burma, please let us know the true pictures because I believe that people inside are more important than people outside like me. Let's create brighter future for kids in Burma.

A local kid from Nam San Yang village, Kachin State in Northen Burma

Facts of Thailand

http://www.fdimagazine.com/news/fullstory.html/aid/1030/Thailand.html

1. Gross national income per capita: $2,190
2. PPP Gross national income per capita: $7,450

Note: PPP is purchasing power parity."Because exchange rates do not always reflect international differences in relative prices, Table 2 below converts GNI per capita estimates into international dollars using purchasing power parity (PPP) rates."

I put the above figures because I want to make a point to some of my students that if they can make about $ 150 in Burma, it's worth it to work in Burma instead of coming to Thailand. Many of my students asked me if there are jobs for them in Thailand. I can understand why everybody wants to leave Burma. I would encourage my students to work in Burma if they can earn about $ 150 a month because if you look at the above figure, the per capita income of Thailand is $2,190. That means it's around $ 185 a month in Thailand. Unless, of course, your education is extremely high and you are in demand, you will make around $ 200 to 300 a month.

I called home yesterday and found out that they were many black-outs recently. Electricity has been unstable, which is same old problem for Burma.

Merry X'mas to you all. I know it's a late wish. But I wasn't home since Christmas. :-) So no online access. I managed to go without the Internet for 2 days, I guess. :-) I went window shopping on December 24 with my boss. We did buy a Mac mini as I said in my previous diary entry. We were around the new shopping mall. A lot of Thai people were also doing window shopping.

On Christmas day, I went to Bangkok Christ Church and met some of my BARS students who visited Bangkok from Vientiane, and Yangon. They were here for vacation. After church, I went to visit their dorm. We had lunch together. Good Burmese food. We then went to Calvary Church at Sukhumvit Soi 2 in the late afternoon. After church, we went to watch a movie at the theatre. We watched King Kong. It was an exciting movie. The movie basically compared New York city with the jungle, human beings with animals. The cost was 120 bahts a person. It was only $ 3. Compared to the States, it was very cheap. Don't you love being in Asia? I do :-)

At Calvary church, there were a lot of Burmese. I was wondering how many people from Burma were outside of Burma. One of my BARS students wished me merry Christmas from Chiang Mai. I think she came to Chiang Mai illegally. Everybody wanted to pursue their dreams. I wonder if we could create dreams and opportunities for these young people in Burma so they don't have to leave home and families, and still have a better life. This can't go on for ever. I am sure we can't bring everybody out of Burma. Something has to change and I am hoping for the best for the future of Burma.

I also met Joey Tun, who lived with us while studying in the States. His family was in Bangkok for Christmas vacation. I spent Sunday night with my friends hanging out with them and eating Burmese food with them.

I got back home today in the afternoon. I watched a movie, Original Sin, again at home. Life is not so interesting outside of Burma, I guess :-) When I was in Burma, I had lots of stories to tell. However, I didn't have a regular internet access. Now that I have 24/7 ADSL connection here in Bangkok, I don't have much interesting stories to tell :-)

Kids near Thai-Burma border, those who don't belong to neither Thailand nor Burma

We bought a Mac Mini today. I set it up so we can log in remotely from our Windows XP and Linux machine. I used OSXvnc as a server on Mac. Here is the link from apple web site.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/osxvnc.html

Another one from redstonesoftware

http://www.redstonesoftware.com/multidesktop.html

I installed RealVNC 4.1.1 client on Windows XP machine. And voila, it works. Cool. I could log into Mac machine from my XP box.

I also set up VNC server on my Linux machine. Here is how my config file looks like on my Linux machine for VNC server:

/etc/sysconfig/vncservers
VNCSERVERS="1:doug 2:lwinmoe"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 2000x1024"
VNCSERVERARGS[2]="-geometry 1280x1024"

I then started the VNC server by this command:

service vncserver start

To allow port 5901 and 5902 for VNC server through iptables

iptables -I RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --destination-port 5901 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --destination-port 5902 -j ACCEPT

Now I can log in from my Windows XP machine to Linux box using RealVNC client. I have 3 operating systems running on my desktops -- 2 remotely (OS X and Linux) and Windows natively. It's great. I have to figure out how to be more productive :-)

OS X screen shot running on my Windows XP box

Today, I helped Somboon Chungprampree, my friend, to set up his new laptop. He is an activist working for Spirit in Education Movement organized by Sulak. He has been in and out of Burma many times.

Shwe Dagon Pagoda, the picture taken by Somboon Chungprampree from Summit Parkview Hotel

Burma is a very beautiful country. Because of its closed door policy in the past, many tourists find it mystic. I am finding many academics and tourists attracted by Burma and the people of Burma. Fortunately, my work evolves around languages of Burma. Here are some books to learn Burmese.

http://www.101language.com/burmese.html

I just hope that the suffering people in Burma will find hope and freedom one day.

Doug Cooper, my colleage, mentor, boss, and I registered sealang.net today. SEALang stands for South East Asian Languages. Right now, only Thai is up and running. It's not even completely finished yet. You can see Burmese, Karen, Mon and Shan without any links. Please be patient. It will be coming in a few months or years :-) That's what we will be busy with in a couple years from now. We already finished some work on Burmese-English dictionary. We have to polish it a bit before we put it online. I hope one of the Unicode fonts will be stable enough to use online. Every data in the Burmese-English dictionary is in Unicode encoding now. We used Perl to convert the dictionary data from Chitwin font to WinInnwa font. We then used TECkit converter to convert from WinInnwa to Unicode Encoding. Keith Stribley helped us with conversion to Unicode. In our testing environment, we use Padauk font to display. The problem of Padauk is you need a special build of Firefox with Graphite.

I will have to figure out a way to present it to you if none of the Unicode fonts is mature enough. What I will probably do is try to convert the HTML to PNG image on the fly and then present it to the user. I will just have to wait until one of the Unicode fonts is stable and usable. If you have any suggestions, please send me an email. :-)

Here is our SEALang project link: (note: Internet Explorer won't work properly with our site because of its lack of compliance to standard)

http://www.sealang.net

Burmese will be up in the spring of 2007 if you look at the schedule. So stay tuned :-)

The above site is hosted on my Linux machine which I maintain and use daily, which I am using right now to update this blog :-)

I met with Ko Myat Soe today. Ko Myat Soe and I went to school together in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. I didn't realize that he was in Bangkok for his vacation. We went out dinner together with another Thai friend of his. We had a very nice chat. I am glad that I made a new friend today.

