Insight Myanmar

Episode #188: Min Ma Naing, a photojournalist and narrative visual artist, stumbled onto her path accidentally. While studying in Hong Kong, she often went to a park to take a break from the strain, where her innocent smiles were misconstrued by men. To deter unwanted advances, she carried a camera, igniting a passion for photography.After attending an intensive international reporting training, she ventured to Meiktila, a town marred by religious tensions. In contrast to the media’s usual focus on the negative, she wanted to find positive stories to cover, and after further media training, she returned to Meiktila to do just that.Employed by The Myanmar Times, disillusionment set in, not only with the media’s focus on the negative angle of stories, but also gender bias in the newsroom. So she began to explore the field of documentary photography.Min Ma Naing ended up spending extended time living in Bangladesh, where she very much felt like an outsider. So when she ended up serendipitously meeting some Somali exiles there, she realized they both shared the experience of being outsiders. This led to a project she called “Jigsaw,” which shared many diverse, individual stories of displacement.Her portfolio then expanded to encompass diverse topics, including nunnery life and human trafficking, as well as more personal stories, such as one project exploring a failed relationship. But the military coup in February, 2021, dramatically shifted her focus. Through film photography, she captured the diverse perspectives of those opposing the coup. Her stories explored the individual experiences of ordinary people because it was, after all, a people’s revolution.The coup upended her life, and after surviving some close calls as a protester, she realized that the military would be coming for her sooner or later. She finally fled the country, with her family’s blessing, although her sister remains in prison to this day.Now in living in safety, her art has become a double-edged sword, reminding her of her privilege in being in a place of safety and escaping arrest. Seeking healing, she began to chronicle her emotions in visual diaries on the advice of a therapist, which later transformed into poignant handmade books that help her bridge the emotional chasm caused by her exile and love of her country.Min Ma Naing continues today to give a voice to her country’s vulnerable population who are struggling to be heard. Yet, she notes, “I don't like the term like a voiceless. We were not able to hear it, but they have their voice, and we [just] fail to hear it.”

Episode #187: Guillaume de Langre, a former adviser to the Myanmar Ministry of Electricity and Energy, paints a bleak picture of the country’s multiple, overlapping, energy crises. He describes how the junta's inadequate governance and years of mismanagement under past military regimes have exacerbated the situation. Today, power cuts are becoming more frequent, causing the spoilage of food and vaccines, business closures, and postponed surgeries, among many other disruptions.De Langre points out that approximately 50% of Myanmar's power comes from gas they produce, but a resource expected to run out by 2030. this poses a critical challenge for the country's economy. Importing gas or transitioning to alternative energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower requires significant investment and time, both of which the current regime lacks. Foreign investor trust eroded after the coup, leaving energy projects abandoned. De Langre underscores the dire, society-wide consequences of failing to address the energy crisis.De Langre notes that the military's primary interest is in securing foreign currency and funding, rather than developing energy for the people’s benefit. As a way out of the current energy crisis, and to build a better future, he suggests a transition to solar and wind energy along with hydroelectricity, coupled with rebuilding investor trust. However, the military's history of neglect hinders any possibility of progress in this area. Still, De Langre envisions a possible silver lining in this challenging period – an opportunity to reimagine a decentralized, renewable, power grid. But this would take an awareness and a shift in the current authorities’ priorities, something not likely to happen.In closing, de Langre highlights the economic aspect of Myanmar's tragedy, which is often overlooked in light of the many other atrocities continuing to take place. “It is a massive opportunity cost for the development of regional unity and stability! It is a massive opportunity costs for keeping that qualified labor in Myanmar… that’s really critical to the economic freedom of people of households of individuals of businesses.”

Episode #186: “The term ‘double minority’ simply means a ‘minority within minority,’” Christopher Win explains. “Rakhine is an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, and Maramagyi is an even smaller group than the Rohingya! I'm from that small minority group, and I work as an ethnic rights activist.”The Maramagyi have faced discrimination and marginalization from the larger Rakhine and Rohingya communities, as well as severe restrictions placed on them from the Burmese state. Despite these challenges, Christopher has been involved in activism, documenting human rights violations and collaborating with organizations such as the UN Human Rights Office.He views the issues faced by the Maramagyi as part of an "ethnically patriarchal system," where dominant ethnic groups oppress smaller ones. Christopher believes that smaller ethnic groups should unite to amplify their voices and push for their rights through a new federal charter, rather than narrowly seeking freedoms for their own groups alone.The military coup in Myanmar has brought greater awareness to the ethnic struggles that were previously ignored or misunderstood by the majority Bamar population. Christopher sees a positive shift in the Bamar perspective, as they now recognize the importance of federalism and respect for ethnic diversity.Christopher was politically active after the coup, which put him in the crosshairs of the dreaded Special Branch. So he had to make his escape, and eventually found his way to Washington, DC. Here, he joined the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, a group working towards a unified resistance against dictatorship and advocating for the rights of Myanmar's diverse ethnic groups.“We’re making especially Bamar people understand that Myanmar is extremely diverse country and our rights have long been violated. We're experiencing all these atrocious acts every day, but since people of Myanmar are determined, and they are on the right path, I am hopeful that we will win eventually, because we never had this sort of momentum in the past!”

Episode #185: Alan Clements returns to the podcast, this time to talk about his recent book, Burma’s Voices of Freedom in Conversation with Alan Clements: An Ongoing Struggle for Democracy, a four-volume opus consisting of his interviews with “dozens of the country’s most respected and well-known politicians, pro-democracy activists, artists and religious leaders from Burma’s democracy movements” since the 1988 uprising.  Clements first addresses concerns about Aung Sang Suu Kyi, devoting the book’s first volume to her. He sets it up as one long interview, writing simple questions that she “answers” with selected verbatim quotes. Clements claims that her actual words disprove many of the narratives that have arisen about her since the Rohingya crisis. He insists that her actual words demonstrate that she in fact was not an apologist for the military’s genocidal actions against the Rohingya. The next part of the book is an interview Clements conducted with Fergus Harlow, who he believes to be one of the leading experts in fascism, totalitarianism indoctrination and related subjects. The third part of the book is a letter Clements wrote to General Min Aung Hlaing, requesting permission to come to Nay Pyi Daw to interview him. His outreach is based on the themes of shame and redemption in the Angulimala Sutta and the life of King Ashoka. The fourth section of the book is what Clements calls a “brilliant” letter written by a very prominent (as yet unnamed) Tibetan Buddhist teacher, addressed to Aung Sang Suu Kyi, that explains how the world got the Rohingya crisis wrong. The final part of the book summarizes important events of the past few years in Myanmar. Finally, the conversation turns to Clements’ defense of the use of violence in self-defense in the appropriate circumstances, which applies to those now in the resistance movement in Burma. While he still believes in an emphasis on reconciliation, he also thinks that pragmatically, people should have the right to choose how to defend themselves. 

Episode #184: One of six siblings, Tu Lor Eh Paw grew up in a bamboo hut in a tiny village in Karen state. Her mother was a local Karen Christian missionary, and Tu Lor grew up celebrating Christian holidays and basing her ethics and values on Christian teachings.When Tu Lor was just a child, her mother unfortunately passed away, and her father made the difficult decision to move most of the family to a refugee camp. He felt he just couldn’t support the entire family in the village anymore, and there was a constant fear of the military.After two years in a Thai refugee camp, the family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Arriving in the thick of winter, her first thought was, “Hey, what’s all this white stuff?!” They did not have the right clothing for that climate, knew few people there, and couldn’t speak any English. Her siblings ended up going to different schools.Fortunately, Minneapolis boasts a sizeable Karen community, which Tu Lor quickly integrated into. Tu Lor has since made the most of her new life in the United States, but she can’t help but feel a sense of guilt when thinking of her remaining family back home. She is constantly thinking of what she can do in the United States that will help those back home, which is a challenge with the conflict continuing to rage.While Tu Lor is hopeful about the democracy movement in Myanmar, she is tired by the ongoing stress and trauma, tired of the international community barely paying attention or providing support, and tired of hearing about yet more airstrikes around her home village. “But I am hopeful that we're finally going to get the freedom that we want.”

Episode #183: Sebastian Copija began his journey amid the mesmerizing mountains and bountiful nature of his southern Poland home. Through the years, he developed a strong interest in American and British music, especially heavy metal, yet there was also always the deep yearning for living a life of simplicity.Fueled by an insatiable thirst for understanding consciousness, Sebastian delved into an array of wisdom, exploring Zen, Thich Nhat Hanh's writings, and NLP.  And his encounter with an old pianist revealed the power of pure, open-hearted expression. However, Sebastian realized that the old musician’s joy was just tied to playing music, and Sebastian was looking for something more profound and lasting.Sebastian started working at IBM, but left after a year to teach English in Thailand. Immersed in Thai culture, he found himself drawn to monastic life; he took robes, and was given the name Pabhassaro Bhikkhu. He embraced meditation and immersed himself in Buddhist traditions, with one foot in the Thai Forest Tradition and the other in the structured meditation of the Mahasi tradition.“If that intention is very clear, if we know that we are practicing the path of renunciation… then those are tools to support, and to bring nutriment to the heart. That has been the most important shift in my way to see the practice, [not] trying to see which is better, which is worse, but how to really see oneself as a monastic, a son of the Buddha, and to see one's teacher as the Buddha….”Pabhassaro Bhikkhu has since disrobed, and is Sebastian again, living back in his native country. His quest for inner freedom and unconditioned joy remains steadfast, illuminating the path for all who seek true fulfillment.

