Some aid gets to the people of the delta area of Myanmar. For every $50 in international aid, both government and non government, to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, Myanmar gets $2.50. I was told this by a “Burma expert” and later had to check it out with original UN sources for a magazine article. It’s really true.

This lack of aid is only partially due to the government restrictions on NGO’s operating in Myanmar. The other, and I think major, reason is due to the sanctions on Myanmar by the US, EU and Australia. Most NGO’s are from these countries, and sanctions discourage them. We (Nargis Library Recovery) had to get a special permit from the US Treasury department to do what we do in Myanmar. You don’t need that for other places.

In order to stay in Myanmar and do anything at all, NGO’s normally do not publicly complain about issues with the government. Sometimes a fuss is kicked up. You have to pick your battles. If you want to help political prisoners, monitor their elections for fairness or get government officials to do things differently that is one thing. If you want to help people in non political areas such as food and agriculture or education and libraries that is more straightforward.

By staying away from sensitive issues NGO’s can operate pretty free from government interference. The government does not bother with us. I think most of the money it gets from us is our 10% hotel tax and some airport fees when we visit. It does ask that we do not bring in books about Myanmar governmental issues, with explicit sexual content and religious books specifically aimed at proselytizing. It does not check our books, it expects us to do that.

Given all that, there are some NGO’s doing significant work in Myanmar. One of the best is World Vision. They have 850 workers in Myanmar, with 63 staff in the Bogalay delta area. Among other things they operate some non formal education schools out in the delta villages. Recently they have started helping us distribute our books among 50 libraries they either support or work with.

The Bogalay area director, Naw Maureen Kolay accompanied us in two of their boats to visit schools in two delta villages. These boats had the only two outboard motors I have ever seen in Myanmar. For small boats in Myanmar they were very fast, although most of the runabouts on US lakes would leave them behind.

Some school children await us at the landing at Auk Magyi village.

We could not see the landing for Auk Magyi until we were nearly on top of it, and climbing up to it was a bit of an adventure for some of us. The children and some staff members led us along a short trail to the school.

Sue working with the kids. She’s now talking to WV about coming in with Gail, an Aussie master teacher, to do teacher training in the Bogalay area next year.

A little help while leaving. School building is behind.

It is great that WV is setting up these schools for children who cannot go on a normal schedule because of their work load with their family. It is a great example of how help often must be given in Myanmar: you do what you can. It is not ideal and it could be much better if circumstances would allow. The kids come when they can. Often education is disrupted as the family moves to find work. There were only a few books here, some of them from us. They need both more Burmese and some English children’s books here and at the other WV schools.

Naw Maureen Kolay, director of WV efforts in the Bogalay delta area, talks with Sue.

Way more should and could be done to help. In the meantime, NGO’s like World Vision, Nargis Library Recovery and about thirty others operating in the delta area will do what they can. While it may not be much, there is little enough going on there that it still makes a big impact.

Mr. Dinger did sent a picture of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar. As I said before (08 Nov 09) the Embassy is quite impressive, and indicates that although the U.S. has a lot of differences with the government there, it is certainly taking Myanmar seriously. As I remember, there was more in the compound on the other side, past the right edge of the picture, but am not sure. I would guess there are a number of countries that have an ambassador named as such that do not have an Embassy like this one.

As I see it, the U.S. wants a representative democracy to develop in Myanmar, and may wish to withhold some things until it does. Myanmar is hurting in many ways right now. There are countries, such as Singapore, Vietnam and even China that are not democracies by still have a good economy and are busy developing a better life for their people, albeit with some restricted freedoms. Maybe not the best situations, but better than some others I can think of.

When people are hurting badly enough, I suppose I am willing to compromise and not ask for the best. Second best might be worth looking into. Of course, this is not a request to Mr. Dinger. He is sworn to uphold U.S. policy. It’s the president, congress and maybe secretary of state that need to do better by the people of Myanmar, even if its government is not what they would like.

We discussed our book donations to Myanmar and its importance in helping the country to move into the modern, largely English speaking, international community better. While the U.S. does maintain trade sanctions against Myanmar, they have granted our organization an exception, and at various levels, including Mr. Dinger’s, have been most willing to do what they can to help us bring in our books.

The new embassy was certainly impressive, although I have to admit it is the first embassy of any country that I have been in. I wish I could have taken some pictures but that is not permitted at all. I looked on the internet and could not find any there either. If Mr. Dinger reads this maybe he’ll send me some that I can use here.

We met several other people there and all were most helpful.

Near the end of our visit we discovered that many children’s books that Hector had donated to the Asia foundation had in fact found their way to the Embassy library where we found them sitting in boxes on the floor waiting to be unpacked. From there they will be distributed to other parts of Myanmar with some going to the American Center library in Yangon. I would have taken a picture to show you but…

That evening we met Mr. Dinger along with several other ambassadors and some heads of large corporations still operating in Myanmar at a dinner. This was at an impressive restaurant at a very nice hotel. I sat next to the ambassador of another country, with yet another ambassador next to her. Sue sat next to Mr. Dinger on down the table. I will release one detail about Mr. Dinger. If you ever have him over for dinner serve sushi and you will have one happy camper.

Each of the Nargis Library board members spoke briefly to explain their connection to our organization and why we think it is so important. John talked about overall strategy and how our books and more education will impact Myanmar for the better. Hector spoke about book supplies and what books we can bring to Myanmar. I talked about the tremendous opportunity I have found in our organization in that a very small amount of money can make a tremendous difference for an entire country. This is because we 1). have a free supply of very good quality books from Thrift Books and 2) American President shipping lines is transporting our large containers of books to Myanmar at zero cost. We are bringing high quality books into Myanmar for about four or five cents apiece. Finally 3) we have many people not the least of whom are the Bhuddhist monks of Myanmar who are willing to help us distribute and house books at little or no cost to us.

I won’t say it was a gala event because none of us wore a suit or a tie and the ladies, while dressed quite nicely, were not in any kind of formal attire. Still, it was a most interesting evening.