I went to Bang Pon today with folks from Bangkok Christ Church. Bang Pon is about a hundred mile from Bangkok and we had to drive about an hour and a half. We went to a food-processing factory to have Christmas celebration with some

Burmese migrant workers there. There were some Christians and most of them were Buddhists. These people were working hard far away from home. They couldn't leave the town because their travel was limited to the town they were in. One kid, I met, was Kyaw Zin Win. He was about 17 years old. I couldn't imagine a 17-year old kid, so far away from parents, working in this strange land. Life must be hard for him. At least, he had an uncle to turn to for help. I sympathesized with him. Here I am with good education and nice pay (and I am 29 :-), I still miss my parents and friends in Burma. How a kid like him could cope with difficulties in another country was beyond me. If we think that our life is hard, let's remember people like Kyaw Zin Win and help in a small way that we can. We don't have to give them money. Just a friendly smile and chat can do a lot. Let's smile and help for those in need.

We had so much fun and so did they. We gave them presents and they were all smiling. They gave us back fish-paste (nga-pi) and other vegetables. One of the songs, by Ma Dolly, made us all think of our home. The song was about wanting to go back home during Christmas time and our loving mother and father, who will be waiting for their lovely son/daughter to come back. Her voice was so sweet and it made many of us miss home.

Constructions in Pyin Oo Lwin (May Myo)

http://www.irrawaddy.org/special-maymyo.asp

The new project to enable the ruling brass to live in cool luxury is in Maymyo, also known as Pyin U Lwin, 67 kilometres east of Mandalay and one hour's flight from Pyinmana.

The Irrawaddy acquired exclusive pictures showing work on some of the new mansions, with their large gardens. Business sources say there will be about 30. No expense has apparently been spared to allow the generals to live in what is basically a resort -- complete with an artificial beach and a man-made stretch of water to lap onto it.

Construction work on the mansions is supervised by government engineers, but contracts have been awarded to Rangoon-based private companies, such as Htoo Trading Company and Asia World. A director of the Htoo Trading Company confirmed that the company was involved in construction there, but added: "We are only doing interior design work for the three largest houses."

Internet censorship in Thailand

I didn't realize that the Internet access from my ISP in Thailand was censored. When I tried to access the following web page, my proxy server from True ISP blocked the access.

http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html

US government as worse as Burmese government! You wouldn't believe this :-) Bangkok Post has a news article.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.html?id=67787

U.S. tied with Burma in jailing journalists

New York (dpa) - The United States and Burma, a country ruled by a military regime, placed sixth this year in a list of countries that put the most journalists behind bars, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday.

Isn't it funny the world's (supposed to be) freest democracy, the government who dubbed Burma's regime "the outpost of tyranny," is forgetting its own violations of human rights? I wonder if there are any ideal governments in the world? Dream on :-)

Headliners from Burma

An exhaustive list of who's who in Burma for 2005.

Hey, where is your name and mine? :-)

I know you can't access the Irrawaddy if you are from Burma. But I have seen many kids at the Internet cafe in Burma smarter than me when it comes to bypassing firewalls :-) Good luck! My salute to you if you are in Burma ;-)

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5284&z=102

• R Zarni [Rock Singer]
• No [Female Pop Group]
• Tun Tun [Hip Hop Singer]
• Maung Myo Min [Film Director]
• Nay Myo Say [Artist]
• 88-Generation Students Group [Burmese Student Leaders]
• Min Ko Naing [Student Leader]
• Charm Tong [Exiled Activist]
• Su Su Nway [Human Rights Defender]
• Hnin Sandar [Defiant Widow/Activist]
• Aung Din [Exiled Activist]
• Aung San Suu Kyi [Opposition Leader]
• The Peopls who Speak of NLD
• Cin Sian Thang [Ethnic Leader]
• Sao Surkhanpha [Exiled Activist]
• Ludu Sein Win [Veteran Journalist and Social Critic]
• Eleven Media Group [Media]
• Than Lwin Htun [Journalist]
• Than Shwe [Burma's Junta Supremo]
• Kyaing Kyaing [Burma's First Lady]
• Lt-Gen Myint Swe [Rangoon Commander]
• Maj-Gen Myint Hlaing [Northeast Region Commander]
• Daw Thissawaddy [Burmese Female Monk]
• Tay Za [Businessman]
• Yin Yin Khine [Athlete]
• Soe Myat Min [Athlete]

One of my friends, who work as a flight attendant at an airline, told me that Tay Za, who owns Air Bagan, fired a senior flight attendant for no reasons. Just because he didn't like that employee. Wonder that's true? I don't know. We have to rely on Rangoon rumor mills because of lack of transparency in the news and media.

A village house on the river bank near Tharyar Waddy and Thone Se (Thirty)

Silky Hair (Rejoice Commercial)

I had to laugh watching this :-)

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/50197/silky_hair

Censorship and my random thoughts

A few days ago, MadyJune had a blog entry about Korean soaps being censored on the Myanmar TV. It made me think about different standards of censorship rules in different countries. On Thai TVs, they censor every smoking scene, which is probably a good thing. However, the youths on university campus still smoke :-) I think that the number of people who smoke in Thailand is low.

I don't want to say that the censorship in Burma is bad. But I think it's a bit overboard. It certainly has killed creativity. Back in the past, university students in Burma could practice free speech, and it had given birth to many great leaders and writers.

Now the Internet has given people a place to speak out. I am seeing many bloggers from Burma --- some blog in English, some in Burmese (partial implementations of Burmese Unicode fonts made it easier to use Burmese on the Net). I am hoping that more and more people in Burma will have access to the Internet. I don't know the recent price of dial-up access any more. While I was there until last year, it was 28,000 kyats (about US $28) for unlimited access. It's a bit expensive for ordinary people. People like MadayJune, a young professional, should be able to afford Internet service at home. However, the price is still expensive for most people. I hope that one day you will be able to afford a nice Internet service at home, MadyJune :-)

I am hoping that nobody will try to kill the creativity of these bloggers. I am afraid that Burma will try to crack down on bloggers like China did.

