Eating out of a pumpkin: Burmese food

I went out for dinner with my 2 room mates last night, and we sort of randomly ended up at a Burmese restaurant in Burlingame called Mingalaba. Since most of my posts have been about Burma, I figured it would make a decent blog post.

The best of what we had, out of a massive meal, was probably the bread they brought out in the beginning called parathas. These were basically a hot, thin flaky bread that was served with a sort of curry sauce. I finished off my dinner with a pumpkin that had been hollowed out and filled with chunks of chicken, pumpkin, some kind of herb, and another nutty curry sauce. All in all it was incredible. A bit like Chinese food but with a definite Indian influence.

Burma Drafts Ceasefire with Separatists

This week the Burmese government drew up and signed an "historic" ceasefire between 16 ethnic separatists groups and militias in the capitol city of Rangoon (Yangon). The ceasefire, however, did not include the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) against whom the Burmese army has been fighting in the Kokang region of Burma, bordering China. In fact, no separatists in the Kokang region were included in the cease fire. It is interesting to find that Burma has an interest in ending volatile relations between separatists in their country, but not in the region where it matters most.

The conflict in Kokang may be too out of control for them to ignore it, or the MNDAA may not have been willing to cooperate. The article does not specify, but offers some possible reasons for a ceasefire not being sought in the Kokang. The national issues, of course, is a primary concern for the Burmese government, who is facing well organized groups seeking to tear the region away from Burma. Speculations of foreign funding coming into the country in support of the border conflict may also have the Burmese government thinking twice about ending the fight too soon. In any case, the ceasefire between 16 groups points to the fact that the Burmese governments wants to focus more, if anything, on the battle going on in Kokang.


https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/04/16/burm-a16.html

Kiwi Jailed for Music Loving Buddha

      Phillip Blackwood, a man of both British and New Zealand citizenship, was jailed last month after posting an advertisement for his bar online. Blackwood, who was born in Britain and raised in New Zealand, had been living in Burma (Myanmar) and managed the V Gastro Bar, along with 2 Burmese associates Tun Thurein and Htut Ko Ko Lwin. Their online advertisement for their bar featured a psychadelic backdrop and an image of Buddha wearing headphones. The 3 men were thrown in jail on accounts of insulting Buddhism and disobeying a public order. The sentence they currently face is 2 and a half years- 2 years for the insulting image of Buddha, and another 6 months for the disobeying of public order.

      Blackwood has essentially been abandoned by the British government, who has not responded to Blackwood's family's pleas for help. The sentences for the 3 men are ridiculous, and reek of the same free speech and religious intolerance issues brought to light after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France. Burma is a country that is predominately Buddhist, and is known for severe levels of censorship. Granted the punishment for Blackwood is slightly better than if he had portrayed Muhammed, the Burmese government is still a bit out of line for jailing a foreign national for the mere placing of headphones atop the Buddha's head.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-jailed-in-burma-abandoned-his-country-birth-6277738

Chinese and Burmese Tensions Are Dangerously High

     An increasingly violent situation has worsened in the past week in the borderlands of China and Burma. In the Kokang region of Burma (Myanmar), tensions have been rising over the past months as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, an ethnically Chinese guerilla separatist group, began to attack Burmese army units in the border town, Laukkai. An estimated 60,000 ethnic Chinese citizens of Kokang have fled the border into China's Yunnan province.


     About a week ago, a bomb was dropped inside Chinese territory, just over the border. The Chinese government has blamed the Burmese military as the ones who dropped the bomb, which killed 5 field workers in the small Chinese town. Burmese officials denied responsibility over the bombing, but expressed "deep sorrow" for the incident and agreed to cooperate in a joint investigation.


