Aung San Suu Kyi probably entered my consciousness the same way she entered many people not familiar with Burma. I was way too young in 1991 when she won the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia but she came into the mainstream Western news sometime in 2009-2010 up and til her release from house arrest in November 2010. I must have clicked on an article about her, been confused by what I read and looked her up on Wikipedia, ultimately discovering an absolutely fascinating life story. I didn't know much about Burma or Myanmar, except that it often showed up on lists with the likes of Iran, North Korea, or Afghanistan, whether the list was toughest places for an American to visit or countries with the worst human rights abuses or least freedom of press. But part of her was relatable - married an Englishman, lived a scholarly suburban lifestyle as a mom in Oxford. Then suddenly overnight she became a high profile opposition leader in a large developing country, a shining hope for millions of people and a huge threat for a repressive authoritarian government. The more I read, the more inspired I became by this woman, and I ended up buying her book Freedom for Fear. I read Aung San Suu Kyi describing the history of her country, the political struggles, the fear that keeps government from serving their people and the fear that keeps people from fighting back.
I read much of that book on the D6 bus, coming home from night classes in DC. Burma was far, far, far from a relevant, reachable place in my mind. Even when I moved to Asia, I was interested in seeing Japan, Singapore, Vietnam. Burma/Myanmar still seemed far, difficult, a place that a young American boy really shouldn't go. It was talking with friends much more well-traveled than me that I realized these notions of "inaccessible" places were nothing more than self-imposed notions. One of my friends here visited Myanmar in 1996 - another one watched his Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl in the early hours in a hotel in central Myanmar. And then suddenly sweeping changes happened to the government in Myanmar and everyone started going. Between the time I planned my trip and actually went, a half dozen people I knew made the same trip.
Even so, I had no idea what to expect.
I read much of that book on the D6 bus, coming home from night classes in DC. Burma was far, far, far from a relevant, reachable place in my mind. Even when I moved to Asia, I was interested in seeing Japan, Singapore, Vietnam. Burma/Myanmar still seemed far, difficult, a place that a young American boy really shouldn't go. It was talking with friends much more well-traveled than me that I realized these notions of "inaccessible" places were nothing more than self-imposed notions. One of my friends here visited Myanmar in 1996 - another one watched his Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl in the early hours in a hotel in central Myanmar. And then suddenly sweeping changes happened to the government in Myanmar and everyone started going. Between the time I planned my trip and actually went, a half dozen people I knew made the same trip.
Even so, I had no idea what to expect.