As a diary writer, I whined a lot about Burma the past two years. I had really difficulty living in Burma in terms of lack of freedom after enjoying free speech in America. There are two kinds of people: 1) people who don't realize the value of freedom until they are stripped of it, 2) people who never realize what freedom really means. People in America are in category 1 and I found that most, /empahsize/ most /emphasize/, people in Burma are in category 2, especially people in remote places in Burma.

I want to give you one example. While I was visiting Than Byu Zayet, Mon State, I had to help a friend for his wedding. I was driving an SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle). The bride and groom were with me in the car in the back seat. My friend, Nai Aung Gyi, a pastor from Than Byu Zayet church, and his little son were with me in the front seat. Another SUV was following me. Our cars happened to have stickers on the windows. A bus from the opposite direction of the highway pulled over, thinking that our cars were VIPs' because at that time, many military officers use those unlicensed SUVs in border areas. And I tell you they are kings there. People's fears were just deep-rooted in their unconscious minds.

I just want to encourage people inside Burma to keep on living. Anybody can force you to shut your eyes but they can't force you to sleep. People outside -- you should really give it a serious thought of living and working in Burma for at least a few years and it will give you experiences of your life time. You will come to realize that your experiences and education outside of Burma have changed you incredibly. And most important of all, you will be helping the people of Burma in a way that you will not realize yourself.

I came across the Campus Ministry web site from my alma mater. Gosh, time files and I am getting old :-) I was looking at my picture, which was taken like 5 years ago.

http://www.ipfw.edu/ministry

I have been whining about some of the Internet Cafe in Burma taking your finger prints. November 26, 2003 entry is about being fingerprinted to use the Internet Cafe in Burma. Now, to be fair and not partial, I have to report the same kind of thing in Italy.

Law requires Italian Internet Cafe to record ID

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/12/09/cyber.cafes.names.ap

Italy is the only European Union country to require Internet cafes to record ID information on clients, said Richard Nash, secretary general of EuroISPA, which represents Internet providers in Europe.

Non-member Switzerland, however, does requires people who go online at Internet cafes to show IDs, according to Robin Gross, of the U.S. civil liberties group IP Justice.

Several Asian countries and cities, most prominently China and including the Indian technology hub of Bangalore, require registration at cafes.

One interesting comment on this:

"These people caused the Twin Towers to collapse," said Edoardo Righi, a computer tech at a store near the tourist-rich neighborhood of Campo dei Fiori. "They're not going to stop because they can't send an e-mail."

Last night, I was hanging out with Bob until 5 in the morning. We had Bangkok night life and caught up with each other -- what's going on at the Myanmar Institute of Theology and a bunch of talking. We had fun.

I didn't go to church because I went to bed at about 6 in the morning and couldn't get up. However, I went to the Mon Christian Fellowship's Christmas celebration today. Oh Gosh, I miss Burma so much today. I feel lonely here.

Many Burmese people who are working in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and everywhere else, I am sure, will miss Burma. Even if not all of them, some definitely will, won't you? :-) Don't you sometimes wish that we can all work in Burma and stay close to our families? Life being away from home and away from families and loved ones is not so easy. Added to that was having to work very hard. I think my life here in Bangkok is not that hard. Just because of my education from the States, I am being paid quite well for what I love to do. Compared to many of my friends who have to work in construction sites and as housemaids, I feel very blessed. I lived in Burma and learned that many people are struggling. Now I am living in Thailand and still learning that many people from Burma are still struggling. I wonder what I can do for my people next time I go back to Burma. I tell you the last 2 and a half years in Burma was really rewarding and full of blessings for me. This diary (blog) is all based around my thoughts about Burma with a different perspective. I really had to go through a reverse culture shock to be in Burma after nearly 5 years of America. It's just different.

However, I am very happy to be in Asia now and I feel good to live in Asia because of cheap living expenses and lifestyles. I definitely will try to go back to work in Burma again after I get my research experiences and education here in Bangkok. I don't think I want to go back to the States. :-)

Here is a picture that I took while in Burma so I won't lose touch with Burma.

An old man with a tobacco smoking pipe in a village house in Burma

A Karen lady with her chickens at Yedwinyegan village, Myaungmya (this picture courtesy of Friends of Burma)

Quote of the day

"Well, the progress [in Burma] has been about as fast as glue flowing up a hill."

Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/malaysia-demands-burma-inspection/2005/12/11/1134235946478.html

Today, I am excited about Bob's visit to Bangkok from Yangon. Bob Winter is originally from Chicago. He has been teaching English at the Myanmar Institute of Theology for a few years now. He called me yesterday and he said he would visit me this evening. I am looking forward to meeting him.

OJ from Canada, Lwin Moe and Bob Winter, fine professors at MIT :-) ----- in front of MIT library

I always love living in a village. Of course, with electricity and internet connection so I can work :-)

Cooking in Burma --- A Lisu lady cooking at her house

Life Style in Mogok (Lisu People)

Famous Director U Thu Kha died

http://khitpyaing.org/modules.html?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=638

U Thu Kha died on the 7th according to the Khitpyaing news. He is a very talented director. I liked many of his movies. He is a great artist. It's a loss for the Burmese movie industry.

I went to Punthip plaza today. Even though I have been there several times, it still has a lot to see and many new gadgets to catch up with. Punthip plaza is a five-story mall of computer hardware and software. It's about a few blocks from the Victory Monument where I live. I took the sky train to Ratchathewi station. I walked up to Petchabiri road. I got to the plaza after walking for a few minutes. All I bought today was a couple blank CDs and Red Hat Fedora Core 4. It cost me 300 Bahts (US $7.5) for Fedora Core 4. You can buy any pirated PC and Mac software with a very cheap price. There are a lot of tourists from developed(?) countries (where there are no piracies) buying latest movies and music albums.

I am not sure whether it's ethically right to buy these stuff. However, it's justifiable to buy these because my salary while I was working at the Myanmar Institute of Theology was US $20 a month. Technically speaking, to buy an official copy of Windows XP, I would have to save for about one year without eating. :-)

We, Doug Cooper (my mentor) and I, bought two new high-end computers for our work yesterday. It cost us about US $1,500 for 2 computers.