Episode #182: “If you're a millionaire, or a billionaire, you want the best,” says Timo Schober, a German-based journalist who works at Papertrail Media, “and the best is natural grown teak [from Myanmar]...And that's what is driving the demand.”Schober joins the conversation along with Shirsho Dasgupta, an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. They talk about the decimation of Burma’s once vast forest lands which started during colonial times, and today is just 40% of what it once was.After the military coup in 2021, the US imposed sanctions on Myanmar Timber Enterprises (MTE), a military-linked corporation controlling the teak trade. Following a leak from Myanmar’s tax department, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) collaborated with 39 media outlets to investigate teak exports and potential sanctions evasion, and their work is the subject of this episode.The international demand for high-quality teak remains strong, particularly among the ultra-rich. At least $400 million worth of teak has been exported since the coup, mainly to European and American markets.Traders argue that they don't buy directly from MTE but through private companies, and therefore their teak trade is legal. This creates complexities for customs officers in enforcing sanctions. Additionally, others believe their actions are legal as they bought teak before the sanctions, though officials state that the date of purchase does not exempt them.At the end of the day, Dasgupta reminds listeners that it comes back to finding a way to speak directly to the consumer about this murky business, as a way to discourage any involvement in teak. “A lot of luxury products that we covered, they do lead to conflict and the destruction of the environment, and we should keep in mind that even if we're not buying teak, we might be complicit in in other ways when we buy

Episode #181: “I was walking into a country that was in the middle of significant change,” states Scot Marciel, the US Ambassador to Myanmar from 2016 to 2020.One of the first challenges Marciel faced was the role of sanctions. While initially imposed to pressure the regime, he found they had limited effectiveness, and argues that the policy, long driven by a justifiable anger towards the junta’s brutality, ultimately hindered analytical thinking about more helpful approaches. “You can’t wait until it’s Norway or Switzerland to act, you’ve got to come in and try to do what you can to support and encourage more change! And so I think it was the right move [to remove all sanctions]… if you want to have influence at all, you got to be there.”The Rohingya crisis was the most challenging issue that Marciel faced in his entire diplomatic career, as the military perpetrated violence so extreme it was later determined to be a genocide. Despite international pressure, the Myanmar government denied the atrocities, and it was difficult to get access to even basic facts. “Thant Myint U wrote at some point that you can't fix Rakhine if you don't fix Myanmar,” he recalls. “I took that to heart, and so that's what we tried to do. But it was a struggle. It was a lot of anguish, and not everybody agreed, and there weren't any great options.”Regarding the current situation in Myanmar, Marciel believes engagement with the military junta is unproductive. Instead, he suggests supporting local governance, public services, and the resistance elements opposing the junta. He is cautious about providing lethal weapons to resistance groups due to potential logistical challenges and the risk of escalating conflict with China's involvement.“First and foremost, I think 80 to 90% of whatever happens is going to be decided within the country by people of Myanmar, and that's just a reality,” he says in closing, adding that there are also ways the international community can help.

The host and founder of Insight Myanmar was interviewed by the podcast, "Uncensored: Women of the World."

Episode #180: Immediately following the military coup, Trish, participated in the nonviolent demonstrations by cooking and serving food to protesters. Soon, however, she became a target of the military, so she relocated to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where she continues to cook and raise awareness about the situation in Myanmar.Not satisfied limiting her cooking to Bamar dishes, Trish delved into researching and showcasing recipes from Myanmar's diverse ethnic and religious minorities. Inspired by a “Chef’s Table” episode about safeguarding traditional recipes as a means of preserving culture and history in Mexico, Trish sought to bring the same spirit to her own work. And by exploring traditional recipes and techniques, she discovered the importance of fermentation in Burmese cuisine and its role in ensuring food preservation in a tropical climate.After matriculating at a French culinary school, she tried to elevate Burmese cuisine with French influences, but realized the effort ended up erasing the authenticity and devaluing the culture she sought to promote.  More recently, Trish established “Bamama Cooks,” a platform that initially focused on creating food content but has expanded into community building and product-based ventures. By employing displaced Burmese individuals, including those affected by the coup, Trish aims to provide a sense of stability and purpose during a time of great uncertainty. Earlier this year, she organized the "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" event, combining music, art, and food to demonstrate resilience and continue living despite the military's attempts to suppress lives and identities.Like many journeys, Trish’s culinary voyage has landed her back to where she started. Today, she continues to contemplate the deeper meaning behind not only the food of her homeland, but also what it represents. “I had to ask myself, as a Burmese person, what is the essence of Burmese food? And that was just bringing people together and having that community vibe.”

Episode #179: Deputy Chief Inspector Lu Fei, the Chinese protagonist of author Brian Klingborg's thriller series, represents an archetype often seen in fictional detectives—an honest officer seeking justice in an unjust society. The series, set in the Chinese city of Harbin, near the Russian border, aims to entertain readers while also shedding light on various aspects of modern Chinese society. Klingborg, drawing on his background in East Asian Studies and his experiences abroad, wanted to create a Chinese character relatable to foreign audiences while staying true to his cultural roots.In the second book of the series, "Wild Prey," Klingborg explores Chinese connections with post-coup Myanmar. The plotline balances such disparate subjects as the COVID-19 pandemic and illegal animal trafficking trade between China and the ethnic regions of Myanmar.Klingborg's research involved studying real-life drug lords, as well as historical figures like the female warlord, Olive Yang, who inspired him to create a layered, female warlord character who challenges gender roles. He emphasizes the importance of developing well-rounded characters, even the villains, with motivations that extend beyond a simple dichotomy of good and evil.Klingborg mentions that while the average Chinese citizen may not think much about Myanmar, there are parts of the country which attract a certain Chinese clientele. He highlights Mongla, the infamous border town, which is offered compared to Las Vegas or Tijuana. “Busloads of Chinese tourists, mostly men, would go down there and… drink tigerbone wine, gamble, and pick up prostitutes, basically,” he notes. He adds that a wide variety of animal products are available there, like ivory, as well as all kinds of exotic food that isn’t legally allowed to be eaten in China.Circling back to the current conflict since the military coup, Klingborg notes in closing how “Myanmar is a fascinating place with tragic history. We all hope that things can change sometime in the near future.

Episode #178: Step into the hidden world of Burmese small arms, where intrigue, danger, and geopolitical secrets intertwine. Miles Vining, a former US Marine and member of the Free Burma Rangers, recounts how his obsession with digital weapons in video games led him to start documenting real-life firearms in Myanmar.Miles discovered a vast array of small arms sourced from unlikely corners of the globe. He describes the refurbishment and resourcefulness that keeps Burmese weaponry operational long after it was decommissioned elsewhere, as well as the intricate web of foreign influences and local production that shape the small arms landscape, and his work in unmasking the deeper political alliances they represent.But Burmese small arms are not merely tools of war; they symbolize a nation's struggle for freedom, too. Miles describes the blurred lines between suppliers and fighters, along with corrupt commanders secretly supporting those they oppose.“Diving into small arms research in Burma, you can go down some of the most amazing and fantastic rabbit holes and relationships and geopolitics and then who double crossed who and backtrack to where things are getting made and what secret deals were going on,” he says. “The whole shebang is there! But it's untouched, and nobody's interested in it, because it's the dark hole that Burma is, so it’s no surprise there. It's like the world doesn't care about Burma yet again!”

Episode #177: In the captivating story of Sunda Khin, we delve into a world filled with remarkable individuals who left an indelible mark on Burma's history. Sunda Khin's father, U Chan Htoon, the esteemed first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Burma, played a pivotal role in shaping the nation's destiny.Growing up as part of an elite family, Sunda Khin encountered influential figures such as Aung San, the nation's first post-independence leader, and his wife, Daw Khin Kyi. She also had personal connections to Ne Win, the military dictator responsible for the 1962 coup, and Louisa Bensen, a movie star turned rebel leader. Sunda Khin's father shared a close friendship with U Nu, a devout meditation practitioner who found himself leading a country in turmoil.Amidst these historical events, Sunda Khin's family had unique experiences with renowned personalities worldwide. They received formal invitations from Lord Mountbatten in London, interacted with visiting dignitaries, and even became guests of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, despite historical tensions between their nations. U Chan Htoon's pursuit of Buddhist wisdom led him to connect with Buddhist monks and scholars across Asia, fostering a broader understanding of the religion.One of U Chan Htoon’s most significant friendships was with the young Indian businessman, S.N. Goenka, who suffered from debilitating migraines, and was afraid he would become addicted to morphine. U Chan Htoon strongly suggested that Goenka take a meditation course with Sayagyi U Ba Khin to help overcome his affliction. This encounter would later inspire Goenka to spread the practice of Vipassana meditation worldwide, impacting countless lives.

