Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Myanmar has been on my mind for days now.We often call Myanmar “Burma” when we are outside the country, but inside, we all feel compelled to call her “Myanmar.” In a rare instance, we used the name “Burma” all throughout when we met with Aye Aye Win (who then just received the AP’s Oliver S. Gramling award for journalism in 2004) in Yangon (Rangoon). (I just saw her reports on BurmaNet news).“Burma” is now often used as an expression of dissent against the military regime, and there is not much public dissent until recently. However, I also remember my friends using the name “Bama” when referring to the geography and ethnicity of the country (i.e. “he comes from the Rakhine state, western side of Bama the part closest to Bangladesh, and he has recanted his ‘citizenship’ although he still speaks his own language”).

In old books found in the numerous little bookshops in Yangon, the name “Burma” is always found, of course, since “Myanmar” is the English name given by the junta in 1989, and “Burma” was the name given by British colonizers before 1948, possibly a term adapted into English from the Portuguese who in turn borrowed it from the Indian languages in the 16th or 17th century.

Quite often, I also hear my friends use the name “Myanma”, and less often use the name “Bama.”

In the Burmese language, the country Burma/Myanmar is known as either Myanma or Bama. Myanma is the written, literary name of the country, while Bama is the oral, colloquial name of the country. Burmese, like Javanese and other languages of Southeast Asia, has different levels of register, with sharp differences between literary and colloquial language.

The colloquial name Bama is supposed to have originated from the name Myanma by shortening of the first syllable (loss of nasal “an”, reduced to non-nasal “a”, and loss of “y” glide), and then by transformation of “m” into “b”. This sound change from “m” to “b” is frequent in colloquial Burmese, and occurs in many other words. Although Bama may be a later transformation of the name Myanma, both names have been in use alongside each other for centuries. - From the entry on Wikipedia

Will change really happen in Burma this time?

Monk rides a fully-packed “jeepney” on the way to Inseine (screen capture from a video, taken in 2004).

Violent crackdown on protesters, September 27, 2007. From BurmaNet.

When I was there in 2004, I remember much “gossip” about the prime minister (and head of military intelligence) being detained for corruption. What seemed an “internal coup” came to be announced the following morning as retirement of the prime minister due to “health reasons” (which sounds like my own excuse too!).

Earlier, many hoped that the protests would bring about a change or at least a dialogue peacefully. But that has not happened.

I cannot imagine the reports, “monks being piled up and carried off into trucks”, and the floors of the pagoda red with blood… That was what people said too about the 1988 uprising, about the streets around Sule Pagoda just across the city hall.

I really hope that my friends are well …