The Times They Are A'Changing

It's a sign of the times that I can write this, from home. Blogger.com was blocked in Burma until a few months ago, and this is the first time that I've actually been able to access it. Sick day + good internet connection + loosened restrictions = blog post. Hurrah!

When I'm sick, I mostly like to talk about how sick I am, about whether I really deserve to be sick, about whether my illness is in fact a battle in the metaphysical war between Good and Evil. Erin tells me that I'm the most melodramatically sick person she knows. Also that I set a record for the number of times I can take my temperature in one day. But enough of that.

Things are changing here. The press is more free (not free), some political prisoners were released (not all), the NLD has decided to register as a political party and run in the by-elections. Hillary Clinton was here last week (essentially disabling the embassy for the month prior to her visit. They are all catching up on their cyber Monday holiday shopping now.  We will get a share of their attention sometime in 2012.)

My program has had to change also, and I've been re-writing curriculum and re-training facilitators as fast as I can. I want my program to be on the leading edge of political change and ethnic dialogue here, which is ridiculously ambitious.

If I'm in danger of deportation, it's probably more because of climbing-related activities, which shows how little Burma has actually changed. There are two mountaineering federations here, both governmentally related, one at the national level, and one affiliated with the University of Rangoon. They don't do any real mountaineering--they lack the technical skills, equipment, and experience. The VP of the national federation went so far as to ask me to take on training responsibilities within the federation. But then he got cold feet and stopped answering emails and calls.

Fine. Whatever. But he's cut out the group of climbers I work with from an attempt on the highest peak in Myanmar, August 2012. He's using government funds to bring in a ringer, Florian Hill, to drag his ass up the peak, along with some of his business cronies, probably including Ta Za, who is heavily sanctioned by western governments. AND he has made moves towards using the crag that WE developed for training. THIS SHALL NOT STAND! (Fever talking. . . )

So corruption, lack of transparency, unaccountability are still standard procedure in any organization with a government stamp. I knew this before, but now it's personal. The Federation must fall. And I need to take some more Tylenol.