If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Myanmar's prolonged isolation and economic stagnation left a mark on almost every sector the country needs to prosper -- from energy and transport to agriculture, education and health. So where to begin?
Hundreds of thousands of Burmese exist in refugee-like circumstances throughout Thailand, with at least a quarter of a million of them said to have fled human rights violations, though most if not all are treated as illegal immigrants by the Thai government.
The best way for Suu Kyi to move her country forward will be to follow her friend Hillary's example in the legislature, subordinate her celebrity for the good of the country's progress and become a workhorse, not a show horse.
Women must have opportunities to pursue their dreams whether they live in Cape Town or Libreville, San Francisco or New York. We envisage -- and are working to help bring about -- a world where female leaders are no longer an exception, but a thoroughly unsurprising norm.
Reading about Aung San Suu Kyi traveling through Europe these days is wonderful and amazing news to me. It brings me joy and reminds me that we must never give up. And today is Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday.
So near and yet so far -- that's how most Americans like me feel after a visit to Cuba -- the largest Caribbean island and a country that the U.S. continues to treat as a political pariah.
Under the royal patronage of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, Doi Tung has been replicated across many other impoverished communities in the country as well as in Afghanistan and Myanmar. Today, it is also a social enterprise proudly in the Schwab Foundation network.
The assumptions that there is nothing new regarding crime and corruption and that these plagues are an inevitable part of the human experience are clouding an important change: the ascent of the mafia state, an old player that has gained renewed potency.
Don't be surprised if monks and nuns share the same status as rock-stars and celebrities -- it is truly unlike any place you know!
There is absolutely no question that the international community must move towards investing in Burma -- but they must do so in a way that upholds the human rights of its people.
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.