Episode #176: Jonathan Crowley's journey into meditation at Dhamma Dhara was both fascinating and fulfilling. As he immersed himself in vipassana meditation in the tradition of S.N. Goenka, he discovered a deeper understanding of the practice, and himself, along with the joy of serving as a volunteer. However, learning how to integrate his newfound wisdom into everyday life posed challenges, compounded by the fact that at this time in the 1980s, meditation was still considered fringe and largely outside the bounds of conventional society.Still, Jonathan pondered how vipassana meditation could impact society and bridge the worlds of introspection and social change. Around this time, the center was organizing courses for traumatized Cambodian refugees who had escaped the Pol Pot regime and were being relocated in Massachusetts. While these initiatives brought the world to the center, Jonathan still yearned to find a way to bring the center into the world.An opportunity arose when he accompanied Bruce Stewart, a senior teacher, to a maximum-security prison in Alabama, where they were allowed to conduct an intensive meditation course for inmates. While it was a transformative experience at the time, later Jonathan would reflect upon his racial naiveté and how he had positioned himself into a role as a “White savior.”Increasingly concerned about the lack of diversity within the organization's leadership, Jonathan advocated for targeted courses for Black communities and tracking retention rates by demographics, but the center showed little interest.Earlier in his practice, Jonathan had been deeply moved by how Goenka attempted to universalize the technique, proclaiming that “breath is breath,” and explaining that it couldn’t be differentiated according to nationality, religion or skin color. But Jonathan was beginning to see that there was more to this story than this universalist-sounding messaging. “I understand structural racism as intergenerational trauma,” he notes. “So now, I would say that even our breaths and our sensations are conditioned by this level of trauma, and that has to be addressed.”

Episode #175: Long before it was commonplace in America, Jonathan Crowley’s parents were keen on exploring Eastern philosophy. As for Jonathan, his first exposure to meditation began with a four-day silent retreat led by Larry Rosenberg at IMS. Seeking a deeper experience, he attended a ten-day course at a vipassana meditation center in the S.N. Goenka tradition. The course proved to be incredibly challenging, both physically and mentally.After taking a second course, Jonathan gained a better understanding of Goenka's teachings, and left him with a lasting experience of mettā (loving-kindness). This newfound understanding also inspired him to look at how to integrate meditation into everyday life.Still, Jonathan struggled to reconcile these realizations with conventional expectations and societal pressures. He found inspiration from books on renunciation and sought simpler lifestyles, which eventually led to applying for the sit-and-serve program at Dhamma Dhara.At this point, Jonathan faced a choice between joining the center or pursuing an intensive theater program. Ultimately, he chose the path of Dhamma, immersing himself in the vipassana community around western Massachusetts. His time spent with fellow students, servers, and teachers deeply influenced him, and is explored further in Part 2 of the conversation.“I was getting to know that world,” Jonathan recalls. “And that period of time certainly had a very deeply conditioned experience on me.”

Episode #174: Jack Myint’s story begins with his attempts to learn English, which was no easy feat coming from a lower middle-class background, and in a country that had intentionally restricted English language instruction. Early on, he relied on the phrases his father taught him during taxi rides and recited them phonetically to foreign tourists at Shwedagon Pagoda, even though he didn't fully understand their meaning.As Jack's language skills improved, his parents managed to find English CDs and videotapes, and his remarkable journey of becoming self-taught before he was seven years old eventually caught the attention of famed author, Ma Thanegi, at The Myanmar Times. But even at that young age, Jack had to come to terms the harsh reality of living under a military dictatorship, as his lack of freedoms and need for self-censorship became evident.Jack's insatiable thirst for knowledge later found solace at the American Center, where he immersed himself in literature and political speeches—George Orwell and Bill Clinton were his favorites, respectively. Other impactful lessons came from his tutelage at the foot of Shwe Nya Nwar Sayadaw, who taught him about the struggle against military governance and the complexities of monastic politics.Jack came to recognize how the military was exploiting Buddhism by using nationalist rhetoric to co-opt monks as messengers of their propaganda. The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment and the military's effective use of social media, particularly Facebook, further divided the country.During Myanmar's transition period, Jack witnessed the hunger for a better life among the people. However, economic growth seemed to bypass many Bamar Buddhists, leading to a resurgence of racial and religious identity, which played into the military's hands.

Episode #173: Historian Robert Lyman takes listeners on a captivating journey through the little-known Burma Front of World War II. Lyman's 35 years of research and his fascination with the ethnic hill tribes, particularly the Naga, come together in his book, Among The Headhunters, which serves as the focal point of this conversation.Lyman unveils the intricate details surrounding a remarkable story: an American C-47 plane crashes in the Naga Hills, triggering a race to rescue the survivors. The backdrop to this adventure is the Japanese invasion of Burma and their successful blockade of the Burma Road. The Americans needed to do all they could to keep China in the war, in order to keep Japan tied down there, and away from the fighting in other parts of the Pacific.Lyman describes how Roosevelt eventually approved the audacious logistical undertaking of transport planes navigating the treacherous Himalayas as a way to keep Chinese troops supplied. Pilots braved perilous flights without oxygen, facing towering peaks and Japanese adversaries. Lyman also introduces us to the rich tapestry of the Naga people— some of whom were headhunters and slave owners— and describes their ongoing conflicts with the British Empire as it expanded into their region.The narrative returns to the plane crash, where the survivors find themselves in the Naga village of Pangsha. Lyman talks about the initial amazement of the villagers toward the strange visitors, emphasizing the cultural disorientation experienced by both sides. He highlights the benevolence shown by the Naga people, sheltering the survivors and enabling their communication and eventual rescue.Lyman concludes by reflecting on the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, attributing it to flawed colonial mapping and the lack of effort on the part of the Burmese military to establish a unified nation for the diverse hill tribes. He underscores the importance of creating structures and processes to foster peace and urges Myanmar's government to adopt a more inclusive approach.“The really tragic thing about Myanmar is that the government doesn't seem to understand that every time they use violence, they simply create more warriors. They're not doing anything to create a long peace!” Lyman says in conclusion.

Episode #172: In 2021, Jake Snyder embarked on a journey from Kansas to Missouri, unknowingly setting the stage for a life-altering encounter. As he tuned into an episode of the Insight Myanmar Podcast during his drive, the guest’s voice captivated him. Her name was Thiri, and her vulnerability and vivid portrayal of the challenges she faced drew Jake into her world. Inspired by her openness, he felt compelled to support her cause, and decided to offer recurring donations to her work that have now stretched over two years. Jake's firm decision to “show up” in this way was rooted in his own experiences of transformation, as he himself had successfully come out of a devastating heroin addiction.Thiri, moved by the degree of Jake’s support, reached out to Insight Myanmar with an idea: to bring Jake and herself together for a podcast episode. She wanted to shed light on the power of one person's actions and inspire others amid the darkness that plagued Myanmar.Thiri recognized that Jake's support went beyond financial contributions; it represented a willingness to stand with those in despair. Living in a country where their plight was often overlooked by the international media, Thiri felt isolated and unseen. However, these donations became a beacon of hope, reminding her that they were not alone.“I share about you to other friends as well,” Thiri relates, addressing Jake. “‘Hey, I have this friend. I have never seen him, but he's been supporting me!’ Some of my friends have even heard of your name. And even though they don't know who you are, you are now known among us. We're like, ‘Oh, we have that friend! Jake, somewhere in the US. I talked to my mom and my mom's like, ‘Oh, such a great human being! Can you give thanks to him?’”

Episode #171: Tempel Smith, a meditation teacher who is also an active, committed social activist, is used to finding a balance among differing perspectives, points of view and ideologies. This can be traced back to his childhood, with two very different parents with two very different world outlooks.Tempel went to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he began volunteering to support environmental conservation, and after a nearby abortion center was bombed, he took up that cause as well. Eventually he traveled down to Nevada to join a large protest at a nuclear site, which turned violent. It caused him to start questioning how he was processing it all. “I'm so angry at the way things are, and I'm so impatient. I'm trying to be peaceful, but it's all I can do is stop myself from reacting!”Through the behavior modeled by other committed activists, however, he eventually realized his path was that of peaceful engagement. The question was how to pursue it. By then he knew that academic study could not provide any of the answers he was looking for. On a visit home, a neighbor told him about a recent course he had taken at the nearby Insight Meditation Society, and so Tempel signed up for a nine-day silent course.It was very impactful experience for him. A year later he headed back to another retreat, and he knew by then he had found his practice. Tempel began to do more intensive retreats, joining courses in the Mahasi and Goenka traditions.But now the danger was that he was becoming a “retreat dweller;” moving on from one intensive experience to the other while getting further and further away from the past social engagement that was once so important to him. And once again, he felt in a tense limbo between two very divergent communities: while his yogi friends found his activism a distraction from the real work of insight, his activist friends dismissed meditation as a selfish pursuit. He eventually found inspiration about how to reconcile all this in the writings of the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. To go deeper into the practice, he decided to visit Myanmar to practice under Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw.

Episode #170: May Wynn Maung is a well-known Burmese actress that now lives in the United States. Her father was a long-time Army officer who also worked in the government. His maxim was the importance of doing one’s duty, to do as one was told without question regardless of how one felt personally about it.This outlook bound the way she lived in Myanmar, through protests and during her acting career. But little by little, censorship decisions about movies she acted in became increasingly ludicrous. It wasn’t until she came to the United States where she “found her voice,” as it were. Now, she speaks out against the military and does fundraising for the democracy movement, and still acts as well. She also has continued a vipassana practice. In speaking of this, she references famous monks in Myanmar who seem to be teaching that people should just accept military rule, which she finds disheartening. Because of all the hardships the people of Myanmar are facing, she strongly feels that monastics should be involved in the movement for freedom and democracy.

