A Bangladeshi holiday
Another trip to Bangladesh, a voyage into pure chaos, I leave happy yet arrive sad missing the infectious warmth of the place, the unsolvable riddle that is all around me, daring me to make sense out of senselessness. I will give you a brief catalogue of the most amusing moments, number one is the double new years eve trick the government pulled. In order to save energy the government decided to leave the country on permanent daylight savings time, this put Bangladesh on the same time zone as Thailand. I thought it was a laudable attempt, albeit funny, the country is crippled by rolling black outs during summer. Getting civil servants to take off their jackets and using the light of the sun rather than electricity into the evening seemed a good idea to save the planet and keep the power running. After a public outcry the government decided to change the country back to regular time on New Years Eve, giving the country two New Years Eve's in one hour. After the announcement they realised the double new years trick and said they would change the time back at 11.59 to 10.59 rather than at midnight. New Years Eve was auspicious, it was a full moon, a blue moon and a minor lunar eclipse. On Faiz's roof we drank, had a BBQ and gave our memories a light fill.
Number two was the beggar who came up to me and called me 'clean', there is a crossover in the word for clean and white. Language codifies a hierarchy based on the skin colour. The Aryan invasion of South Asia 4000 years ago has left many marks, many wonderful but this would have to be one of the most disturbing. Racism is so incessant, so incomprehensible, from the attacks on Indians in Australia, the discrimination against the indigenous people, it runs across the planet making me think how totally flawed our species is. I hope aliens don't find us in this state, its embarrassing.
Number three was our trip to Cox's Bazaar, reputed to be the world's longest beach and it is most beautiful. It was a Bangladeshi holiday, at first I got a bit annoyed at the pure chaos in the organisation, then I decided to go with the flow and all was good. It is always difficult to travel with more than a couple of people, but half a dozen Bengali's is pure theatre. One person details a plan, the next person completely ignores that person and details a plan, followed by another person and then the next. Everyone lays out a plan without any consideration to the others plan, a plan is not built, it happens, it is a plan where there is only the present, the past and the future do not exist. Two friends, Jami and his wife, brought 13 bags and a kettle, there was a birthday, business, three restaurant malfunctions, Faiz transformed from geek to photographer taking over a thousand pictures a day, more events than can be fit in a day without completing any. We were only there for a day and two nights but it was a good time.
The coastline south of Cox's Bazaar is quite beautiful, it would be an excellent spot for international tourism, good food, wonderful coastline hugged by a cliff but swimming fully clothed and the lack of alcohol would make it difficult. I sat looking out at the sea, watching the sunset thinking a beer would be just wonderful. Maybe as a family tourist destination, but then I imagine white women in bikini's, Bangladesh, I don't think so. A Saudi prince wanted to develop the area on the obscene condition that Bengali's are banned. Then I think, it doesn't matter whether the place develops or not for internationals, its a lovely holiday spot for the locals, low population, a break from the mayhem of the rest of the country, let it be.
Bangladesh is undoubtedly changing, on a purely selfish note I was shocked to see the number of white people across Dhaka, I took it that this was my desh, my panidesh, the only white guy in the country, alas my Bangladesh is being discovered. It was excellent to see my friends again, they are all doing well, although I was saddened by my sparing partner Jami's decline into moderation from pure fundamentalism. The passage of life makes it difficult to maintain extreme views, it requires blind commitment and a total disregard for reality. I don't think either of us are capable, my desire for an atheist planet has waned, it would be boring, lack colour, I'ld have no one to argue with. Maybe when atheism becomes the dominant position I will take up the cause of God. Then I think no, I've just lost all interest in the question, the suggestion or anything to do with it, lost interest in opposing something that doesn't exist. It makes me sigh, I used to enjoy arguing but as I get older it just becomes so boring, tiring, circular, pointless and more than anything else I've realised I'm not right, the opposing position is not wrong, it just is, and what it is, is very funny.
Now I am in Mumbai, India, tracking down Parsi's.
Myanmar: Life under military rule
Intention should not be the sole arbiter of action, I thought it was yet there is more. The outcome of choices cannot be foreseen, the interplay of random events, people far wiser than myself have plotted a course in relation to Myanmar, still I decided to go. I convinced myself that it was ok to go, my own desire for something new, I've travelled to many dictatorships in the same category as Myanmar, other repressive governments, repressive cultures, repressive religions. In the 1998 I wanted to go, but had read Aung San Suu Kyi and heeded the call for a boycott, in 2005 I considered again but decided no. Then this year I went and this is what happened.
Myanmar: Why a military government
A new perspective on why, or why not, maybe its better said as the lack of why. There are many charming facets of Myanmar culture but the military government is a real conundrum. How can a country have such peaceful people and have such a violent repressive government at the same time? It is the same people, the military are not a different ethnic group, or different religion, there is the pervasive Buddhism, the respect for the monks yet they can fire on them at the same time, the reverence for Aung San and the fight against British colonialism yet at the same time the demonization of his daughter.
Myanmar: Palaung Hill Tribe of Shan state
Into the Palaung and Lisu Hill Tribes of Shan state in Myanmar through winding broken roads, villages perched on the top of hills, each village with a Pagoda and a monastery, a collection of Monks, novices, smiles that are impossibly wide, bamboo huts clinging to the side of a hill and the freshest food directly from the field.
Myanmar – Nat Pwe, Spirits, generals and Smiles
Myanmar, once known as Burma, is the jewel of South East Asia, IMHO, the people, the culture is a hybrid, at the intersection of three great civilizations. The pervasive Buddhism that seeps into even corner of life is magnified by the backwardness of the military regime. There are few parts to this essay, spirits then guns/politics. I’ll start with the most interesting, the Nat, the spirit world, the pre-Buddhist animist worship. The Buddhists do syncretic better than the other major religions who always seem to co-exist uncomfortably with anything that wasn’t written down in their own dogma.
