REVISIT: Feature: Portrait of a generation of Shan

Special to Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N.)

In a dimly lit corner of a bar in Chiang Mai’s red
light district, Hseng Hawm greets the approaching
customers, “Sawasdee kha”. She guides them to a table
and sits with them as another girl takes the guests’
orders.

Her sweet and demure smile grabs the attention of the
guests, from the karaoke music played in the bar —to
her presence.
Her fair skin looked smooth. But make up didn’t cover
all of the little scars on her face.  Her black blouse
and skirt fitted well with her youthful body. Hseng
Hawm is only 20. The dark color of the bar’s red light
on her clothes made her look older and aloof.
According to her, she is a waitress in the bar. As she
sits and talks with the customers, she knew she was
doing more. “I am only doing this as part of my job,”
she told one of the guests who speaks her native
language.

She spoke with confidence. With her head up and a
smile flashing her white teeth, she looked at ease
with what she was doing.
But this didn’t hide her anxiety. She asked to be
excused after an hour of conversation. She explained
that she and the other waitresses have to hide from
the police, who are inspecting the employees of
another bar nearby.
She hurried to an exit door trying not to lose her
poise. In an instant, she was gone.
Noom Hseng, 24, who comes at the bar “from time to
time” said like Hseng Hawm, he also has to run away
from police inspectors. After passing through the
border from Burma, Noom Hseng Sow said his “papers”
allow him only to work in the factory and in
construction sites.
He works at a Shan organization based in Chiang Mai.
He said it has been difficult for him and the likes of
Hseng Hawm to freely live the way they want to.
Everyday, they have to deal with some realities like
fearing the possibility that the police might arrest
them. Their movement is limited.
But Noom Hseng said his difficulty in Chiang Mai is
already heaven to those who are left in his hometown.
“I only realized many things about freedom here, there
are so many good things about life that I did not know
about back there,” he said.
For 29-year old Awn Tai, Noom Hseng’s friend, running
away from the police has already become part of who
they are as a people. They are not only fleeing from
the Thai police. They also have fled from their
homeland. He said they are a generation who runs away
to be free.
Awn Tai is a translator of Shan literature into Thai.
Having been in Thailand for the last 10 years, his
Thai is fluent. Also, he holds a Thai ID card, unlike
Noom Hseng and Hseng Hawm. But he is very much a Shan
in his ways. He said, he longs to go back to Shan
State, someday.
“Life here is difficult, but we want to be free from
poverty and fear, that’s why we are here,” he said.

According to estimates from the Shan Human Rights
Foundation (SHRF) and the Shan Women Action Network
(SWAN) there are at least 150,000 Shan refugees in
Thailand since 1996 up to 2002.
Most of them came from forced relocation sites in
Central Shan State.
In a 2003 study by the SHRF, it was shown that there
is a direct relation between the abuses committed by
the Burmese government in the forced relocation sites
to the number of refugees moving out from those areas.

Hseng Hawm’s family, now in Chiang Mai, came from
Kunghing, an area where most of the refugees came
from. But she doesn’t want to talk about what was left
behind there. While she missed her hometown, she said,
she will not go back there until the situation will
improve.
Her 21 year old friend, Mawn, another waitress, said
if she has a choice she would not be in the bar.
“Every night I shed tears of fear, of uncertainty,”
she said. Mawn, who sat with Hseng Hawm at the table
before the police came, said she looks forward to
another day for hope.
Unlike Hseng Hawm, who wants to be a tourist guide,
Merng has her eyes on an ambition.
“I wanted to be a teacher. Since I was a kid and even
up to now I still wanted to be a teacher. I will be a
teacher,” she said.
As a waitress, Merng earns 2, 000 Bt ($50) every month
with free food and bed space. She said she is going to
try her best to earn more money so she could go back
to school.
But Mawn, went up to primary school only way back in
Kehsi, a township in Central Shan State. She knew she
would have a hard time going back to school. But she
said what else she would look up to but her dreams.
Like Mawn, Charm Tong is also a young Shan woman. But
at 24, Charm Tong is probably one of the most
prominent Shan personalities. Her father was a leader
of a resistance group fighting the Burmese military
until his death.
Charm Tong is popular because her effort to help young
migrant Shan people like her to get education and her
contribution in exposing Rangoon’s human rights
violations had been recognized by international award
giving bodies.
She now travels to other countries to share about the
Shan people’s struggle for freedom. She has become an
inspiration to both young and old Shan people in
Thailand.
But Charm Tong came to Thailand when she was 6 inside
a basket with her younger sister on a horse back.  She
has to climb up with difficulties in growing up just
like the other young Shan youth. She attended the
school of a Shan teacher in a village along the
Thai-Burma border.
Now a woman of strength and influence, Charm Tong
flaunts only humility and sincerity. She said growing
in a conflict zone has greatly influenced who she is
today.
Like Charm Tong, Hsai Lao, 24, also saw a turbulent
Burma in his life. But unlike Mawn, he has graduated
from High School. His English is good, thanks to years
of education in an American school in Rangoon.
He is in Thailand to scout for a school that could
offer him a scholarship. While still out of school,
Hsai Lao helps a Shan organization for its English
language works.
As he drove a motorcycle he borrowed from a friend,
Hsai Lao talked about his determination to study no
matter what it takes. “But it has to be in Thailand so
that I could work for Shan organizations at the same
time,” he said.
“I still do not know if I can reach my goal, but I
will do anything to get it,” he said.
Hsai Lao, in one of his reflections in coming out of
Burma, once wrote that he is not like other young
people who go out to other countries to become rich
and never come back.
“I will be back, yes, but I have to have education
from outside. I can help my country more if I am
educated,” he said.