Episode #169: Today’s discussion looks at the Burmese military’s on-going, devastating airstrikes from a slightly different angle: What helps the jets get in the sir? Amnesty International’s Montse Ferrer joins us to explain the process of how jet fuel gets into the country.Myanmar does not have the technology to refine crude oil into international grade aviation fuel, so the military needs to import it. It uses a grade of fuel that is typically meant for commercial aviation so it can be freely traded. Ferrer and her colleagues tracked every shipment of jet fuel that has arrived following the coup, and found that all of them arrived at the Thilawa Port in Than Lyin outside of Yangon, in a process that might involve 20 different oil companies in a single shipment, and with insurance and ship ownership factored in, involving as many as 100 entities overall.Out of all these players, Trafigura, one of the world’s largest independent oil and petroleum products traders, is the major figure. They benefited from an exclusive contract some years ago to build up Myanmar’s ports infrastructure, including Thilawa. The fuel is transported from the port by one of Trafigura’s affiliates…which is linked to the military regime.Cutting off Myanmar’s fuel imports would cripple the country’s non-military air traffic. For their part, energy company executives claim they are selling their product legally, and have no prior knowledge of, and certainly no control over, the military’s decisions about using the fuel. However, Ferrer believes that oil company executives probably do know what is happening, at least to some degree. But suspecting something to be true and proving it in a court of law are two different things. Sanctions are also always a discussion point, but need to be evaluated very carefully by the international community as to their possible “unintended consequences.”Ferrer does note that, amazingly, most of the companies named in their recent report have not taken part in further shipments of jet fuel to Myanmar. Yet she can’t conclusively affirm that any less jet fuel is entering the country, either. And given the large stockpiles of fuel that the military likely has access to, one can’t even speculate that their ability to launch airstrikes has decreased in any appreciable way.

Episode #168: Shade’s story is a kind of microcosm of how thousands of Burmese and foreign allies have involved themselves in ways they could scarcely have imagined before 2021, while also shining a light on the many members of the Burmese diaspora who have been using their freedom and safety to do whatever they can for those struggling back in Myanmar. “We have to play our parts and do whatever we can. It may be small. It could be very small. But just doing anything that you can to stand up against a coup, I think that's the most important thing,” he says.Shade describes how hard the Sagaing region, in particular, has been hit by the military’s aggression, and how people there continue to bravely resist military rule. This, in turn, has provoked the military into trying to beat them even more brutally into submission. Shade soon realized that providing emergency medical care was one of Sagaing’s most critical needs, but he had no experience or knowledge in this field, let alone the logistics of providing care in a hot conflict zone. So he immersed himself in learning all he could to get his mission up and running as soon as possible, and with friends, founded the organization Healing Hands. Their initiative now administers local training courses that cover basic medical care and first aid—to date, 150 people have graduated their program! They also worked to establish and stock basic medical stations throughout the region that are overseen by these graduates.The military demands that humanitarian aid coming into the country needs to be administered through them directly, and they will only support local organizations officially registered with their regime. This situation has caused much debate among large aid organizations, who typically take a cookie-cutter approach. However, Shade strongly advocates that local organizations with a proven track record of on-the-ground success within Myanmar’s unique context, and not tied to the military, be supported."If [these large aid organizations] try to give aid money via the military, they're going to use it to buy weapons! That's the reality. That's what they have to face if they try if they're trying to deliver any sort of aid to the military, and if think that's going to be effective, they're deluded!”

Episode #167: Steve Smith’s first meditation teacher was Mahasi Sayadaw. He visited the Sayadaw’s rural Seikkhun monastery back in 1977. Steve was moved by how the great teacher embodied centuries of monastic wisdom and discipline, while at the same time making great strides to spread the teachings beyond the monastic order—an unprecedented act at that time. “The feeling around him was vastness and void. This radiating presence and emptiness at the same time. It was indescribable, but very powerful, kind of a goosebump energy.”Several years later, the country started allowing longer stays for foreign meditators, and Steve went to Bodghaya to undertake lower ordination under the renowned teacher, Taungpulu Sayadaw, before becoming a full bhikkhu under Mahasi Sayadaw. “He was just as I remembered him, this incredible presence, sense of vastness and yet transparent personality, like no sense of self-centeredness or self-importance or anything but this pure transmission of these liberating teachings.”After a brief trip home, Steve returned to ordain under Sayadaw U Pandita, whom he had been drawn to from their first meeting. Although U Pandita didn’t teach many foreigners at that time, he dedicated himself to Steve’s training, and the results were profound. “I felt like there was nothing he couldn't see about me.... I trusted this person quite quickly, more than I had ever trusted anyone in my life.”Beyond U Pandita’s powerful meditation guidance, Steve also gained inspiration by observing the Sayadaw’s interactions in society. Steve relates such an example, when U Pandita turned his back to Khin Nyunt, the dreaded chief of military intelligence, when the latter was trying to offer him requisites.U Pandita was also Aung San Suu Kyi’s primary meditation guide. Since they shared the same teacher, Steve developed a close friendship with her and her family. But because of this friendship, the military had blacklisted Steve from returning to the country for many years.However, when Sayadaw U Pandita passed away in 2016, Steve was allowed to join a small handful of foreign disciples who traveled to Yangon for the ceremony.The gifts of Myanmar have filled Steve’s life in ways he never would have anticipated. “I think Burma's great gift to the world has been the Dhamma, either directly through these ordained monastics, or in the way it's influenced nearby Southeast Asian countries. It's inspired this Western surge of interest in Dhamma practice and training.”

Episode #166: Han Gyi, a coordinator at the Network for Human Rights Documentation, also known as ND-Burma, joins us today to talk about the organization’s work, which focuses on human rights documentation; accountability and the utilization of data to seek justice, truth, and reparations.ND-Burma’s work emphasizes what is called “transitional justice,” which Han Gyi c defines as the “myriad of ways a country tries to deal with mass human rights violations that have been committed on its soil. It aims to deliver justice to the victims through accountability and redress, which in turn can contribute to building a society that respects the rule of law and guards against the same abuses happening again.” One key aspect of transitional justice is reparations. Interestingly, he notes how just “symbolic satisfaction” can often a critical step for victims in healing psychological wounds and for rebuilding their lives. Victims also routinely express a wish to receive a guarantee that such violations will not occur again. But Han Gyi notes that ensuring non-recurrence is only possible through institutional reform, which has proven impossible for decades in Myanmar, and is certainly not a likelihood now. Han Gyi sadly acknowledges that following the coup, the domestic judicial system has become completely unreliable, used subject to the whims of the military regime. As a result, ND-Burma has sought to work for international accountability, such as taking violations to the International Criminal Court. Still, rights violations will only continue to occur if there are no changes to the system. Although transitional justice remains an urgent priority for the country, Han Gyi says that there first must be an end to violence. The establishment of military rule has led to a “collapse of sociopolitical economic rights, numerous violations by junta troops, the killing, detainment, and arrest of thousands of civilians, and millions of people internally displaced due in part due to the destruction and arson of civilian structures.”

Episode #165: Toe Zaw Latt, a journalist currently with Mizzima talks with us about access to communications in Myanmar.Before the arrival of mobile phones and internet in the country, one of the few options for communication was the telephone, when whole apartment complexes or entire villages might have to make do with only one or two. A private phone line was usually possible just for senior military figures or their cronies. Because the military actively monitored phone use, the Burmese teashop took on an outsized role as a workaround communications hub.The internet arrived in Myanmar in the early 2000s, and within a decade, the Burmese online space had exploded to about 30 million users. General Min Aung Hlaing understood the danger that such free access to information posed to his plans to take over the country, and on the morning of the coup, he suddenly closed down all the country’s mobile networks and blocked the signals of independent media. The military has tried to monitor communications as much as possible, putting up firewalls to prevent access to sites they consider dangerous or provocative.They also employ rolling blackouts that severely restrict access to news, coupled with massive, targeted disinformation campaigns to further confuse people. Activists have had to fall back on more old-fashioned strategies such as shortwave radio, as well as human carriers.Toe Zaw Latt believes there is one communication tool that would have a dramatic impact on the fortunes of the democracy movement: Starlink, the satellite internet technology developed by Elon Musk. The military would have no control over this network, so Starlink would truly be a game-changer: communities could be warned before violent military assault, it could also help in organizing humanitarian missions on the ground, and provide life-saving access to medicine and food.Finally, Toe Zaw Latt says that the Tatmadaw is most afraid of its own soldiers getting access to the internet. Getting uncensored information is the impetus for many defections. So providing internet to those still serving could open the floodgates of soldiers ready to put down their weapons.

