N44           Water Wasting Festival

Everybody accept that Thingyan Festival is the most distinctive and enjoyable seasonal event of the whole year in Myanmar. It marks the end of Myanmar  calendar year and welcoming the new year. All Buddhists celebrated Thingyan according to their ages and regional customs. Old people concentrated in making meritorious deeds such as going to pagodas and monasteries with offerings, observing Sabbath, giving alms to Sanghas and the needies, free fishes and birds and so on. Some middle aged and young people also does some of these good deeds. But many young people have their hearts on merrymaking only which sometimes  lead them to negative results.

   

  The most significant activity of Thingyan is the water splashing activity. People splash water on each other during the 3 or 4 days of Thingyan. In olden days it was done with good intention , to get cool from the summer time heat, to wash away the dirt of the ending year etc. People even used fragrant water which was put in silver bowl to splash on each other. Some used a bunch of Eugenia leaves to soak water from the bowl and tap the shoulder of another gently and courteously.

     

But nowadays the custom has changed. In big cities big pandals are erected here and there. Water pipes  are installed in a row and young people pay a certain price to get on to the pandal and use the pipe to soak passers by who are moving on foot or by motor cars and are already soaked. The force of water coming from the pipes are made to be strong and piercing , so we can say that they are intended to hurt people. Some young people uses tin cans and throw  water forcefully at other people to make them feel pain. Sometimes water throwers put ice in their water to make people  feel cold. All these actions are not for good purposes, but to do harm to others. So where can we find good intentions of the Thingyan Festival.

    

Some of the activities performed in the pandals are good. Like singing and dancing. Many people including tourists like to watch and enjoy . It gives people happiness and pleasure to watch these performances. But dresses worn by some performers are getting bad to worse and are much criticized by many lately. The dresses are getting much western, more scanty, more revealing and with the use of alcohol and drugs the people on the stage become wild and out of control . There is nothing good to gain for these behaviours. Young people who have some sensitivities should not think only for pleasure but avoid pitfalls by over enjoying themselves.

    

My actual aim in writing this blog is about water. As the name of this festival is water festival , plenty of water has to be used for it. If we are celebrating this festival in the old way the water used will not be too much. But who started to do the way they do today in the cities we don’t know. I mean the  way they splash water with pipes and even fire hoses as they are doing now. By this way much amount of water has to be used for the contentment of people fruitlessly. I think by myself what enjoyment do they have by splashing people who are already soaked again and again. I had watched people celebrating water splashing festival of Thailand Laos and Sipsongpanna of China. They don’t use pipes as we do but they splash water on each other using bowls and pails and waterguns only.

To be continued…….

N43      Books I Translated   4

  During this time Matt received an invitation from an aunt in law who lives in San Diego USA to come and live with her. Although he didn’t want to go he decided to give it a try .

  

 There he met a girl named Tracey who was an animal rights activist . After leading a march through town to protest for dolphins she was  nabbed by the police, fined and told to live peacefully for a year. So she decided to go to La Scammon Mexico, for the whale watch and asked Matt to go with her. Because Petra had told Matt that she would be there around about that season, Matt decided to go and see her.

 They travelled in Tracey’s bike she called Fly and they encountered many hardships  while travelling along Baja Peninsular. In the end they parted to go their own way , Matt to Petra’s father’s house and Tracey with her old boyfriend whom she met again at a seaport.

      

  In short they, Matt, Petra and Skip who was sent by the captain to locate Matt whom he thought was lost , had a reunion at Petra’s father’s house. In fact Petra was the captain’s granddaughter but the father  hadn’t forgiven the old man for disowning his daughter when she ran away with him, a poor unknown artist.

   

  But now the captain’s end was near and Petra decided to go and see the captain . So they all went back to England to see the captain. The lonely captain’s wish was fulfilled when he saw his granddaughter even if he cannot see his daughter. He offered both Petra and Matt his fortune but they declined. Petra accepted his offer to fund a marine biology research center , where Matt who wanted to be a marine biologist like Petra could work later.

   

   The captain insisted they take him to their old place where he died peacefully amid the sound of music of the music night   they hold especially for him.

      In the last part of the book Mathew met with Flite again .  But he had to let it go back to it’s own school and to the sea where  they belong.

    

 I cannot describe the story in detail because it will make my blog so long . But I want to add that there are many scenes that tell us about the plight and dangers the sea animals are facing.

   

   I like this book very much and I also wish you like it too.    

      

N42      Books I translated   4

 

  I will dub my Blog No 1 which is about The Silk  Road  No 3 in my” Books I translated” series. So this blog is  about Dolphin’s Sunrise and it will be No 4 in this series.

    

It is written by Elizabeth Webster . I read it from the Readers Digest Condensed Book . So it is not an original , but a condensed one.

   

  The main theme of the book is animal rights (whales and dolphins ) . Our world now has become an overpopulated one and food to feed all  mouths is one problem. So men is squeezing all they can from land and sea to get food to feed all mankind. From seas and oceans men uses all kinds of vessels, machineries, and nets to catch all kinds of sea animals and even though there are rules concerning  fishing , sometimes they are violated to suit the greediness of human being.So many sea species are in danger of being extinct and some had already been extinct forever. 

