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The Blog
Aung San Suu Kyi, like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, shows how one's faith and secular values can provide a much-needed moral compass for fighting social injustice in our world. Her latest move toward reconciliation is a realization of the opportunity to unshackle Burma.
I left Myanmar will a camera full of images from the golden hued temples of Bagan, the tranquil floating villages of Inle Lake and the expansive Irrawaddy River. However, what is etched in my memory is Myanmar's people.
The aim of a symbol is to communicate as immediately and directly as possible the core of what you represent. Which brings us to an important question: Is it time to consider a new symbol for a new era?
in Myanmar, villagers never ask for money to have their picture taken. This is especially noteworthy because the country is terribly poor.
Rape, invisible and ubiquitous, is perceived as sexual and inevitable, and we tend to think of children and women as collaterally damaged during war. In truth, all over the world, girls and women are fully, bodily engaged in conflict.
Although the government of Myanmar has given the world a glimpse of their openness to democracy, Phan hopes that their desire to save face within the international community will lead to substantive and not merely cosmetic reform.
The mildly farcical battle over Buddhism between China and India is merely one manifestation of a broader struggle, an ongoing "Quiet War" between Asia's rising superpowers.
How can we best support a transition towards full reform in Burma? How might we best support human rights there? The answers may not be simple, but there are certain steps that are.
From the moment I stepped off the plane, I was indeed taken aback, but not by any seeming threats to my safety or personal freedom. Rather, it felt like I had traveled back in time at least half a century.
If it were not for U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's visit to this hermit-like nation-state just a few short months ago, this event would not be here today enjoying the spectacular sights, sounds and smells of a truly one-of-a-kind mesmerizing, mysterious and beguiling travel destination.
How exactly do women maintain their inherent "womanly" roles while also breaking grounds for, say, a Democratic revolution in one of the world's most oppressed countries? The answer is they don't.
Peter Popham, the author of The Lady and the Peacock, a spellbinding biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, has great timing.
Thanks to a marvelously full-bodied performance by Michelle Yeoh and a complementary one by David Thewlis, The Lady overcomes its own obstacles -- principally ones of pacing -- to present a moving portrait of courage, resilience and conviction.
Cynics may question the fate of Myanmar's natural resources, but the nation's people, like those of South Sudan and Afghanistan, somehow manage to look past the daunting challenges facing their nations to imagine a future with parks, wildlife, and human communities served by intact ecosystems.
This month, an exceptional film about Suu Kyi and her struggles, directed by Luc Besson and titled The Lady comes to U.S. screens. It is a film that reminded me why I love cinema.
