N 69   Traveloque…. (Melbourne / Australia )

While thinking about what I should write for my next blog I hit on an idea. It is to write about my travellings, concerning cities I have been. As I have been to some cities of the east my blogs will become a series and I will have much to write about. But I know most people don’t like to read long articles, so I will try to make them short , although it will be hard if there are many places and things that need to be mentioned, and I am sure every city does have those things. So I will start with Melbourne , Australia…..

I had been to Melbourne 3 times. It was because my 2 daughters had studied there and even now one granddaughter is still in a university there. So the reason for our first time visit in 2010 was to attend the graduation ceremony of our daughter Kham .She attended the Monash University and got her B A (acc )degree. At that time our youngest daughter Lin was also studying at Swinburne for master's degree in accounting.

 

My eldest daughter Ma Ying and her husband also went with us on that trip. I remember the first place we visited was the heart of the city which is called Swanston Street, where most landmarks are situated. We first visited  the Federation Square. It is home to major cultural attractions, world class events,  an array of restaurants and specialty stores that it has become the most visited attraction in Melbourne. St Paul Cathedral is close to this place.

 

After we had looked around and took some photos we moved northwards, and before long came to the State Library which I learned that it holds more than 2 million books. It was built in neoclassical architecture with a wide stairs and green lawn in front of it.

It was at this place that I encountered a  remarkable experience. I saw a rally by some people to free Julian Assange, a Melbournian and the co founder of  Wikileaks which hacked into some companies and important government departments including the Pentagon. He was having trouble with the law and was recently making news. So when I came across an incident concerning him I got excited and took many pictures of the rally.

This also is a place which tourists who come to Melbourne cannot miss. It is not far from Melbourne Central Station and shopping centre. We continued to stroll along Swanston Street , gazing at the Christmas preparations, and the people doing their last minute shopping, and window shopping before going back home.

N68            Books I translated (5 ) Part 2

After every step they had to give report to the Movement’s office. The 10^th step is the last step where they made sure that the trees they planted survived and then the women got paid 10 cents for each tree that survived.

This was a very small amount of money but as the women did not have other ways of making money they gladly did the work. And so this was how Wangari came to plant 30 million trees in Kenya.

Environmentalists usually turn into politicians and so it was like this with Wangari. The government at that time in Kenya was under the leadership of one strong man who did not rule the country democratically.While the government’s party was made strong by bribing and corruption the oppositions were being pressed. Those who opposed the government were thrown into jail where  they were charged   by corrupt lawyers and judges. The government also mismanaged their scanty resources. ( forests and parks and aid money from abroad….)

 I cannot help thinking , oh… how like our country  and the govt;  but then  our govt; and country  are  far wealthier than Kenya but in the end the 2 countries will be depleted of it’s resources if nothing is done to prevent this mismanagement.

As in Kenya Wangari who was an environmentalist became a political activist.Beside planting trees she led women in protecting parks and  forests which the govt; was  using for their own benefits. And she also advocated on behalf of women whose sons were held in jail for opposing the govt;.

After getting many awards from different countries and organizations Wangari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for contributing to sustainable development, democracy and peace.

I like this book because it gives me inspiration and admiration. Believe me or not… while I am reading the chapter about planting trees I really want to do like her especially when we are in a dire situation to plant trees.

Lately we have been facing disasters that came with overlogging and unsystematic minerals producing and there are chances that we will also have to face them in the coming years

 But I am old now and  not in a position to do so. I wish there will be someone or some organizations that can do like Wangari (to lead people in planting trees and not depend only on the government )

 Trees take time to grow but it is better to start  growing  again than doing nothing. So let us make Wangari our inspiration and take a part in making our country green again and save it from coming disasters.

N 67   Books I translated     (  5  )  Part 1

       

I had written about  some of the books I had  translated from English to Burmese. Until now 6 books had been  printed and the last which I am going to tell about it now is on it’s way to be made into a book.

     

  So firstly the title of the book…. I gave the title A Sein Yaung Chit Thu (Green Lover )and the original book is Unbowed written by Wangari  Maathai. I came across this book while reading ex president Clinton’s book  Giving  where he mentioned her name and which I later looked for in the internet.

     

   Wangari was a native of Kenya in east Africa. She grew up in the countryside which was blessed with earth’s abundant yields. She did cultivation with her mother , gathered firewood, and fetched water from the river,and also tended animal. She never thought of them as hard work but was happy to do them. When she was 8 she went to a primary school which was about 3 miles away. After primary school she went to mission schools ran by nuns where she studied for her middle and high school levels.

       

After she finished high school she was selected to study in the US through The Joseph .P. Kennedy Foundation where she studied for her Science degree  majoring in biology at Mount Scholastica University . After receiving her bachelor degree in 1964 she continued for master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh  .

    

  Upon her return to Kenya she worked as a lecturer at the school of Veterinary Medicine of University  College of Nairobi where she also pursued doctoral studies in Germany and at the University of Nairobi and obtained the P. hd degree in 1971.

       

While she served on various boards of many organizations concerning environment and humanity causes she found out that the environment of Kenya was degrading due to overlogging. Because there were no trees on the hills , when the rain  came the soil was washed down into streams and rivers and gradually into the sea.Streams and rivers were also dried up and caused livelihood of people to become difficult and biodiversities to become extinct. Firewood for cooking , wood for fencing, also became scarce. Because the top soil was washed away vegetation did not yield abundantly as they used to be, and this caused people and animals not to have enough food.

….To solve these problems she introduced the idea of community based tree planting. and then continued to develop this idea into a broad based grassroot organization , the Green Belt Movement, whose main focus were poverty reduction, environment conservation and women’s right through tree planting.

Wangari used an incentive to make rural women more interested in planting trees. The Green Belt Movement developed a procedure with 10 steps,from forming a group,locating a site for tree nursery, to planting trees.                      

  …..to Part 2