   

   The hero of this book is Mathew a young boy of 15/16 . He became an orphan when fire broke out in his flat killing his mother . During this incident Matt rescued 4 small children whose parents were  at work but broke a leg and got some burns. The children’s parents were indebted to Mathew and they took him to Cornwall , a seaside place where they  were going to stay free in a caravan.

    

Mathew was a bright boy who can play the guitar well especially classics and also a whiz in computer. In Cornwall he met Skip the aqua club runner and his girl friend Petra who sometimes come to visit. He also met a lonely old man ,Captain Verney St George who owns a shipping empire and had a mysterious past.  While swimming in the sea he also met and became friends with a dolphin whom he named Flite. Matt and Flite became very much attached to each other.

     

When winter came Madge and her family and many people went back to their home. The captain also went south where there is sunshine and warmth. Before he went  Matt worked the computer for the captain at his request and they came to like each other very much.

to be continued……..

N 41 Continuation of Books I translated 2

Another issue the writers presented is about rape , where girls and women are victims. Rape is a crime against women that is happening all over the world, but where there is protection of the law, actions will be taken on behalf of the victims. But in countries where there is restlessness raping is used as a tool of war , to humiliate , to discredit the ruler of that country. The writers did research in African countries , where there have been civil wars namely East Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Darfur, Liberia and Rwanda etc. In Liberia they said 90% of girls over age 3 were raped during civil war and all were done by militias. It is not surprising because even in our country we have seen or heard these actions and some had been taken to the UN.

There also are chapters concerning womens’ health, about women suffering from fistula and not enough Doctors and hospitals to help them. And also that maternal health care is needing, for every minute one woman is dying in childbirth.

Judging from the book and from my own knowledge the most abused women in the world are muslim women. They don’t have equal rights with men. Some muslim countries like Afghanistan do not let their girls go to school, women have to cover themselves from head to toe, and when men can take as many wives as they want a woman cannot have a wrong love affair. Otherwise there are some places where they will be stoned to death, or killed by their own family which they called honour killing, because the daughter had shamed them. Some are tortured , beaten or doured with acid.

There is a chapter in the book with the title Is Islam Mysogenistic ( women hating ) I dare not translate it the direct way because they (sensor board ) will not like  the word. So I said “ Are Women Hateful only.” So you can guess what are written in that chapter which will be about those I have written earlier.

But apart from all these unpleasant things women have to face there are some chapters that gives hope for the future of women.  About how microcredit financing can help family lives become better by giving them to the women to handle the money . About how investing in girls and womens’ education can help a region’s economy become better and developed.

 Then also  there are some cases where women challenged the ready to kill rulers, rapers, pimps. For example Usha Narayan who was  not afraid of the thug who ruled the slum and  lived like a king. He and his mobsters robbed, raped, murdered and tortured . But Usha headed  a group of slum dwellers and fought and killed him in the end with one stab each. Then they confessed “We all kill him . Arrest us all . “ So no action cannot be taken on them.

See about  Sunitha Krishnan a small Indian girl, she is  also a legendary among those who are fighting human trafficking. Mukta Mai of Pakistan who used the compensation money for her being raped to build schools because she believes in education.

Edna who lives in Somalia comes from an elite family. She attended good schools and became nurse-midwife , then became Somalia’s 1^st lady. Later divorced and was recruited by W H O. She had a good life of a UN official and was posted around the world. When she retired in 1997 she sold her Mercedes and with her pensions, her savings she built a maternity hospital.

One thing that cannot be left out about the book is that it gives you information about all organizations that are helping girls and womens’ lives become better. They included the UN organizations, and many NGOs. A list is also given at the end of the book . It will be useful if someone wants to help or donate  or join in some activities.

The last thing I want to say is  that it is a good book . It  is not to enjoy but to feel. The full title of the book is Half the Sky…. How to Change the World. So after someone has read it and wants to do something to help change the world , our world will become a better place and the theme the authors had targeted will be achieved.

N40   Books I translated    2

Until now I had translated some 8 books. ( 5 published ) The 1^st book is  Quiet Skies on Salween “ as I have written. My 2^nd book is “ The Silk Road “ and I have written about it in my blog No 1. So I will not write about it again . I chose to translate “ Half the Sky “ as my 3^rd book.

This book was one of the few books I brought with me from Melbourne Australia, when I was there in 2010. I went into a bookstore to buy some but it is very hard to choose from among so many books. After looking around I finally picked up 2 books from non fictions counter. One was  “Half the Sky “  and the other “  Confessions of an Economic Hit Man “. I read them while I was still there and found out all two are good books that should be translated.

But for some reasons I started doing Half the Sky a little late, and to obtain the permit to produce it took 4 months. I even thought that it will never be permitted. The publishing process did not take much time and it went into circulation at the end of year 2011, while I was in Australia for the 2^nd time.

