The Kings Birthday, otherwise known as "Father's Day"

6 Dec 2002

I was late getting out of work, too late to meet up with the others all going to Lucky Farm for Scottish Medic Tommy's send off (Bar Kung was closed for the holiday), and decided to just go to my fave place (Canadian Dave's) for a curry, then a quiet night. Not quite.

Last night was wild! As it was the King's bday, there were all these festivals, so the streets were packed (a rarity here). It was also the end of Ramadan, as there's a large Burmese Muslim community, that was a big deal. It was *also* the national day for the Shan State (one of the hill tribes along the border), and some Karen Holiday, so needless to say, there was a lot of festivity. Streets were packed - I didn't realise Mae Sot actually had so many people. It reminded me of why I *don't* like Bangkok: crowds!

I ran into a friend who's a journalist, working for an NGO in Chiang Mai, in town for a few days. He introduced me to the guy with whom he was talking, and then he asked us to join him and some friends at a place outside town. What a fascinating evening it turned into.

I was introduced to one guy and when he heard I lived in TX, said he was from Austin. I asked him what he did, he said "I'm just in business, I'm not doing anything too political right now." I thought 'rather odd to say..why the political comment?' Well, I quickly figured that out. This guy was a Burmese refugee who was hosted by people in Austin, which is how he ended up there. All 5 were Burmese who can no longer go back to Burma because they're black-listed by the govt. Two were BBC journalists (*one was a former mircobiologist; the other the BBC correspondent for Burma), one was a poet and writer well-known in Burma who currently works for the "Burmese Government in exile", another a composer of well known revolutinary music, also working with the gov't in exile (there's a name, but there were so many acronyms last night I was totally confused).

As it happens, Ne Win, the former (hated) dictator of Burma died yesterday, so there was a bit of a celebratory atmosphere. I spent the whole evening hearing discussions of the political situation in Burma, the history, their roles, why they fled, the current situation, etc etc. It was weird tho, because the discussion was so matter of fact. Not passionate rhetoric, just *real* talk of real life. But these were not just everyday people, rather, people heavily involved in the whole movement. There was a lot of explaining to me who was who in the govt, what groups were associated with what other groups, and so on. I used to think I was pretty worldly-wise, and I knew of the Burmese situation, but I felt so incredibly ignorant and naïve. That said, they didn't treat me as such. They were keen to share and quite happy to answer my ignorant questions. I was fascinated - and humbled- by all of it. It reminded me of why a place like Mae Sot is so interesting to work - being on the border it has such a long history, and is a crossroads for so many, but being small, it's so easy to meet people like this. I'm not quite sure I can convey the experience well, I just walked away saying "Wow!" (I then went and had a couple of more drinks with my friend the Canadian journalist, discussing life as an expat vs. a refugee – both 'displaced peoples,' one by choice, the other by circumstance; life in exile, and about how awed we were by the entire situation.)

* the microbiologist turned journalist was interesting - he was helped to leave (read:escape) Burma by colleagues of mine and taken to Oxford to do a medical degree. He did his first degree in microbiology, worked for Wellcome in Oxford, then did a master's in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. That intrigued me, having done something similar in reverse (minus the getting black listed and having to escape from my homeland). He is now a dedicated journalist, tho he doesn't write much anymore. He trains locals - ie Burmese, Karen, etc in journalistic techniques (interviews and such).

Interesting stuff! So that was how I spent my evening. As much as I like the gang at Kung's, they're all ex-pats, and there's a certain, different atmosphere. Even those involved in human rights work etc, don't quite come at it from this angle. I felt really privileged to spend the evening with these people.