Episode #164: Yunanda Wilson has warm memories not only of the scrumptious fish noodle dish—known as mohinga—that her grandmother was famous for, but also its place in her family history. Her grandmother was an amazing cook and ran a market stall in Yangon that sold a variety of snacks, and the whole family would go each morning to help her run it.Yunanda is following in her grandmother’s footsteps, recently launching a career for herself in Asheville, North Carolina, to showcase Burmese cuisine. Calling her company A Thoke Lay, she has a food truck and also caters events, with dreams of one day owning a brick and mortar.Historically, she goes on to explains how Chinese, Indian, and Thai foods have found their way into Burmese recipes, ultimately describing Burmese cuisine as a kind of Southeast Asia fusion, albeit with a handful of unique dishes like mohinga, fermented tea leaves, and the variety of salads. She describes it as a creative cuisine that balances heat, acid, texture, umami, color, and presentation.Yunanda also notes how for many Burmese, the realities of poverty and living in fear of the military play a role in how people eat. For example, when the Burmese can’t afford meat or fish, they improvise by adding protein such as chickpea flour, beans, and nuts. And although one might think that living in a state of fear and poverty would bring about greater selfishness in order to survive, Yunanda says it is the exact opposite, as the Burmese people are some of the most generous people in the world.In closing, Yunanda describes how she wants to “help spread awareness about what's going on in our country, and shed some light on our resilience culture and what are we facing now. I feel this is my way, my path, to helping it

Episode #163: Jack Jenkins Hill, a PhD student at the University College London, joins the show to discuss the state of capitalism and the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. Hill has spent the last decade studying such issues as deforestation, mining, and natural resource governance, as well as how indigenous communities have been impacted in Myanmar.Since the colonial era, Burma has had a sorry history of exploitation of its natural resources. The British engaged in massive logging, while in the last decade, deforestation has largely come in the guise of agribusiness, such as palm oil and rubber plantations. There are also smaller, illegal logging operations whose lumber is smuggled across the border. The widespread clear-cutting—both legal and illegal—has led mass displacement of communities.Gold, silver, tin and jade mining operations are also rampant, and more recently rare earth metals have been mined, all with no regard for the environment. The toxic processes used poison the surrounding area, displacing many communities.Greed and lawlessness in post-coup Myanmar exacerbates the problems now being faced by those in the country, but may even give rise to more far-reaching implications, since this destructive cycle in Myanmar impacts worldwide climate change.  For example, Myanmar is home to some of the largest contiguous rain forests in Southeast Asia, so their destruction would have a domino effect for both climate change, and also species extinctions.  Hill describes his outlook on the future as bleak. “I don't know when a breaking point or a critical point will come… But unless something changes quickly, I'm sure we'll reach it, probably sooner than we expect.”

Episode #162: Pardis Mahdavi, Provost and Executive Vice-President as well as professor of anthropology at the University of Montana, joins the conversation to talk about the growing discontent and protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which shares several similarities with the situation in Myanmar. Professor Mahdavi describes an interesting dynamic that arose in the mid-20th century: the Iranian people’s growing disgust with what they call “westoxification,” a term referring to the Pahlavi Shahs’ infatuation with Western cultures, and their push for changes within Iranian society which often went against Iranian Islamic social and cultural mores. The motto was “Iran for Iranians.” Ayatollah Khomeini became the most popular and inspirational of the anti-Shah voices, giving a very Islamic face to the Iranian people’s discontent. However, after the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic government grew more brutal and repressive, instituted the Morality Police, engaged in the catastrophic Iran-Iraq War, etc. History began to repeat itself, as popular discontent festered under the surface and then eventually burst out into the open, much like it had under the Pahlavi regime.  The situations in Myanmar and Iran are similar in several ways. Some of the sparks that ignited widespread popular protests against the junta came in the form of the military gunning down teenagers in the street, and the latest iteration of anti-government protests in Iran exploded with the death of a Kurdish-Iranian teenager arrested by the Morality Police and subsequently beaten to death in police custody. As with the regime’s brutal military crackdown on protests in Myanmar, Iran’s Islamic government has responded with harsh, repressive measures. But just as the increased repression in Myanmar has only strengthened the Burmese people’s resolve to resist, a similar dynamic is happening in Iran. In both Myanmar and Iran, the resistance has seen a growing unity among the respective country’s diverse religious and ethnic populations. And in both cases, young people have been in the forefront of the protest movement. Finally, there is a real need to keep international attention on the situations in Myanmar and Iran, so that the democratic movements are not isolated and can be supported.Professor Mahdavi ends by asking the listening audience to “think about what kind of a situation must people be facing to be willing to die for their cause?… What we can do to support them and to bring about meaningful and lasting social change that is rooted in justice and human rights for all?”

Episode #161: Dan Sullivan, the Director of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, joins this episode to discuss the challenges facing the Rohingya community. Most of the world began to pay attention to the Rohingya crisis in 2017, when over 700,000 people fled a genocidal campaign against them, creating the largest refugee settlement in the world in Bangladesh. Sullivan led an effort pressuring the United States to recognize the anti-Rohingya campaign for what it was: his  campaign was termed, “Call It A Genocide!”The Rohingya have face so many challenges in Burma because of their Muslim faith, which puts them at odds with the majority Bamar, and even with the native Rakhine who are their regional neighbors and who themselves have historically been at odds with the Bamar majority. Although the Rohingya have been on their land for at least a century, their citizenship continues to be challenged. They have been cast as scapegoats through the hateful rhetoric of Bamar Buddhist nationalists, and victims of violence and assault at the hands of the Burmese military.While the Rohingya are finally settling more comfortably into their camps in Bangladesh, under the surface, there is a growing sense of desperation. This has led thousands of Rohingya to flee and seek a better life elsewhere, often by boat. Some are turned away by any neighboring countries they manage to get to, many others drown, and others get returned to the Burmese military.Sullivan says that many Rohingya currently look at the work of the National Unity Government (NUG) with hope. This is in contrast to the betrayal that many felt when the NLD, and Aung San Suu Kyi in particular, defended the military’s actions against the Rohingya at The Hague. Even so, should the NUG ultimately prevail, there remains much concern as to how they would translate sympathetic and inclusive statements about the Rohingya into a viable and realistic repatriation plan.

Episode #160: U Gambira was a 29-year old monk in 2007 when he helped foment the initial protests that grew into what came to be known as the Saffron Revolution. After running away from home because of an abusive father, he first ended up as a young soldier. But he grew dissatisfied with army life and ran away yet again, this time to become a novice monk. In 2005, he was asked by his older brother, an underground political leader, to join the democratic movement, which U Gambira did, creating an underground network of monastics who trained in non-violent resistant strategies. Following the regime’s very unpopular rescinding of fuel subsidies, U Gambira organized a peaceful march; the military responded by publicly beating the monks who took part. The public, physical abuse of these monks triggered an even greater uprising, and soon tens of thousands Burmese were in the streets, capturing international headlines.           When the military dictatorship refused to apologize for the beatings, the monastic community took the rare action of preventing the military from making merit by refusing their alms offerings (patta nikkujjam kamma). This standoff ultimately led what became known as the Saffron Revolution, in which tens of thousands of people protested the military in over 25 cities across the country. Yet, the movement ended the same tragic way that is often seen in Myanmar: through extreme violence on the part of the regime. U Gambira was arrested. He spent the subsequent eight years in and out of prison, where he was regularly subjected to physical, mental, and chemical torture. Once released—in poor health and with no access to medical care, stripped of papers and a risk to any monastery where he might reside—U Gambira had no choice but to return to lay life.                       U Gamira’s personal thoughts on resistance have changed. While the people of Myanmar adopted a non-violent approach for decades, he believes they have little to show for it, and he questions its effectiveness in the current situation. Citing the almost total lack of international backing, he feels it is time to consider other means of resistance. “It is very painful for me. It’s not according to the teachings of the Buddha! I don’t like it…but we have no choice.”

Episode #159: “As soon as the coup started, the first thing in my mind was how we, the people of Myanmar, had lost our future, and are going back to old times, which weren't good.”This was David Lai’s initial feeling in February, 2021. While the sudden military takeover impacted all fifty-five million people living in the country, David’s situation was more complex than most—he is a public figure, a sort of soft-rock/country rock singer with a large following.He was well on his way to Burmese pop superstardom when the coup hit.Burmese artists of all backgrounds viewed the transition years as a kind of Golden Age, in which creativity of expression was finally permitted to some degree. David saw the impact of this increased freedom affecting not only the artists, but also the wider community. So when the coup hit, Myanmar’s elite class of celebrities and influencers had to choose between their professional careers and their personal safety. Some chose to speak out, others kept silent, while a handful openly supported the military.David chose to speak out for the democracy movement, writing songs in support. This stance put his life at risk, and he had to flee to India. Still, he is sympathetic for those celebrities who balked at taking such drastic action.The potential for music to bring diverse communities together has been an important focus of David’s post-coup work. Growing up a Chin Christian, a minority in both religion and ethnicity, he has been more than aware of how the military has used these divisions to sow mistrust among the people over the years. But for David, the present situation underscores the importance of the current moment. “This military coup made us united!” he explains. “Diversity is a beauty.” David has collaborated with a number of other musicians from other ethnicities, and produced songs he hope will uplift the people during this difficult time. The resulting music is well- produced and high quality, while conveying an important political message.

Episode #158: Following a family tragedy when she was just a teenager, Ayya Yeshe set off on a spiritual journey, becoming a nun in a Tibetan lineage at just 23. However, she soon learned that female renunciates weren’t treated with the same respect as males, and left to train under Bhante Sujato in the Ajahn Chah tradition, before taking Bhikkhuni ordination in 2006 at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village.“Engaged Buddhism is the way I practiced going forward,” she says. “A monastery in Asia is more than just a place where you go and sit alone and find liberation from the world, separate from the world…[it] is a community,” she explains, adding that in the West, “we are disconnected from community… from the planet.” While Ayya Yeshe also values the need for periodic seclusion, she feels that Westerner practitioners overemphasize this, overlooking the traditional Buddhist value of communal practice. She is also not afraid to call out Western yogis who remain disengaged, indifferent or apathetic in the face of injustice. She points to the danger of spiritual bypass, and encourages meditators to examine when they are passively benefiting from systems of oppression.Ayya Yeshe is a strong feminist because of her experiences as a nun, being treated as a second class citizen just because she was a woman, that simply her gender was “bad karma.” But she knew that the Buddha taught that women had every potential of awakening as did men. So “it was by necessity that I became a socially Engaged Buddhist, because I literally had nowhere to live as a nun!”She joined forces with Bhikkhuni Vimala soon after the military coup, encouraging Buddhist monastics around the world to photograph themselves with their alms bowl upside down as a sign of solidarity with the resistance movement. She understands that the military atrocities need to be resisted in some form. However, she notes the importance of deferring to those actively engaged on the ground, and doing more listening than leading.

