US's college helps Burmese woman share story of torture, imprisonment

A Burmese writer/ former political prisoner, Khet Mar, published her first novel "The Souls of Fallen Flowers,"  in the United States on February 24,2012. Mar's book was published with the help of Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.

David Henry Sterry interviewed Mar as follows:

 TV news about Khet Mar's book (Video)

 When MaryAnn told me about Khet Mar's heartbreaking and monumentally inspiring odyssey, from being locked up in a Burmese prison for her revolutionary writing, to her harrowing escape and subsequent relocation to City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, I felt like it was my duty to tell the world her story.

Khet mar's book: The Souls of Fallen Flowers

DAVID HENRY STERRY: Tell us about your childhood. Where did you grow up, and what was it like?
KHET MAR: I grew up in a fishing village. My childhood time was like a huge field with valuable plants and terrible weeds. I didn't notice how much I liked my childhood time until I was a teen. I still have things to write about my childhood even though I have been writing for 23 years.

A Burmese Artist Displays His Memories of Those Who Were in need of food in Burma

The Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh is displaying an exhibition of a Burmese artist, Than Htay Maung, whose expression reflects memories of the begging hands that he saw in Burma after the Nagis Cyclone. 


The Cyclone hit Burma on the evening of May 2,2008, blowing away 700,000 homes and leaving about 100,000 deaths and about 50,000 missing.The cyclone was recorded as one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. At that time, Maung tried to fill food in those begging hands as much as he could... but the number of hands were more than he could supply. Deeply hurt by the hands that he left without food, Maung decided to display his feeling..a strong desire to offer food and love to those needy hands as follows: 

Photo: from mattress.org

Click here to view it on Youtube



The exhibition is currently displayed at The Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh (from October 28,2011-May 27,2012). 

A Place To Call Home

A song speaks louder than a politician's speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV_PNM2rnSw&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLAEF1E1391790D14D

A Shan Lady who enjoys raising awareness about her country through her art

Some artists create their work for pleasure; some just want to keep their memories alive and others as a mental outlet. Watching the paintings created by a Shan Lady, Feraya Ullathorne, whose paintings were mostly related to Shan people and its culture, I attempted to find out whether she has deeper meanings behind these paintings.  

 Interestingly enough, I found out that Feraya has been using her art for good causes: fund raising for Shan refugees as well as internally displaced children, and raising awareness about her motherland, Shan State. She also drew political cartoons for Burma Digest. Moreover, she used her art to heal people (worked as an art therapist) at a hospice in England. Most of her cartoons revealed situations inside Burma.Through her actions, I believe that she is more likely an activist than an artist or a cartoonist. Indeed, she is making voices for voiceless people living inside Burma.

Although she has left her beloved homeland at the age of 14, her memories and thoughts are still full of the love for Shan people. Her unspoken love to her country and its people can be seen through her paintings or her website at  http://www.taigress.info/  

Feraya recently published some of her arts into a book titled as "Feraya's world - A Shan Lady's Paintings". The book can be purchased at http://www.blurb.com/books/2959863. The profit from this book will go to good causes of Shan people and those who are in need. 


Some people use guns, some use negotiations and others use their talents to fight for their country. The most important thing is having a desire to fight.Regardless of her busy schedule, she warmly welcome my interview: 

Letter from Burma: An old Solider (Written by Aung San Suu Kyi)

(Mainichi Japan) December 24, 2011

U Lwin and Aung San Suu Kyi (photo: internet)

It is always sad when a good life comes to an end. At the same time the knowledge that a human being has completed his sojourn on this earth with due honor is a matter for gratitude and a sense of wonder. When U Lwin, one of the founding members of the NLD, died on Dec. 6 I saw it as the fading away of an old soldier. I found my own attitude curious.


Fifteen years ago, I wrote about U Lwin in one of my Letters from Burma and outlined his career in the military, which included a wartime training course at the Rikugun Shikan Gakko in Japan. I also wrote that he subsequently served as Minister of Planning and Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and State Council member in the Burma Socialist Programme Party administration until he resigned from the last position in 1980.

Animal Talk (1) (Written By Aung San Suu Kyi)

Source: Mainichi Japan (March 7, 2011 )

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi holds her dog at the entrance 
of her home in Yangon on (Mainichi)

 Friends and colleagues who have been in prison have sometimes reminisced about the small beasts and birds, and even insects, that had been their only familiars during long years of incarceration in stark, unfriendly cells. Cats seemed to have been particularly adept at negotiating walls and bars and insinuating themselves into the affections of lonely prisoners all too willing to offer a portion of what little food they had in exchange for the companionship of living creatures.