Here are the specs:

First computer

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 1.8 Ghz, 512 KB cache
• ASUS A8N5X Motherboard
• Two Maxtor 6L200S0 SATA 200 GB hard disks (Note: We want RAID)
• ATI radeon 7000 PowerColor Graphics card
• 2 GB of RAM

Second computer

• Intel Pentium 4, 3.00 GHz
• Asus P5WD2 Motherboard
• Two Maxtor 6L200S0 SATA 200 GB hard disks (Note: We want RAID)
• ATI radeon 7000 PowerColor Graphics card
• 2 GB of RAM

We also bought 2 Samsung SyncMaster 713N 17" TFT-LCD monitors.

I installed Red Hat Fedora Core 4 on AMD machine and Windows XP service pack 2 on Intel machine. That's why I couldn't write anything last night :-) I was too occupied :-) These new computers we bought are so nice. The Intel machine will be my workstation and AMD machine with Fedora Core 4 will be a server for us.

The old pictures I took on my mission trip to Kya Inn Seik Kyi, Karen state back in December 2003 during Christmas season. It was a very rewarding and fun trip for all of us. We had many Christmas songs and plays at villages along the way. We met many cease-fire groups. They were very powerful in those areas. One of the groups is Democratic Karen Buddhists Army (DKBA). There were a few others. I don't remember all.

A quick shot of soldiers taken secretly from our bus

Water Melon vendor along the highways in Burma

How we crossed a small stream in remote places in Burma

Yahoo-ish Myanmar search engine and where I stand on theirs

I found out about this very Yahoo-ish Myanmar search engine. What are they trying to do? Trying to invite Yahoo to sue them? :-)

http://www.myanma.com

I clicked on "myanmar sex" listed under "keyword 5"

And guess what results I got? :-)

Yep, my page on the very top. :-) I don't remember posting anything about sex :-) Maybe I have pictures of very cute students of mine from Myanmar Institute of Theology. :-) But I am sure they are not naked :-)

Burma in the UN security council?

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5251&z=153

In a letter Tuesday to the council president, Bolton asked for a briefing to address "the deteriorating situation in Burma."

I wonder what the future of Burma will be. It just can't be like this the rest of our lives. The current government has been in power since 1989. It's been around for 17 years. Nothing lasts for ever in this world.

I really want to live in Burma if the Internet access in Burma is just as free as Thailand. :-) Even if I make less money, I don't mind. I have lived in several countries now. Here are the chronological order of where I have lived in the past.

• Myanmar (August, 1976 - May, 1998)
• USA (May, 1998 - December, 2002)
• Myanmar (December, 2002 - December, 2004)
• Laos (December, 2004 - May, 2005)
• Thailand (May, 2005 - July, 2005)
• Myanmar (July, 2005 - November, 2005)
• Thailand (November, 2005 - Present)

I don't really care where I live any more as long as I have a free and open access to the information.

Where is our country leading? If you can help for the developement of Burma in any ways, please do.

New Mon State Party won't attend the convention

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=6000

During an interview with DVB today on 3 December, NMSP secretary Nai Hantha said that the party decided not to attend the convention because of the lack of the right to discuss matters freely and openly.

My people have lost the chance to play the game if they decided not to attend the convention.

My collection of pictures while I was in Burma

The followings pictures were taken by my friend, Waw Lay, on his trip to Mogok using my camera back in 2004.

Mogok

Golden Butterfly Hotel in Mogok

Lisu Church in Mogok

My friend, Waw Lay and the pastor in front of Lisu Church in Mogok

My friend, Waw Lay with Lisu hunting equipments

Slippers

Basket

Dagon University Thin Bon Gyi

I got this through the forwarded emails from my friend.

UN Security Council delays US move on Myanmar

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1359592

An earlier U.S. attempt to raise the focus on political repression in Myanmar was rebuffed in June when Russia, backed by China and Algeria, argued that the issue was outside the council's mandate to ensure international peace and security.

Our country's future remains bleak as the International community talks and talks. I personally think that people inside the country can do more for the development of our country. I am really sorry I can't be in Burma right now. I enjoyed my two years at the Myanmar Institute of Theology even though I had to go through reverse culture shock terribly after my 4+ years in the States.

Signaling Vulnerabilities in Wiretapping Systems

http://www.crypto.com/papers/wiretapping

If you think that any government secret agents around the world are listening to the conversations between you and your girlfriend, here is how to turn off the wiretapping system. Hopefully, it will still work until a few months from now until they upgrade the system.

Here is the detailed paper in pdf.

Sweet December!

Every December the past few years while working at the Myanmar Institute of Theology, I got a chance to go on mission trips to remote villages all over Burma. However, this December I guess I will be stuck here in Bangkok :-)

Aye Min Min Oo and Si Si Htun while on mission trip with me and other students

Our group going to Kayinn Seik Kyi for a mission trip 2 years ago

Pictures from recent fire breakout in Hlaing, Yangon (Rangoon)

Pictures courtesy of my friend

Firefox 1.5 Web Browser

I finally upgraded to Firefox 1.5 today. I downloaded firefox-1.5.tar.gz from the Firefox web site. I unzipped it by:

[lwinmoe@localhost Linux-software]$ tar -xvzf firefox-1.5.tar.gz

The above command created a folder called "firefox" and put everything in there. The executable is in that folder. I can run firefox by this command from firefox directory.

[lwinmoe@localhost firefox]$ ./firefox

I created an icon on my desktop so I can easily run it by a double-click.

I then installed java plugin from Sun. Since I already downloaded and installed JRE 5, all I needed to do was create a symbolic link in .mozilla/plugins/ in my home directory.

[lwinmoe@localhost plugins]$ ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_02/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

Blogs I have been reading these days

• Blog of Nyein Chan Yar
• Arloo
• Speaking Out Loud by Mady June
• Me, Myself and Mayvelous

I have to say I am glad to see many people from Burma blogging. Back in 1998 when I was in the States, there were not many web sites about Burma except by the activists, such as http://www.burmanet.org. Back then, the Internet was just starting to grow up. I remember using a very old version of Netscape to go online from my Alma Mater, Indian-Purdue University.

The Internet has come a long way since then. So are web sites from Burma. My web site has been up and running since May 1998 and I can't believe time flies whether you are having fun or not ;-)

My old web site was at the student web server from my school. It no longer existed because I am not a student there any more. http://www.student.ipfw.edu/~moel01

Dr. Than Tun, the great historian, died today

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5993

He is a great scholar. He came to MIT once to talk about how to do research on history. He commented about censorship. I am sorry we lost a great scholar of Burma.