Episode #157: In 1995, Burmese assaults into Karen territory created thousands of refugees who fled to Thai refugee camps, including Eh Nay Thaw’s family. He spent the next ten years in a refugee camp before being resettled in the United States.Eh Nay Taw’s years in the camps were quite painful, but he realizes the necessity of coming to grips with that experience. He says, “Part of my goal is advocating for the Karen people and other ethnic groups that are persecuted by the Burmese military regime,” and for this he needs to be able to revisit and retell sometimes horrific stories.Growing up, his hatred of the Tatmadaw extended to a mistrust of the entire Bamar ethnicity. It was only after arriving in America that he was able to move on from his deep-rooted hatred. “It took a long time to convince myself that Burmese people are not to be blamed, but instead the military junta, those in power.” But he also realized he had his own inner work to do. “If somebody still hates others based on their race or ethnicity, it tells me that that person hasn’t healed him or herself yet… I [had to] learn to forgive my former perpetrators.”Eh Nay Taw also thinks a lot about what constitutes Karen identity, and is concerned with how splintered the Karen community has become. This older generation has long viewed politics as a zero-sum game, in which one emphasizes one’s own group over others. Further impacting “Karen identity” is that so many are now growing up in the diaspora, without a firm connection to their ancestral homeland. But he is hopeful with the younger generation who have joined in solidarity against the military with other ethnic groups and even the Bamar majority. And he sees the Bamar evolving as well, towards more understanding of and solidarity with Myanmar’s ethnic minorities. He says, “I'm cautiously optimistic about the future of Burma.”

Episode #156: Even two years after the coup, the Tatmadaw continues its campaign of terror, disrupting communities, causing a massive refugee problem and destroying the country’s infrastructure. And because the military looks for loyalty rather than competence in choosing personnel, it has led to incompetent economic managers heading the country’s banks. Not surprisingly, the result is the effective collapse of the country’s economy. This is the subject of today’s episode with Zach Abuza, a professor at the National War College and specialist of Southeast Asian security and politics.Abuza also expresses a fear about the proposed upcoming elections, which are most likely to be a sham. He believes that any election will result in at least some part of the international community accepting military rule in Myanmar, putting the NLD between a rock and a hard place: If they boycott the election, the narrative will be that they refuse to participate in democracy; and if they participate, the election will be rigged against them. Addressing the hypocrisy of pro-democracy countries failing to support democratic efforts in Myanmar, Abuza says that, at the end of the day, a country’s support is largely one of self-interest. Most nations in the West have limited trade and investments in Myanmar, and so intervention is not an economic or political priority for so-called champions of democracy. Plus, without a figure like Aung San Suu Kyi, the NUG lacks someone who can command the attention of Western policymakers. And while Abuza is sure that PDFs will never defeat the military through combat, he asserts that the Tatmadaw will soon realize they do not have the necessary manpower or resources needed to win the war, which will result in increasing defections. However, in the meantime, Abuza emphasizes that in spite of the long pent-up desire to forcefully redress past wrongs caused by the military, the NUG must maintain a moral high ground. Yet Abuza emphasizes that the military’s mentality will not allow them to back down gracefully. High-level military leaders, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, are “are surrounded by sycophants who tell them what they want to hear. They’re happy to rule the country and run it into the ground because they think it is their birthright to do so.”

Episode #155: What is a “home?” It is more than just the physical structure we live in; “home” has overlapping dimensions. We say that the town or city we live in is our home, as is our country, and the entire planet… even the solar system and galaxy where we are but a speck. “Home” conveys a sense of belonging. It evokes feelings of comfort, safety, and familiarity.If we are forced to leave our home and cannot return, it as a deeply distressing and unsettling experience, filled with grief, sadness and disorienting sense of disconnection. In short, forcibly losing our home is traumatic.For so many Burmese, this “loss of home” trauma is felt acutely on multiple dimensions. In our second panel, titled “Yearning for Home: Burmese Voices on Exile and Loss,” our panel is composed of guests who have tragically lost their “home.” For those of us sitting comfortably in our own homes, the conversation engenders a greater sense of empathy and connection with the people of Burma and their plight, inspiring us by their courage and determination in the face of adversity. 

Episode #154: When Kory Goldberg was just nineteen, he spent a year studying in India. After the program ended, he traveled around and kept “seeking out whatever I was seeking out,” he recalls.He attended daily lectures given by the Dalai Lama, and later visited a socially engaged meditation center in the tradition of Lama Zopa. Then after some other explorations, he sat a vipassana course in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. The result was transformative. “The first time I heard Goenkaji’s voice, it just sounded familiar, it resonated!...I hadn't felt that at ease in a long time.”Back in North America, he began sitting and serving vipassana courses at centers in Quebec, Massachusetts, and California, among other places, often following his practice with hikes deep in nature that lasted up to two weeks. Some years later, he serendipitously ended up meeting his future wife, Michelle Décary; they have been together for twenty-three years, sitting, traveling and raising a family together.On top of that, Kory and Michele eventually wrote a book, Along The Path: The Meditator’s Companion to the Buddha’s Land. For seven years, they periodically trekked all over northern India, refining their book and researching the history of the various sites, as well as soliciting tips and submissions from meditators taking their own journeys in the region…and all the while somehow maintaining a very busy professional and personal life.Following the book’s publication, Kory led pilgrimages to the special sites he had written about. As he also attended and supported various pilgrimages to Myanmar, he has unique insight into the contrasts between leading meditative journeys into the two societies. “Myanmar is way more complex,” he notes right away. “There's so many living traditions and itineraries… you have this whole buffet that you can choose from!”Kory feels deep gratitude for the people of Burma who were so welcoming and generous to him, which makes it all the harder for him to follow what is now transpiring in Myanmar. “I can't possibly imagine what it's like to be in such a horrible situation,” he notes sadly. “[But] when I see what the people in Myanmar are going through right now, some of them are just responding in such courageous ways that, I hope that if I'm ever in that position, that I could be as strong as they are.”

Episode #153: Rahel and Damon Lam founded A Cup of Color in 2014. It is an organization with the goal of “bringing art to places where there is brokenness.” They have created art in public spaces in many places in Asia, and recently they carried out a project in Zurich, where they live, about the suffering in Myanmar.Their involvement was precipitated by a request to them from Raise Three Fingers, an artistic collective resisting the coup. After getting city approval for a large mural, they then went about soliciting Burmese around the world about the messages and images they might want to express. In the end, they designed a mural whose central image features “a woman holding up the three fingers, and it's a woman who is mourning for her family member who got killed.” Calling the finished piece “Tears Matter,” the woman is surrounded numerous words and other images, which came from the many submissions that were sent in from around the world.Besides the work’s obvious message, they set out to capture a sense of common humanity, represent a sense of perseverance and encouragement, with the hope that the piece would move people to start paying more attention to the situation in Myanmar.“[Burmese in the diaspora] are really not suffering loudly, but they're very silently suffering…[and it] is very, very deep,” says Rahel. “Myanmar people can make jokes about the darker things. That's kind of a way they survive, which helps you to be with them in the really difficult times. But seeing their silent tears, it's very heavy.”

Episode #152: Kristina Simion’s book, Rule of Law Intermediaries, looks at the complex transition period of the 2010s in Myanmar, when dramatic changes were sweeping across the country. Simion notes how even though real substantive change actually didn’t take place, there remained a sense of optimism that finally there would be some pathway leading out from under the military’s half century of oppression.Simion weaves her narrative primarily through the perspective of the “rule of law.” While development actors usually see transformational rule of law policies as way to help create a more equitable society, many Burmese actually felt quite differently. They were generally suspicious after decades of oppressive military rule, when “the law was always seen as a tool from the rulers to oppress the population.” Ironically, military figures delighted in the concept, which they took to mean “law and order,” and which they appropriated to justify their stranglehold on individual freedoms and liberties.In trying to better understand the exploitative nature of military rule, Simion examines the system they inherited from the colonial period. The British imposed less a legal system than a type of “regulated control and brutality.” Many colonial laws, including the more restrictive ones, stayed on the books after independence, and the Tatmadaw later operationalized them to justify and strengthen their oppression—and which they have once again resorted to since the coup.Simion’s study also centered on the “intermediary.” During the transition period, with the lack of formal systems yet in place, the rush of foreign development actors who flooded into the country needed to rely on personal contacts—intermediaries—to get their projects off the ground. Intermediaries not only guided conversations, but were responsible for finding the appropriate personal connections and making necessary introductions, etc. Simion wryly notes that it begs the question of who was actually leading the projects!Since the coup, Simion has been impressed with how activists have shown a keen interest in the rule of law and transitional justice mechanisms. Incredibly, even as they are resisting the Tatmadaw and simply trying to survive, many are taking virtual classes with Simion on these complex yet important topics. She conducts training courses with people hiding in the jungle who want to learn more about principles for lawmaking, and tutors others about Constitutional reform, who are already looking ahead to ensure that ethnic minorities are protected in a new, post-Tatmadaw Myanmar.

