Today, I read an article in The Mirror (Kyemon) newspaper from yesterday, July 23, 2005. The article was about a group of doctors doing eye operations in Ye Nan Chaung in the middle of Burma. It was very nice. Usually, the newspaper is not worthy of anything to read. But this one is really good and it is a very nice job done by that group of doctors to help other people. One of my favorite writers (when I was young), Dr. Ye Naing, was one of the doctors in the group. Dr. Nilar Thein, a native of Ye Nan Chaung, initiated the project and many other people including a monk from Ye Nan Chaung helped.

I went home to my parents. We are having electricity every other day. It's not bad. Used to be worse :-)

My house

My grandfather fetching water from the well

I have been enjoying Red Hat Fedora Core 3 on my laptop. Here is a screen shot.

Note: I added this picture later. I took the screen shot on August 4, 2005

The only change I have found this time coming back to Burma is the change of the "Access Denied" message from the country's sole Internet Service Provider, BaganNet. It changes in color --- from a colorful green and yellow to a bright red one. www.hotmail.com, mail.yahoo.com, and many other web-based, free e-mails are not accessible. Burmese news site such as http://www.irrawaddy.org still remains blocked. It seems the users and the ISP are having fun playing Tom and Jerry. These kids in Burma probably know better than me how to bypass Bagan's firewall to get the information they want.

Gmail banned

Gmail accessible using a different method

Yahoo Mail banned

Proxy server configuration in my Firefox web browser

203.81.71.111 (cache-dial.bagan.net.mm) is a proxy server for dial-up users.

I flew back to Burma this morning. Everything seemed to work fine at the airport. I just told them I was a student. The immigration officers asked me some questions about my passport. He was suspicious that I was working abroad. My passport was renewed in Washington D.C. while I was a student in the States. I renewed it again in Burma before I left for Laos last December. I renewed it again in Bangkok a few days ago. He was suspicious that I couldn't be a student for that long since 1998. :-)

I told him I travelled for research purposes, and he let me go. I had to wait for a long time to get my suitcases. I went through custom officials and one of the officers checked my backpack. It all went fine because I had books in my backpack. Lucky enough, she didn't find my laptop in it. Come on, what's wrong with bringing in a laptop into the country? :-) Even in Lao, they didn't search me like that.

At least, I had a better experience than my last time coming back from the States. Nobody asked chocolates from me this time :-) We still need a change in rules and regulations at the immigration and customs. Passport application of using short visit, jobs, etc. is not a viable solution any more. More changes needed in that area.

If you make a law that is not practical, people will find ways to break it. The law also needs to reflect current situations.

This is so exciting. Today, on my way to a friend's house, I was stopped by two guys who appear to be policemen. They wanted to see my passport. Unfortunately, I didn't have my passport with me. They asked me if I could speak Thai. I answered them 'No,' and insisted to speak English. Since I didn't have my passport with me, they wanted to arrest me because they thought that I was illegal. The only IDs I had with me were Indiana driver's license and Indiana-Purdue University student ID. I showed them those and insisted on speaking English even though they didn't seem to understand me very well. These stupid policemen thought that I was from India because of my IDs, which they read 'India' for 'Indiana.' Then, I called my friend because that was what these guys wanted me to do so he could bring my passport. Although he was a Burmese, I only spoke to him in English on the phone. I asked him to come see me. Just before I finished my conversation, these guys told me I could go. They were just getting nervous because I was speaking fluent English on the phone. I kid you not my heart was also pounding and there was a peak of hormonal activities in synapses in my brain's gray matter. I instantly understood the fear of Burmese migrant workers and how police are living off these poor workers' earnings. It's basically about Bahts 3,000 -- 4,000 per head as a bribery to get him/her out. Thai police are so corrupted that they live off the poor's hard-earned money. These migrant workers lived in fear in Burma and they still have to in Bangkok. I wonder when they will be able to live and work peacefully.

In addition, Burmese government is also not recognizing these problems and is not looking for solutions whereas Laos and Cambodia are issuing passports for migrant workers from their countries so they can live and work legally in Thailand. At least, they recognized the problems and provided a solution.

Worse thing is Thai media really demonizes Burmese people. In many Thai soap operas, they often portray Burmese housemaids speaking Thai with a funny accent. As I learned more and more Thai, I am understanding what they are saying on TV about the Burmese. I don't like Thailand because of their prejudice and discrimination but I am going to live here for a long time and I am sure God wants me to understand the fear of my people and the situations they are in.

The boy in black hat is Mon and he has been working in Bangkok illegally pumping gas in this gas station

The bottom line is never speak Thai to Thai police. Speak English because Thai people want to kiss Europeans' or Americans' ass in general -- excuse my language but that's how I really felt while I lived eight weeks in Bangkok. That is true because people treated me differently if I told them I was from Burma, or I was from Burma and, later in the conversation, I graduated from an American university. Just the word 'America' sounds like 'honey from the rock' to them. For the Thais, blonde hair and blue eyes are their idols :-) Besides, Miss Universe contest just finished a few months ago here in Bangkok. :-)

If we look at the following map, we will have a better sense of why people from Taunggyi, Loikaw, Pa-an and Dawei area are working in Thailand.

Myanmar (Burma) in South-east Asia

Old pictures from the US

I found my old pictures of my mission trip to Shiprock, New Mexico. I took the trip while I was in the States. We stayed at a Navajo Indian church and here are some pictures.

Shiprock, New Mexico

Lwin Moe after painting an old Navajo Indian lady's house in Shiprock, NM

Pastor Eric Lee talking to our group

A Hogan in Shiprock, NM

Lwin Moe and Molly repairing the roof of an old Navajo lady's house

Mission Team after painting an old Navajo lady's house

My two (adopted) sisters

Heather, Molly and Lwin at Albuquerque airport

Lwin Moe with a Navajo family

With Navajo ladies from Mesa View Church

Jared and Lwin

Lwin in Shiprock, NM

Blue Sky and a tree near the Day Care Center we worked

A beautiful field

Mesa Verdae National Park in Colorado

Mesa Verdae National Park in Colorado

Mesa Verdae National Park in Colorado

Mesa Verdae National Park in Colorado

Four Corners (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado)

Four Corners (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado)

From Four Corners (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado)

Lwin Moe after Missoin Trip

Lwin Moe after Missoin Trip with Diana (host-mom)

ALOHA 21

ALOHA 21 (July 5, 2005) OpenOffice Format

I wrote my ALOHA today. Here it is: Aloha from Burma (Myanmar)

Recently, I have been busy working on a Burmese-English dictionary project with my boss, mentor, colleague :-) I have decided to work on the computational linguistics research at http://crcl.th.net. I spent about 7 weeks in Bangkok and learned a lot about Thailand. I am learning to speak Thai. I am going back to Burma this Saturday and I don't think I will be able to update my web site as often as now. The internet access is Burma is not very reliable.