Half the Sky represented  women of the world, because women contributed half the population of the world. It is about some women in the world who are under previledged and does not get the same opportunity as men, women who are abused sexually and mentally, women who are treated unequally because of customs and traditions.

 When we say about abused women those who are working in the sex trade will be the most significant.  This business has flourished in some South East Asian countries where the victimized women and  girls are from underdeveloped countries such as Nepal ,Cambodia and our Myanmar. They are lured to work in brothels of Thailand , Malaysia , India etc by promise of good jobs as maids, or factory workers or some other kinds of jobs. But when they reached the cities they are forced to work as prostitutes against their will without hygienic environment or any health care. So the girls lose  their future and many lose their lives by getting AIDS.

When a girl ended in a brothel her life is as good as death. So people who knows about this thing oppose to this business and some try to help to eradicate it through music, through writings , through speeches and organizational works.  Nicholas kristof and Sheryl Wudunn’s book Half the Sky is a good example in letting people know and would like  to come to help.This has been a hot issue for many years and it is still now. Many people including celebrities are trying to help to end this modern day slavery.

Not very long ago there was a music concert held in the ground of people’s square ( Pyithu Yinbyin ) Many local singers such as R Zarni, Sai Sai Kham Hlaing, Hpyu Hpyu Kyaw Thein, Chan Chan  sang along together with foreign famous singers Jason Mraz and Slot Machine of Thailand who came with their own band . The theme of the concert is to “ Stop Human Trafficking “ including men and women  alike.

Our world is a mix place of good and bad. But there is always hope. So let us not lose hope for the world to become better.

 to be continued......

Continuation of   Books I Translated  1

Her son and daughter had seen it with their eyes only this year. While visiting Taunggyi this summer they came to know that I had translated their mother’s book and came to visit me at my house. I think they are pleased because their mother’s book has become alive again for it’s being translated into Burmese and    not forgotten at all. But they are much surprised to hear that the number published was only 1000 as the condition here  really is. The  number of book readers has dwindled and there are not many people who read books now. It is a disadvantage. However  there are much interest between Taunggyi people on the book.

I had said earlier that I translated that book  12 years  earlier. After I done it I apply to the Government to get permission to produce it . I think one staff ( a woman ) was assigned to read and give permission. After 2 or 3 months ( that is the average time it usually takes ) I got the answer that it cannot be permitted as there are Sawbwas  and so and so. I remember only about the Sawbwas. I took it that as I am not a famous author that I was denied to produce it . Even Lords of the Sunset which is all about Sawbwas  and translated by Kyaw Aung  can be done so.So even if I do some translations it is not easy to see them in printed words.

So I stay idle without doing anything. But in 2009 I want to do again and start doing The Silk Road. I produced it myself because I know it will be hard to find a producer for a not famous pen name like me.

In 2011   I produced this Quiet Skies on Salween after applying for permission the 2^nd time and also  Half the Sky. In 2012 Dolphin Sunrise.  Ban Ki Moon will be produced shortly. I don’t expect profits and it is fortunate if I get back the money I invest on them . It is only for my satisfaction and happiness and they will be left as a landmark of my life. It is like achieving something that will benefit people  and  better than doing nothing and not leaving anything behind you.

It is a regret for me  that my 1^st book was barred from printing . Otherwise how many books would I have done until now. Whether good or bad they may have exceed ten books by now.

N 38   Books I Translated     1

Let me tell you first why I come to translate  books. I don’t want to use translater because I don’t consider myself a true professional translater, but only an amateur. I started to read books from my middle school years. English and Burmese alike. So I come to like them and admire the writers who can inspire people with their writings and I also  want to be able to write like them. But to be a writer one needs to  try hard , to be zealous, to be creative,  gifted etc. I don’t have those abilities . So after retiring I try to do translating.

The first book I translated was “Quiet Skies on Salween “ I think it was about twelve years ago. It is about old Taunggyi , round about the beginning of 20^th century. The author is Ellen Thorp. She came to Taunggyi in 1906 with her father and family to live there for 16 years. Her father had come to work as a principle of the Shan Chiefs school in  Taunggyi . This school was meant to educate the sons and relatives of the Sawbwas (Chiefs ) of Shan State. So there are some parts related to the Sawbwas of that time . But not politically and only as parents and principle relationship.

The author also described her childhood days in Taunggyi, about the town , about  the school, the picnics they went and about their extensive travelling ( by bullock carts ) to Merng Kaing , to Mogok, to Inle, Loikaw etc.

So when we read this book we come to know much about Taunggyi and the lives of people  of those days and gain much regional knowledge concerning some parts of the Shan State. There  are also some remarkable things to note too but I will not relate them now.

The name “Quiet Skies on Salween” is meant for Taunggyi of that time. Because in the 1930s motor cars had started to arrive and with the coming of the 2^nd World  War the sound of trucks and tanks and artilleries will also be penetrating into the once calm and tranquil skies of the Shan State.

The author  forsee it and she was worried and wrote about what is going to happen in the future. But what will she say if she is to see Taunggyi as it is now.

to be continued.....