Episode #151: Tomas Martin is a prison researcher who presently works with DIGNITY, the Danish Institute Against Torture. His interest in prison research was first piqued when he heard about ten-day vipassana meditation courses in the tradition of S.N. Goenka being conducted in Tihar Jail outside of New Delhi. He is now focusing on how imprisonment in Myanmar, and its ramifications, and not only the prisoners, but the staff as well.Besides the violence which often plagues incarceration, Martin pays close attention to the everyday experience of prison life. One of the more unique areas of his research has been a study of the usually foul prison air and its psychological and physical affects. He has pushed for new prison designs that encourage better ventilation, to improve the overall quality of life for prisoners.On the subject of human rights within Burmese prisons, Martin points out the tragic truth that torture has long been used by the military regime to punish political dissidents. After they go through unfair trials, Martin explains how they then have limited contact with family, and their access to food and medicine is restricted. In addition, they are often either placed in extremely overcrowded conditions or kept in solitary confinement, two extremes that are equally detrimental to mental and physical health.Martin has observed a paradoxical relationship between the revolution and the regime’s attempts at oppression. “Prison is where revolutionary actors and protests are being quelled. People are being locked up and even killed, to destroy the revolution. But the prison is also a place where there is opportunity to collect revolutionary actors and to produce revolutionary action and spirit!”

Episode #150: Joining the podcast over a year after her previous interview, Thiri returns to update listeners on her own personal story, as well as to discuss the state of the resistance and the democracy movement.Thiri describes living with debilitating stress and constant fear until finally she decided she had to flee the country. It was not an easy decision, and transitioning to life in a new country has been traumatic. Separated from her family and community, from her country, and with no possibility of returning while the military regime remains in power, she also feels guilty for abandoning the fight. At times she even feels that she has lost her soul.In spite of the pain that has overwhelmed so many Burmese, it’s important to Thiri that the international community not reduce the Burmese people to a one-dimensional caricature of a devastated population in shambles, which she strongly believes robs them of their humanity.Yet even from a place of safety, Thiri often finds herself triggered, her mind jumping back to the constant fear and dread of her life in Yangon. She has had to compartmentalize these intense emotions in order to complete tasks. In looking back over the past year, Thiri notes how the increasing brutality and violence of the military eventually resulted in many youths fleeing the country, joining the armed resistance, or going deep into hiding. She is dismayed to hear criticism that the resistance movement shouldn’t take up arms to defend themselves. She says, “I am not a violent person, and also I don't like war.” But it soon became apparent to many activists that there was no other way to resist the oppression and tyranny the military was trying to impose on the country. Thiri believes the democracy movement should be an inspiration to people around the world. “A threat to democracy in our country can be a threat to democracy in your country… This is beyond a political strife of brown people in Southeast Asia, it's broader than that… And we are telling you to join us in this fight together, so that we all can live in a society where fascists and dictatorship cannot have a space.”

Episode #149: Nandar Min Swe is a fundraiser for the government in exile. She helped sell NUG bonds, as well as facilitating the sale of subdivided plots of land owned by Min Aung Hlaing and other the military, which can be redeemed upon a successful end to the revolution. These days, she is working on facilitating a cryptocurrency which can circumvent the military regime’s control over the national financial system.Nandar identifies a developing problem, however, in that most fundraising efforts are directed at Burmese donors. “Why are we digging deeper into our own pockets, and our own pockets are not that deep enough, no matter how much we dig into?” she asked herself. She thinks this is due, in part, to Burmese cultural values. Nandar agrees with Phillipp Annawitt, who expressed on a recent Insight Myanmar podcast episode that the “culture of sacrifice” that has long existed within Burmese democracy movements is not a sustainable form of governance, and this is reflected in the Burmese focus of fundraising efforts—the same people give over and over until they can’t, while volunteers are beginning to feel overwhelmed. Nearly two years into the attempted coup, the Burmese diaspora still continues to have to shoulder nearly this entire burden, unable to find a way to break through to a wider audience beyond their own bubble.Going forward, Nandar makes clear she is seeking a new and better country, rather than advocating for a specific party or policy. “I'm not an NLD supporter or a Daw Aung San Suu Kyi supporter. I feel myself to be more like someone who wants to liberate Burma any way I can. And the only way I can right now is by fundraising.”

Episode #148: Melody Mociulski’s first trip to Burma was in 1974, during a round-the-world backpacking trip on the so-called “hippie trail.” A fellow traveler at one point convinced her to see Burma. So with little money in her pocket, flew to see for herself. It was the height of the hot season and swarming with mosquitoes, but Melody nonetheless was profoundly impacted by her brief stay in the country.Melody returned to Burma numerous times in the years following, a deep connection continuing to pull her back. The reason for her growing attachment was partly that Burma’s challenges seemed to be ignored by the international community more than other places, but mainly was just how moved she was by the Burmese people. So she founded Clear Path International, a nonprofit that provides medical assistance landmine victims and supports their reintegration into the local community.Eventually this led to female empowerment, which Melody describes as the central core of her passion and activism. In furtherance of this goal, she co-founded Educational Empowerment, whose main mission is to invest in girls’ education because of its positive effect on many aspects of women’s lives. Their work is perhaps most important now, as women are especially at risk during this time of conflict.Melody’s organization also works to provide better lives for children in various ways. For example, they fund children’s books to be printed in ethnic languages, featuring local folk tales, so that the children’s traditions and languages can be preserved. They also allocated funds for a school to be built in the Delta. Understanding the dangers of repeated flooding during monsoon season, they arranged for it to be constructed two feet higher than other buildings. Melody notes with pride that it is one of the few buildings in the area that always remains dry, and that it operates as a kind of emergency hub during heavy rains. Beyond this, her group has also established a number of libraries throughout the country, which offer courses in digital literacy and even job placement.

Episode #147: Many years ago, Jesse Phenow signed up to be a volunteer at a resettlement organizing, initially thinking he would be “the friend and ally and welcomer that that they've been needing.’” But he found something quite different! “This family didn't need me; in fact, in a lot of ways, I was the welcomed, not the welcomer. That family’s posture and sense of welcome was something that I desperately needed, and hadn't really experienced before.” Jesse was completely taken not only with the sense of hospitality of the Karen family he met, but also their savvy, gritty resilience.While in college, Jesse took what would be his first of many trips to Karen refugee camps, and he chose to write his senior thesis on the Karen Revolution, which filled with a much deeper sense of the people and their complex history.After graduation he moved to Minneapolis, where he worked in an office providing mental health services to immigrant communities. “There's a lot of trauma,” he acknowledges. “There's not a Karen person in Minnesota who doesn't have a story about a family member or a friend being harmed, raped, killed, tortured, or a village burned.”Jesse bought and renovated an older building nearby, which he transformed it into a communal space called “The Urban Village.” Its goal is to support Karen and Karenni youth struggling with their sense of identity. “We're hearing from elders a genuine fear around a growing disconnect between them and their kids,” Jesse says. “Our hope is that that connection really starts with a connection to themselves and to their identity, whatever they come to believe that to be, but that they feel a sense of connection.”The aftermath of the coup has exposed an additional manifestation of the generation gap. While the elder generation had to survive near constant assaults from the Tatmadaw, the latter do not have that personal experience, and their different perspectives strongly shape their outlook and sense of possibility.Even since the coup, Jesse has continued his relief trips supporting health and education projects back in Burma and around the border regions. While there, he also helps to document the on-going situation, and interviews elders with the aim of building a historical archive. As tumultuous and challenging as the last two years have been, he says, “The entire country is really fighting back, and I think this type of unity probably hasn't been seen before.”

Episode #145: Calvin Khoe, the Co-Director of Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), speaks with us about ASEAN’s and Indonesia’s in role in the Myanmar conflict.Khoe emphasizes the importance of allowing ASEAN to lead detailed, closed-door conversations with a wide range of actors within Myanmar, and that it shouldn’t be rushed by outside parties. He criticizes Westerners who he feels are unfamiliar with ASEAN’s protocols (and Asian culture in general) and who push too aggressively for progress.To Khoe, the need for private dialogue also informs his perhaps controversial opinion that it is inappropriate even to publicly chastise the Tatmadaw for its many serious human rights infractions, and that such matters should only be addressed by using soft language with them in private. And perhaps even more controversially, he insists that discussions on the future of the country must involve the SAC, as well as the NUG and various EAOs. This is because he feels that all parties have a seat at the table in looking at the future of the country, and he hopes Indonesia can be seen as a “big brother” member of ASEAN that could facilitate this kind of discussion.Addressing concerns that the military-led elections proposed this year would likely not be free and fair, and thus provide a false legitimacy to the junta, Khoe argues that he does not see any better option for resolving the conflict, and adds that ASEAN and Indonesia could help oversee any elections.Khoe explains how ASEAN and Southeast Asian nations view the role of the military within their respective countries. Most Southeast Asian countries have strong militaries, and Khoe believes that outside countries do not appreciate the local context and history of the region, and the traditional role that militaries play in that part of the world. This is also why he insists that the Tatmadaw does have a role in deciding the future of the country, in spite of the widespread violence they have perpetuated in these past two years.