Jokes sent to me by one of my friends

LITL, Jerry

It doesn't hurt to take a hard look at yourself from time to time, and this should help get you started.

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

"Well," said the director, "We fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No." said the director, "A normal person would pull the plug."

Do you want a room with or without a view?

Car Accident in Thailand

Fire broke out in Hlaing, Yangon

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5982

This picture was from the above web page.

Grassroot journalism in Burma is starting to spread. This blogger, Mady June from Yangon, Myanmar has a breaking news about the fire breakout on her blog. Good for Burma and the future of its journalism.

http://madyjune.blogspot.com

Screen shot of Mady June's blog about the fire in Yangon

Than Lwin Bridge from Motama (formerly known as Martaban) to Mawlamyine (formerly known as Moulmein)

I took this picture while I was going back to Mudon from Yangon. At that time, there was no sign saying "No pictures." This bridge put me into a train of thoughts. When my mother was a university student, when she went to Yangon (Rangoon) from Mawlamyine (Moulmein), she had to cross Than Lwin (Salween) river and Sit Taung river with boats.

However, when I became a university student, we had a bridge crossing Sit Taung river. No more boats at Sit Taung for our generation.

Now, my children (if I am going to have any ;-) in the future) don't need to cross Than Lwin and Sit Taung with boats. If a country does not develop that much in 3 generations, that is not a place to live. No need to brag. My government is boasting like they are building bridges left and right. It's normal developement. If a government can't do that much, it's failing its obligations to the people. The developement in Burma is not very fast like the New Light of Myanmar is bragging. If, in 3 generations, it does not have this much development, that country, honestly, is not a place to live.

I want Burma to develop more than this for my children and their children generations.

Some of my BARS students at the Ann Hasseltine Judson's memorial tomb in Kyaik Ka Me (formerly known as Amherst)

Bau La Doi, Lwin Moe and Gaw Thaw listening to the explanation about the tomb

A BARS religion student at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery

Two BARS students at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery

A BARS religion student at the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery

About the cemetery taken from this site:

http://www.cofepow.org.uk/remembrance/cemeteries/html/burma.htm

The Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery is situated in the village of Thanbyuzayat (which roughly translated means "a white iron resting hut") and is approximately 65 kilometres south of Moulein. It lies at the foothills that separate Burma from Thailand and is virtually inaccessible. The only road is driveable, but in a bad state of repair.

The first Prisoners of War arrived at Thanbyuzayat via Moulmein in September 1942 and established a POW base camp. There was also the base for a large hospital camp. It was here at Thanbyuzayat that the northern section of the pre-war rail line was connected to the newly laid rail line the prisoners constructed through Thailand. The southern end of the line was connected to the existing line at Nong Pladuk, west of Bangkok.

Prisoners who died in the camps in the north of Thailand - from Nikke going north to Moulmein in Burma - were initially buried in small cemeteries located close to the camps in which they had died, but after the war the Army Graves Service located most of the deceased from the camps between Nikke and Moulmein and they were moved to the War Cemetery at Thanbyuzayat.

The total number of graves in Thanbyuzayat is 3,771, of which 1,588 were British including 27 unknown graves. 1,335 were Australian and 621 were Dutch and numerous others.

The cemetery is set out in a semi-circle with the main aisle running through the centre with the Cross of Sacrifice standing at the end. On either side of this cross are clusters of large white flowering trees and small flowering shrubs are in abundance throughout. Most of the War Cemeteries in the Far East flaunt an abundance of lush green grass due to the constant water sprinklers; however, the grass at Thanbyuzayat is yellow and dry due to the lack of piped water in the area. This by no means detracts from the overall beautiful appearance and serenity of this remote cemetery but when the rainy season comes it quickly returns to a carpet of luxuriant grass.

A refugee's house near Songkhla, Southern Thailand, near the Thai-Burma border

You should visit these places in Thailand and the border area so you know how people are really living there.

Kwai River Christian Hospital in Songkhlaburi, Thailand

Today's quote

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5969

"If you become a human being, you can't avoid politics. If you do so, you will become an ox. Not even a normal one, but the one bred for meat,"said Thant Tint.

Are we lagging behind our neighbor countries?

The following excerpt is from a tour company web site.

http://www.myanmarvisaonline.com/packagetour.html

Totally no use of credit cards, ATM cards, travellers cheque, bank or wire transfers or your cell phones here in Myanmar since July 2003. You can officially bring in US $ 2000 per person preferably in new $ 100 notes issued in or after 1996 with no torn edges or corners & the serial number heading of each note must not start with " CB " ( CBxxxxx--- ).

Concerning the move to Nay Pyi Daw, new city near Pyin Ma Na

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GK23Ae01.html

"Nobody agreed to this move, I don't think even Gen Maung Aye [slated to succeed Than Shwe] [knew] but we all just shut our mouths," a senior military officer said.

Scary to drive a bus in Burma? :-)

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5955

An air-conditioned and gas-driven bus exploded at Htawli corner, Ahlon Township in downtown Rangoon, seriously wounding the driver and a ticket collector on 16 November.

Irrawaddy has an article which describes this info.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5201&z=153

According to a poll carried out in 2003, about 30 per cent of radio listeners tune in to the BBC and VOA.

Most people in Burma listend to those stations because Burmese TV and radio news are useless. It only has things like General so and so did this and did that today. No useful news. :-) People in Yangon rely on weekly journals for their news. Those in remote villages rely on radios for theirs.

I am honestly very happy to be in Thailand so I don't have to watch MRTV (Myanmar Radio and Television) which is good only for Korean soaps.

The joke I read today :-)

Smile because life is short.

Chapter Eleven

Two old friends met one day after many years. One attended college, and now was very successful. The other had not attended college and never had much ambition.

The successful one said, "How has everything been going with you?"

"Well, one day I opened the Bible at random, and dropped my finger on a word and it was oil. So, I invested in oil, and boy, did the oil wells gush. Then another day I dropped my finger on another word and it was gold. So, I invested in gold and those mines really produced. Now, I'm as rich as Rockefeller."

The successful friend was so impressed that he rushed to his hotel, grabbed a Gideon Bible, flipped it open, and dropped his finger on a page. He opened his eyes and his finger rested on the words, "Chapter Eleven."

