Burmese-English dictionary

I have been busy working with the visual input system for our dictionaries. Check out the beta version for Burmese.

Go to http://burmese.sealang.net

Click on the keyboard icon (on your left panel) as shown in the following picture.

Click on the input characters so you can see the prediction. Please wait for a fraction of a second (because of the server delay) after you click on the characters. You will see the predicted Burmese words based on the dictionary order as in the following picture.

Warning about fonts

• If you use Zawgyi font, you won't see the correct rendering of some characters, especially subscript forms. Zawgyi is incompatible with the Unicode standard.
• Our dictionary uses the old Unicode standard with UTN #11 (the documentations are listed below)
1. Representing Myanmar In Unicode, Details and Examples by Martin Hosken and Maung Tun Tun Lwin
2. Myanmar Unicode Standard
• The old unicode standard was implemented in some fonts, such as Padauk, Myanmar1 and MyMyanmar. Get MyMyanmar here.

Politicizing Olympics

The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

George Orwell said those words in his 1946 essay "Why I write."

Pro-Chinese governments, including Burma, and the Chinese government have been saying that olympics should not be politicized.

[Chinese] Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says the Beijing Olympics is a grand event both for China and for the whole world, and that the Games should not be politicized.

The statement by Qin Gang is in itself a political one, describing a "grand event" showcasing the "rich and powerful" China. Olympics have long been used by various governments to promote their ideology. Hitler used the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany as a tool to promote Nazi ideology by allowing only members of the "Aryan race" to compete for Germany.

Looking as far back as ancient Olympics events, winning athletes were heroes who put their home towns on the map. Winning medals at the Olympics signify the wealth and power of a town. A young Athenian nobleman used the number of his entries in chariot-race in the Olympics to defend his political reputation. [From Tufts]

Therefore, as far as I am concerned, olympics is a sporting as well as political event. As much as the Chinese government has the right to make the "grand" event successful, activists around the world should also have the right to express their anger towards the Chinese government and its policy.

George Orwell's 1984

I have been reading George Orwell's 1984. I am half way now. I want to share some quotes I like.

One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear. It is written in his face.

Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.

Orwell, in my opinions, probably wrote this fiction based on his experiences about the British colonial rule in Burma. Orwell used to live in Katha and Moulmein (Mawlamyine) while he was serving in the Indian Imperial Police. He hated imperialism and quit the job. He later pursued his writing career.

The book vividly describes the danger of being watched and brain-washed by a government. The main character, Winston Smith, works at the Records Department of a fictional country called Oceania. The department is responsible for producing records that are in line with the Party's agenda and deleting those that are not.

Here is the link to Wikipedia's article about the novel.

The following is the link to full text for "1984", "Animal Farm" and "Down and Out in Paris and London."

http://www.msxnet.org/orwell

All of Orwell's work can be read free here.

More about George Orwell at Wikipedia.

I think 1984 is a good read, especially for the people under an authoritative government. I hope somebody translates this into Burmese.

Photos by Rev. Wo Le

If you are like me and crazy about country life in Burma, here are some pictures. Rev. Wo Le took them on his trips to churches all over Burma as his capacity as the secretary of Lisu Baptist Convention.

Church

School

Water

Innocent lives

Life style

Trucks

Carts

Photos

A building on the bank of Chao Phraya river (Photo by Beauty Shwe)

A Burmese lady (Photo source is unknown and may have copyrights held by the photographer)

Photos by Wawlay

I wanted to post some pictures by Rev. Wo Le. He took these pictures while he was travelling all over Burma visting Lisu churches. I hope to remind you of village life style in Burma.

A big tree

A village (rather a town?) in Burma

A day in the village

A house in the village

A kid in the village

Baptism (village style)

Village family

Chef

Chef tasting food

Sunset

Fetching water

Bathing

Kitchen

Teapot

Dinner

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)