Episode #145: Who am I?” Valerie remembers asking herself this question while sitting in a meditation hall at Aung Lan Monastery late one evening. “Why are we seeking and loving so much about having this attraction and attachments? What is going on? And so, that's how I started out.”Born in Myanmar to a Chinese Muslim family and a later convert to Buddhism, Valerie eventually relocated to California. There she became involved in the beauty pageant circuit and modeled, and was employed as manager of a commercial lending bank. But when an acquaintance she was due to meet suddenly died, her life priorities were shaken and she decided to attend a meditation course in the Thae Ingu tradition.Her first retreat was excruciating. The pain at one point became so severe she began to fear she was dying. But she was determined and eventually became able to detach from her pain. Her mind sharpened, she delighted in the subtle detail that only a penetrative mind is able to reach. She began to sit for longer and longer periods, examining the origin of suffering and the identification with body, and the conditionality of self. The course had a profound effect on Valerie, as she discovered when she returned home. She stopped modeling, and in fact barely attended to her appearance at all, which led to interventions from management at her bank and alarmed her friends.Then the military coup in Myanmar happened. And as deep as her spiritual journey had taken her, Valerie also found herself unable to sit at all following the coup because of the horrors being perpetrated by the Tatmadaw. Valerie became involved with the democracy movement and began to question her practice in light of the military’s brutality. While fully aware that the ultimate cause of suffering is inside, Valerie also feels strongly that seeking out a peaceful inner life is not possible in the wake of the excruciating harm the military is inflicting on the Burmese people. Valerie felt compelled to choose between prioritizing spiritual or worldly liberation, and temporarily has chosen the latter. Her reasoning is that the singular cause of so much intense suffering on the outside needs to be taken care of in the short term before conditions can again arise that support widespread meditation practice in the future, when peace eventually does return to the Golden Land.For now, her present pathway is clear. “We will try to support those people who are inside the country and fighting for the people, who are fighting for fairness, and fighting for the truth.”

Episode #144: In October 2007, Bobo witnessed uniformed soldiers beating Buddhist monks on the streets of Yangon. That experience radically changed the trajectory of his life.Bobo realized that any success or security he could accrue on an individual level through education and a profession could be snatched away without warning as long as the corrupt and cruel military regime remained in charge. He soon joined Generation Wave, an underground collective formed following the uprising in 2007. The work was dangerous and has put Bobo in the crosshairs since he was a teenager.Following the military coup in 2021, Bobo began working to help mobilize the populace into action with massive nonviolent protests and strikes in key sectors.  As the nonviolent protests continued, the military began using live munitions. Being an organization committed to nonviolent resistance, Generation Wave has had to be creative in their approach.Yet while Generation Wave, itself, has been steadfastly committed to peaceful forms of opposition, there is an understanding that each part of the movement is equally needed in order to counter the Tatmadaw: nonviolent action, armed resistance, the Civil Disobedience Movement, sanctions from the West, recognition of the NUG, etc.For the foreseeable future, Bobo is doing all he can at a personal level to play this role himself, pushing aside any thought of the toll it’s taking. “I don't want to be there,” he admits wearily. “I want to live very peacefully, and to have fun with friends and with my family. I want a normal life like other people, of course. But now all my energy and all my commitment are for the revolution and for the movement.”

Episode #143: The Burma Act’s origins can be traced to before the coup, according to Michael Haack, a longtime advocate. Its goal was to provide support for civil society while limiting the power of the military. One of its major features was calling out the Rohingya genocide, but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell feared it would reflect poorly on his close friend, Aung San Suu Kyi, who at that time was leading the country, and blocked the bill’s passage.The final version of the Burma Act drew rare, almost unanimous bipartisan backing in the House, but it was again blocked by McConnell. So a decision was made to include it as an Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a bill that funds the US military and has passed annually since 1961. Haack notes that the language of the Burma Act specifically allows for only non-lethal aid.Haack emphasizes the groundbreaking nature of the bill, in that it lists many of the Ethnic Resistance Organizations (ERO) by name, along with the NUG and PDFs. Yet advocacy for continued attention to the crisis in Myanmar remains challenging. The Burmese diaspora’s failure to effectively coordinate their efforts with local legislators has been an on-going issue. Haack suggests a two-pronged approach to advocacy work. One is cultivating relationships and building trust with influential people and groups. The other is kicking off a well-coordinated media campaign, ideally with a compelling figure at its center. However, Myanmar’s ethnic groups now have their own direct lines of communication to the West—which was until recently not the case—making what were once Bamar-centric conversations and policy in the US far more complicated. Not only are past histories being contested, so also are visions of what a federal democracy even means.In the end, though, Haack notes that “Congress runs on winning campaigns,” and so for him, the best thing about the Burma Act is that…it (finally) passed!

Episode #142: “What must a government do to be worthy of recognition?”  This is a question that Philipp Annawitt poses in a recent The Diplomat article, and discusses with Insight Myanmar Podcast vis-à-vis the NUG and its allies.The concept of “legitimacy” has evolved in the past couple of centuries century. Considering the various strands of “legitimacy” standards in present-day Myanmar, Annawitt emphatically states that the military junta meets none of them. In contrast, he points out that the NUG (and its allies) carries out many of the commonly accepted, functional duties of a government in those areas of the country not under Tatmadaw control, and has even overseen security for civilians and administered justice in safe areas inside the country.But not only have few nations recognized the NUG as Myanmar’s legitimate government, it has hardly shown even modicum of support, especially in the face of the junta’s obvious abuses and demonstrable inability to govern well. Annawitt calls this out as indefensible. The robust Burmese diaspora communities around the world have been more than doing their part to keep the NUG afloat. This connects to the unique and amazing spirit of collective sacrifice that characterizes the NUG, which includes tens of thousands of civil servants volunteering their time. Moreover, Annawaitt finds that this spirit of sacrifice becomes a political factor in determining future career opportunities, should the Tatmadaw be defeated.That said, Annawitt also feels that the lack of wages for NUG’s civil servants is a serious issue with major ramifications that urgently needs addressing. Sustainability and the ability to fund all areas of the government are serious concerns. Given this situation, Annawitt envisions a big and urgent role for development partners to come in with financial resources and technical assistance. In fact, if more is not done to build up the government structures of the NUG, Annawitt cautions that there is little hope at any improvement for the country or its people, as the military leadership cares little for infrastructure beyond fattening their own pockets.Still, the present situation is a long way from being a utopian federal democracy, and Annawitt acknowledges the NUG’s various shortcomings, including a lack consultation with ethnic allies and a convoluted decision-making process. But Annawitt repeatedly reminds us is that this is not a peacetime government or a mature federal system, but a functioning though transitory bureaucracy with limited resources, that at the same time is actively resisting a brutal military. “In the current situation, a pressure is there constantly,” he says. “Pressure for survival, security pressure, and communication is really difficult. And the demands, physically, health, psychologically, on all the actors, are overwhelming.”

Episode #141: Jon rejoins us one year following his interview last year, and straight away expresses how his original hopes for a nonviolent solution were somewhat naïve. In the past year, he has come to realize that he either must submit passively to military rule or fight back aggressively. So Jon has personally been involved in both non-violent and guerilla activities. The midst of all this, he maintains a meditation practice, which has helped him balance the traumatic experiences he now faces. However, he puts it in perspective. “I still do all my Buddhist practice. But when we're at war, we do our spiritual stuff, but then we still fight to kill the enemies.”Indeed, this has been a somewhat confusing time for many Burmese Buddhist activists, as some prominent—and previously highly revered—monks appear quite hypocritical, sermonizing about morality and not killing, for example, while either supporting the murderous military outright or at least happy enough to take large donations from them.  This connects to the fault lines now appearing in Burmese Buddhism following the military’s manipulation of the Saṅgha, and their attempts to pervert the clergy into sponsoring nationalist messages.Jon’s analysis of the present state of the resistance movement is grounded in his own, on-the-ground perspective. “We are not winning yet, but they're losing for sure!” At the same time, he also points out some of the less reported-on kinds of devastation that the coup has wrought, such as alcohol, drug addiction or mental health issues, which he sees as coping mechanisms to extreme stress and trauma. He adds that life has become particularly fraught for the younger generation, many of whom have been randomly assaulted and/or arrested by the military.While Jon and his friends have all but given up on international organizations coming to their aid, he still hopes that individuals who are allies around the world will continue to stand by their cause. “If you see someone who is close to Myanmar, talk about it,” he says. “And then if you see someone who doesn't know Myanmar, educate them about it! I think that's the only way that we can push the story of Myanmar forward.”

Episode #140: Better Burma, in partnership with One Light Global, was proud to host "Myanmar's Voices for Freedom,” a panel discussion that bought together five, dynamic, Burmese nationals, each resisting the military regime in Myanmar in their own unique way. This full panel discussion has been modified into podcast format, and can be listened to here.The discussion explored a wide variety of topics: the Rohingya crisis, issues regarding the country’s marginalized groups and ethnic minorities, gender equality and LGBT+ rights, the role of the international community, how allies can rally to support the democracy movement, public school education, Burmese Buddhism and the practice of meditation, and how art and creative expression have been used to resist military tyranny.In addition to exploring these topics, the forum was created to help fundraise for two important missions: providing education in Mizoram to refugee children, and supporting villages in the Sagaing Division that were victims of military aggression.