Your Daughter is Pregnant

A mother took her daughter to the doctor and asked him to give her an examination to determine the cause of the daughter's swollen abdomen.

It only took the doctor about 2 seconds to say, "Gimme a break, lady! Your daughter is pregnant!"

The mother turn red with fury, and she argued with the doctor that *her* daughter was a good girl, and would *never* compromise her reputation by having sex with a boy.

The doctor faced the window and silently watched the horizon.

The mother became enraged and screamed, "Quit looking out the window! Aren't you paying attention to me?"

"Yes, of course I am paying attention, ma'am. It's just that the last time this happened, a star appeared in the east, and three wise men came. I was hoping they'd show up again, and help me figure out who got your daughter pregnant!"

My friend, Kyaw Myo Lwin graduated from Harvard School of Public Health with a Master in Public Health.

Just finished watching a French movie. It was a good one. Here is some info about it.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dead_tired/about.html

SYNOPSIS

French movie star Michel Blanc learns that a look-alike is trying to cash in on his celebrity. The double worms his way into a star's hotel room at the Cannes Film Festival, where he seduces young actresses and generally cheapens the reputation of the real Mr. Blanc. So Michel enlists the aid of his best friend, the beautiful model/actress Carole Bouquet, in tracking down the rogue impostor.

Burma with no future?

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5195&z=151

Kyaw Zwa Moe has a point in this article: "While the World Talks."

Burma's situation is weird. I sure don't want to live in Burma because of lack of freedom. But we need a lot of activitists to change Burma. The change has to come from within. More people need to speak out and address such issues as economic and social problems. They have to be inside of the country. International community can talk and talk. Yet nothing will happen inside Burma.

Proxies that are still accessible from Burma

Recently, BaganNet, the only ISP in Burma, has updated its filtering software and many proxies that have been used by young folks in Burma have been banned. Here are some that are still openly accessible for you to enjoy.

http://www.guardster.com/subscription/proxy_free.html

http://www.surfshield.net

http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/anonymous.shtml

Unhappy people in Burma?

It seems everybody is not happy with the government in Burma. A student snatches a gun from a soldier in Rangoon? It is weird.

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5939

A 25-year old student snatched a gun from a Burmese soldier who was on patrol in downtown Rangoon at the corner of Theinbyu Road and Daw Thein Tin Street on the evening on 8 November.

Renowned Burmese Mon lawyer Nai Ngwe Ya passed away

http://english.dvb.no/news.html?id=5937

Renowned Burmese Mon lawyer Nai Ngwe Ya who had been helping people who sued the authorities over forced labour practices and defending those who were arrested and detained by the authorities, died at his home in Rangoon Thaketa Township on 16 November.

New ISP in Burma? or False hope again? :-)

Here is the news from BaganNet web site:

http://www.bagan.net.mm/news/new_detail_1.asp?news_no=2904

OpenDocument Format

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Office_XML#Format_internals

I have downloaded OpenOffice 2.0 and have been playing with it.

Like this article, http://osnews.com/story.html?news_id=12685 suggests, if the browsers can display OpenDocument, which is really just XML format, then it would be so cool for the future.

Hacking the Open Document Format

http://is.sfsu.edu/node/55/print

Rename the opendocument file .odt into .zip and open it using any unzip programs. You can see a bunch of XML files, and image files that make a document. It's really cool.

Maybe we should start working on Burmese and other minority languages support in OpenOffice. It will be so cool to be able to use Unicode Burmese and other minority languages from Burma in OpenOffice.

How to turn off autocorrect feature

Unmark

Format >Autoformat > WhileTyping

Installed OpenOffice 2.0 on my Fedora Core 3 system

I uninstalled the old version first by the following command.

rpm -qa | grep openoffice\* | xargs rpm -e --nodeps

Install a new one by rpm -ivh *.rpm

I was able to run as root. However as a user, here is the error

*** glibc detected *** free(): invalid pointer: 0x00379fb4 ***
/etc/openoffice.org-2.0/program/soffice: line 226:  4877 Aborted "$sd_prog/$sd_binary" "$@"

I had to change /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration. Group 0 is changed to Group "users". OpenOffice uses Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI).

Section "DRI"
	# Group	0
	Group	"users"
	Mode	0666
EndSection

Concerning the move to Pyinmana by Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, Information Minister

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/bbe8f738-557c-11da-8a74-00000e25118c.html

"They can make contact with Pyinmana through fax, phone, e-government and all the modern facilities," he said.

As if everybody has all the modern facilities :-)

Mon flag (picture taken from the Irrawaddy)

I arrived in Bangkok today. I started surfing the Internet with free and high-speed access. No more proxy services needed to read the Irrawaddy. Isn't freedom of information a great thing? We sure need that in Burma.

MIT Christmas card photo

ALOHA 25

ALOHA 25 (November 1, 2005) OpenOffice Format

US is no better

The following quote is from "If you want to study in the United States" published by the Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. http://educationusa.state.gov

Under U.S. law, all applicants for nonimmigrant visas are viewed as intending immigrants until they can convince the consular officer that they are not.

Reading between the lines -- it is saying loud and clear that everybody all over the world wants to live in the US until you can prove that you don't. I am sorry it's discrimination :-)

The Internet connection has been really slow recently. I was thinking to myself my ISP was up to something. I sure was right. Now some proxy services have been blocked :-)

I think they wasted a lot of time and energy to do this --- from both sides (ISP and users). Another Tom and Jerry story to talk about. :-)

http://www.pureprivacy.com blocked

However, http://www.pureprivacy.net still accessible though :-)

http://www.proxyweb.net blocked

http://www.anonymization.net blocked

Denny Hastert, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has just started his own blog on the official speaker.gov site.

http://www.speaker.gov/journal/index.shtml

FBI abusing patriotic law?

FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations.

Is America still a good place to live? Something to think about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301352.html

Myanmar Unicode Font from Myanmar Natural Language Processing Committee

http://www.mcf.org.mm/unicode/opentype.html

I created the following picture with GIMP. I used the gradient fill using sky blue as a foreground color and pink as a background. I then applied

Script-Fu > Decor > Coffee Stain

and

Fuzzy Border

Coffee stain

GIMP commands

With the help of Internet and emails, the distance doesn't matter much these days. Even though I haven't met my university-day friends for a very long time, I feel right next to them with emails and other communication technologies. I met David and Doris Horton in Fort Wayne, Indiana while I was studying there.

