INTRODUCTION TO MYANMAR GALLERY

Myanmar has long been the land of longyis, thanaka, and betelnut. Within the last 5 years or so, it has also become the land of cheap, small Chinese motorcycles and cell phones. It's an odd mix of the two alongside centuries-old ox-led wooden carts. It's now the winter of 2018-19, and it had been just under 18 years since I first visited the newly renamed country formerly called Burma since the time of British colonial rule. In the early summer of 2001 I visited Myanmar when it was still ruled by a military dictatorship. Ever since I had wanted to return to capture this country seemingly caught in the 19th century. Now the party led by General Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, has more or less replaced the military dictatorship, but the military still threatens a full democracy. The rape, killings, and subsequent driving out of the Rohingyas from Rakine State and Aung San Suu Kyi's reluctance to condemn the attacks, reveal the lingering threat of the military. For the vast majority of Myanmar's populace, though, life has vastly improved in the last 2-5 years. The population of citizens in towns and cities I had visited previously had ballooned in size. Buildings had mulitiplied substantially, and I saw traditional homes of bamboo, wood, and large leaves being transformed into brick homes alongside those ox-led carts. Before, the vehicles on the road had been limited to those secondhand used cars and trucks brought in by Chinese businessmen with connections to the Burmese military. Now the roads were packed with Japanese vehicles though not a few were certainly second-hand as we were reminded when more than one taxi driver started up his car and a recording in Japanese began to play, presumably reminding us to buckle up.