     Although violence has steadily been creasing in Kokang, this is the first time the fighting has led to Chinese civilian casualties on their side of the border. As the MNDAA continues to fight the Burmese army, it is likely that more of the violence will spill onto the Chinese side of the border, as Burmese forces tried to repel them. The only place the MNDAA could safely go, if not successful, is over the border into China.
   


https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/17/burm-m17.html

Lost fortress of Genghis- or Chinggis, or whatever- Khan found

Mongolian and Japanese archeologists have unearthed a fortress dating back to the 13th century. The fortress, located in western Mongolia, belonged to the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan. The find was led by Koichi Matsuda, a professor at Osaka University in Japan. The team of archeologists were following descriptions left in a Toaist Chinese book written at the time that Genghis Khan was alive. Wood from ships discovered at the site were dated back to the 12th century, and bones collected at the site dated back to the 14th century. This discovery is part of an ongoing search to find the tomb of Genghis Khan, which is to this day still unknown. Those who buried Genghis Khan were instructed to kill all those they crossed on the way to his burial, and even committed suicide after burying him in an unmarked tomb so that no one could locate it. The search for his tomb has been an obsession for archeologists and historians for centuries. Genghis Khan, formerly named Temujin, led the Mongol Empire for 20 years, and is believed to be in a direct line of .5% of the world's population today as he fathered hundreds, if not thousands of children during his life.


The belief is that the discovery of the fortress will help aid in the finding of Khan's tomb, and also provide a look into the importance of Mongol rule in Asia and the manner in which it connected civilizations that effect modern societies to this day.


http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lost-genghis-khan-fortress-unearthed-western-mongolia-1490058

Burma Taking a Big First Step Culturally

     In Burma, the film industry is nothing to write home about. However, a couple of film makers are looking to make history in this country which has taken little part in celebrating its national identity through mainstream media. Military leadership has in the past put a cap on any portrayals of the life and story of one of Burma's greatest military leaders, General Aung San. Aung San, a revolutionary leader who created the first standing Burmese army, played a vital role in gaining Burma's independence from Britain. He was assassinated about 6 months before Burma officially gained its independence in 1948. To this day, Aung San's name is still well known and respected among Burmese people, but successive military regimes have literally attempted to erase all traces of his legacy. For Americans this would be equivalent to our government disallowing any portrayal of a figure like George Washington in film.




     Finally, however, this "taboo" is being ignored and not one, but two film producers are working to beat one another to the punch in delivering the first portrayal of Aung San in a movie. The effects of this action are far more than just social or cultural. The timing of these films come just before the fall parliamentary elections in which candidate Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the late general, will be running in opposition of current leader Thein Sein. The director of the movie titled The Last Day of Aung San, Myay Ni Thit Sar, says that he believes his film will "help bring democracy to Burma." The director casted 35 year old barber Kyauk Khae, who has zero acting experience, simply because he looks so similar to Aung San.




     The other film, which has no titled as of this point, is supposedly being over seen by Aung San Suu Kyi herself, which either points to the political implications this film may have for upcoming elections, or is simply a daughter hoping to see that her father's legacy is well remembered and honored.




http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/01/31/burma-movie-aung-san/21396503/

Burma Declares Martial Law

This week the Burmese president, Thein Sein, declared a state of martial law in the Kokang region of Burma after a series of attacks by a rebel group left 50 Burmese soldiers dead. The Kokang is a region in the eastern part of the country that borders China, and many of its population are of Han Chinese ethnicity. Fighting began to intesify on February 9th of this year between the Burmese military and the rebel group known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). The rise in fighting came as the leader of the rebel forces, Phone Kya Shin, returned to the region after a 5 year exile to China. Since his return and the rise in violence in the last few weeks, the Chinese government has reported approximately 30,000 Han Chinese residents of Burma have fled over the border into China to escape the fighting. The rebel group MNDAA claims to be fighting to create an autonomous region for the Han Chinese people in Kokang.

The law put in place by Shein Thein will put the military in complete political control of the region, and will last for a period of 3 months. This is the 2nd time in 5 years that Burma has had to declare a state of martial law within the country, as it was put in place in the state of Rakhine in 2011 to settle violence between Bhuddist and Muslims.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31511331