David and Doris Horton in Alaska

Neil and Diana Sowards (my host parents while I was in Fort Wayne)

A funny page to manipulate George W. Bush, the president of the United States of America.

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

Horse-drawn cart in Pyin Oo Lwin (Maymyo)

U Pain bridge and Taung Tha Man Lake in Mandalay

Kids playing

Adding more items to my panel in Fedora Core 3

Right click on the panel. Choose "Add to panel." The following screen will pop up.

Add to panel screen shot

I added the 'keyboard layout indicator', 'battery charge indicator', 'force quit' and 'search for files' items to my panel.

My panel after adding the above-mentioned items

Installing WinMyanmar fonts to my Fedora Core 3 systems

These are the steps I did:

1. Copy 'winttf' folder, where my fonts are stored, to /usr/share/fonts/winttf
2. Edit 'fonts.cache-1', adding "winttf" 0 ".dir"

Here is the fonts.cache-1 file. The last line is what I added for Burmese fonts.

"default" 0 ".dir"
"bitstream-vera" 0 ".dir"
"openoffice" 0 ".dir"
"bitmap-fonts" 0 ".dir"
"winttf" 0 ".dir"

I got the following journal entry through an email from a friend in Arizona. Jeffery and Annie Dieselberg were American Baptist Missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dieselberg, Jeffery and Annie

A Wretch Like Me - 10/17/2005

As I walked in the door of a local hotel in the red light area, my ears were instantly bombarded by the voices of two men, American and British, sharing their sexual experiences of the women here in Bangkok. As they described in graphic detail each of these sexual encounters and the women's humiliation, I began to feel sick to my stomach. They were too loud to dismiss and most of the men in this particular lobby were there for the same reasons. I sat there and prayed for a while, wanting very much to confront them but very aware how unwise that would be. As I prayed, the song 'Amazing Grace' kept coming to mind. I began to sing aloud quietly. The men seemed oblivious so I got up and decided to wait by the front door where these men were sitting. I kept singing over and over. One of the men got up and left. The other, a man in his late 50's or early 60's, sat there alone and began to notice me. Finally he stood up and came over to me and said, "I just want to hear what it is you are singing." He recognized the tune and joined me, ". . . how sweet the sound." He looked [at] me in the eyes and then walked out the door! As I watched him walk into the darkness I smiled and continued singing, ". . . that saved a wretch like me." "Yes!" I prayed! "Get him God! Let the words of the song sink into his mind as he heads to the bars. Let the tune linger throughout the night and haunt him with the message!" Then it struck me, he wasn't the only one singing, ". . . that saved a wretch like me!" So was I. But for the grace of God where would I be?

I confessed my own self-righteousness and I prayed for this man. Where is the church, I wondered in seeking to save these lost? This man may have grown up in Sunday School. Today he wears several chains of amulets around his neck as he uses prostitutes. What went wrong? I struggled with the burning challenge for the church to be a place of grace that brings healing and restores men and women in wholesome relationships with God and each other. For many, the church appears too "clean," too "good," and too hard to relate to. Many men sit in church on Sunday, hurting and lonely and on the verge of going elsewhere to fill their loneliness and heal their secret brokenness. They slip out the back door unnoticed with "a wretch like me" mentality, missing out totally on the "amazing grace that saved." Lost, they come here to Bangkok hoping to find some piece of heaven in a sexual encounter with a Thai prostitute. Empty they return home and try to satiate in pornography addictions and fantasies. In their minds, intimacy with a prostitute or a pornographic image may be safer than a relationship with the church family.

As I prayed for the man, I realized it is only grace that makes me any different in God's eyes. God's heart is passionately longing to demonstrate His grace and truth to this man. I felt convicted and I sensed God's challenge to demonstrate His grace, stand up for His truth and to encourage the church to reach out to those who are lost on their journey for intimacy. Many are coming to Thailand but God's grace will continue to pursue them and to sing to them. When they return home who will take up the song and share the testimony until they fully comprehend, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see?"

The famous bridge on the river Kwai in Thailand

Gas prices in Burma up (became international? :-)

The official gas price from the government gas stations has changed from 180 kyats (18 cents) to 1,500 kyats (a dollar and a half) a gallon today. The unofficial price in the market is 3,500 kyats (3 dollars and a half). Bus fare has risen to 80 kyats (8 cents) to get downtown. It has started with 20 kyats (2 cents). Later it was changed to 50 kyats (5 cents) for the buses that use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

Meanwhile, the salary remains down in the ocean floor.

I spent all day reinstalling Windows XP on a computer at the Myanmar Christian Fellowship of the Blind. The computer I was working on was quite old. It was Pentium 3 (300 MHz) with 128 MB of RAM. Hard disk had 20 GB of space. I made 2 partitions, 10 GB each. Windows XP ran fine on this. It ran a bit slow with Norton Antivirus 2005. I decided not to have any antivirus program since they don't have Internet access to be exposed to the world of virus and trojans anyways.

Here in Burma, we made old computers work with pirated Windows software. Linux is not a big thing because most people don't have reliable Internet connections. Nobody sells software for Linux. However, we can buy any versions of Windows, Adobe Suite, AutoCAD, Macromedia DreamWeaver and any software you name it. It cost only 500 kyats (50 cents) a piece. I love Burma. All local Christian organizations use pirated software, which cost 50 cents a piece. (Note: The maximum salary of a professor at a seminary is $20 a month.)

Mehm Thaung Tun, the president of Mon Baptist Bible School, using a computer donated by Friends of Burma. (www.friendsofburma.org) The computer has pirated Windows XP installed. Microsoft Office XP, Adobe PageMaker, Photoshop and Macromedia DreamWeaver, Visual Studio and many other software are all pirated copies.

Illusion

If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see one color, pink.

If you stare at the black + in the center, the moving dot turns to green.

Now, concentrate on the black + in the center of the picture. After a short period of time, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see a green dot rotating.

It's amazing how our brain works. There really is no green dot, and the pink ones really don't disappear. This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.

I have no idea who created this picture. I got this through one of those forwarded junk emails :-)

Kachin Environment Report banned by KIO (Kachin Independent Organization)

KIO banned the environment report saying it tarnished the KIO image. Is it as bad as any repressive ruling class?

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5092&z=153

Ceasefire Groups Defiant

Ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma will not surrender their arms to the junta, despite the government's stated claim that all such groups must disarm, said officials from three ethnic ceasefire groups.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5091&z=153

Myanmar being slashdotted :-) for its Internet censorship

In the world of computer scientists/geeks, being 'slashdotted' is an honor :-) Today, an article concerning Myanmar's Internet is being slashdotted :-) Isn't it a fun thing to be in Burma? :-)

Myanmar slashdotted

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/13/2222208&tid=153&tid=187&tid=185

Study Says Software Makers Supply Tools to Censor Web

Fortinet, a company in Sunnyvale, California, is supplying filtering software to censor the Internet in Burma

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/technology/12filter.html

Bus trip home

I came home from Myay Ni Gone at about 6:00 in the evening. There were a lot of people at the bus-stop. When I got on a bus, it was crowded and I decided to go to the back of the bus. The conductor of the bus shouting at everybody to go to the back. He wants to have more passengers. A poor mother was sitting on the floor, breast-feeding her baby. A father was holding his baby in his arms. The scenes I would miss if I take a taxi or if I am out of the country. The general public of Burma and their daily lives are very interesting. It would be both disappointing and rewarding at the same time if you take a bus during rush hours.

The following picture was taken from Times magazine. I don't remember who took the picture.

The dream is Honda, but the reality is the bus

Neil and Diana Sowards, my host-parents, took the following picture in Burma

Two British men helping the Internet filtering in Burma according to Mizzama News

http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima/archives/news-in-2005/News-in-Oct/13-Oct-05-43.htm

Two British men living in Rangoon and working for Bagan Cybertech are allegedly providing the company with the technical know-how for more effective internet filtering and censorship.

Sources told Mizzima the men, Paul Crilley and Karl Sumptor are also consulting with Bagan Cybertech on the best methods to monitor emails.

Crilley and Sumptor refused to tell Mizzima the nature of their work for Bagan Cybertech over the telephone today, with both men hanging up mid-conversation.

"I do not want to talk to you today," Crilley said.

A report claiming internet censorship in Burma was getting worse was released by the OpenNet Institute yesterday. The report said Bagan Cybertech had purchased Fortiguard, an internet filtering program produced by US company Fortinet.

While Fortinet denied the claim, an article published in the New Light of Myanmar in May last year, clearly shows members of the Myanmar Millennium Group Co. Ltd. (MMG) accepting the Fortinet product at a ceremony in Rangoon.

Mizzima has received reports that a technician from MMG said the company, headed by Min Zeyar Hlaing, the son in law of Lt Gen Khin Maung Than, was an official Fortinet reseller in Sunnyvale, California.

The future of Myanmar Times?

I found the following news interesting. It was about the Myanmar Times and its future.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5083&z=104

Internet Censorship in Burma Worsening

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5074&z=153

However, we still figure out a way to go to banned sites. It is fun playing Tom and Jerry. Some of the proxies I have been using recently are:

• http://www.pureprivacy.com
• http://www.proxyweb.net
• http://www.anonymization.net
• http://www.unipeak.com
• http://www.kproxy.com
• http://www.bypass.ds4a.com.

Hkawn Let

Naing Thit Sar

BARS religion students at MIT fun fair last December.

Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery 2007

I helped some friends to apply for Diversity Visa Lottery from US state department. (Diversity Visa (DV) program is a lottery program which allows immigrant visas for people from all over the world to the States.) The followings are some of them.

http://visalottery.state.gov

Russ Kadoe (Sweetie)

Van Biak Hmung

Sui Dawt Men

Iang Hlei Par

Look at my picture :-)

Si Baw Mi

I read the Irrawaddy articles today using www.pureprivacy.com. They are at least a bit more interesting than the New Light of Myanmar articles. That's the truth, and I know many people read the New Light of Myanmar only for obituaries.

Burmese tycoons

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5010&z=102

The article talked about Burmese businessmen and how they do business in Burma.

Lights, Camera -- But Where's the Action?

http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp%3fa=5002&z=107

The article talked about the standard of Burmese films.

Even though we can't compete in the international market, I still admire people in the film industry. They try their best, given a lot of limitations both in terms of finance and freedom.

I have my Aloha from Burma (Myanmar) written today. OpenOffice format

ALOHA 24

ALOHA 24 (October 7, 2005) OpenOffice Format

BARS second commencement was today at Po Tha Byu Hall at the seminary hill.

Bob, Hkawn Let and OJ

Sui Dawt Men and Si Baw Mi

Si Baw Mi

Si Baw Mi, Lwin Moe and Ruth Khin Aung

Si Baw Mi walking down the hill

BARS students

BARS baccalaureate service was this evening at the Kachin Baptist Church. It was a nice worship service. Students were all smiling and most of them were with their parents.

Oliver James and Lwin Moe

Graduating seniors and Lwin Moe

They are my students, whom Neil Sowards and I taught "Entrepreneurship."

Standing: from left to right: Mun Shawng Tsin Nan, Nang Awng, Z. Kai Nu, N. Seng Ra, Lwin Moe, Roi Awng, Lum Tse, Htu Raw.

Sitting: From left to right: Awng Ba, H. Tang Mai.

Si Baw Mi and Tun Nay having fun

My slipper :-)

A funeral of one of my grandmothers, Daw Aye Mya.

ALOHA 23

ALOHA 23 (September 20, 2005) OpenOffice Format

Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies

BARS senior worship service, dinner and senior night programs were today. It was fun.

Army officers revered?

I read a news article from Khit Myanmar Weekly journal. On page 2 of the issue dated September 16, 2005, the article talked about the fines imposed on the vehicles pretending to be owned by army officers by putting the army caps on the dashboard. If you think one step further, you can see that 'some' of the army officers are above the law :-)

The news implicitly said that the army officers were 'revered' for their power.

Burma or Myanmar?

Someone commented on this forum about the usage of my domain name "friendsofburma".

'....this site doesn't use the today's usage "Myanmar"'

http://forum.flashband.net/viewtopic.html?t=289

I want to make it clear that I don't want to make a fuss over the name. I don't care about the name as long as the communication gets across. For example, some people call me 'Lwin Moe', some 'Tha Tha', and some 'Ko Gyi.' We are all t