Hsai Lao, Hseng Hawm, Noom Hseng, Awn Tai, Mawn and
Charm Tong, six different young men and women. They
are six images of the Shan youth in Thailand having
different pains and different joys. They have their
own story to tell.
But they all are the same: the youth of a displaced
people — running away from a repressive country.
They have the same language, history and homeland.
And they all look up to something, for one thing, —
a brighter future for themselves and their country.  (Walter Balane in Chiang Mai, Thailand/October 2005)

Beginner’s Random thoughts on running in Malaybalay City

1. Come to the race to compete only with yourself.
2. Expect to be laughed at; laugh with them, it’s another exercise.
3. Stretch your body before running and your limits, too; but do not be suicidal
4. Prepare for the race and your needs after it, including one more item at the drug store: muscle pain ointment.
5. Listen to encouragements from friends, ignore negative remarks from ‘friends’
6. Use water and food to keep you going, not to slow you down
7. If you can’t run faster, go slow, or walk; but don’t stop.
8. Dress light and feel light.
9. Smile, don’t talk, to an acquaintance while running to save breath
10. Thank God, family, friends before and after running, it counts to be grateful of the gift of the human life.
11. Run even if there is no race or competition; if you feel good about stepping on the finish line; be aware that the best is yet to come.
12. Help keep our community peaceful and free so we still have fields, trails, and streets where we can still run.

I made it!

I got these points printed in my mind from the starting line of the 4.2 km. Panahik night run on January 22 up to dinner tonight.

Finally, I was able to write it down.

I’m sure there will be more I can remember later on.

To those who have other thoughts to add, please key it in as a comment. (or make your own list.)

We don’t know, maybe in the future we can write a book about the gift of running in the free streets of our communities!

Cheers!

Pikit stop over: Pamogon coffee break

Pamogon Store
Stall No. 04
Pikit Public Market

For coffee drinkers, a natural choice for a stop over in between Cotabato and Davao cities aside from rest room visits and road side meals, is the Pikit Public Market.

Aside from it being a vibrant and busy market place, it offers Pikit’s famous Pamogon “excelsa” coffee.

We scoured for that ‘aromatic’ redemption and found it for sale in many stalls at P130 per kilo.  

I had been curious about what makes the humble native Pamogon coffee unique. I’ve been drinking this coffee for a while and I wanted to know more about how this was made.

And in this recent trip to Central Mindanao I wanted to know the answers.

Microview: Military abuse in Ecoland terminal

Where you’re supposed to be safe, you are not.

KB’s presentation in his blog of a passenger’s ordeal with a soldier detailed at the Ecoland Bus Terminal in Davao City is comical.

His style is light and it made use of youtube-famed monicker to appeal for a common touch.

The story he revealed, however, no matter how common, is far from light and comical. It is a type of the excesses committed by those in uniform —-and armed.

In his account, the passenger figured in a spat with the soldier who is a member of the bus terminal security team. The scene was in the entrance to the terminal where soldiers hold passengers for frisking. Read his account here.

Key actions: Loud voices, defiance, arrogance …the list goes on. The outcomes: passenger complained to the soldier’s unit and alerted the media about it. Soldier will be reassigned to god knows where.

Survival Tips in Traveling Around Mindanao

By Penelope C. Sanz / MindaNews / 5 November 2005
(Republished with permission from the author)

A FEW MONTHS BACK, I wrote about the snorer, spitter, smoker, and pukers in a bus ride. This time, despite needing to pass an academic requirement, here I am writing about how to survive traveling in Mindanao. After a recent trip to Butuan City, I figured I have to sift through my old journals and collate the dos and don’ts of traveling I have listed down at least over 10 years of running around this ‘promising island’.

For starters, the must haves in your survival kit: a shawl, flashlight, loose change or coins, white flower, a plastic bag, a bottle of water, some candies, alcohol, tissue paper.

Never leave home without a shawl. It protects you from dust and the UV rays when you’re on a long habal-habal (motorcycle) ride to nowhere. It is also useful to cover yourself when you need to pee in the middle of nowhere. Shawls also keep you warm when traveling at nighttime especially in airconditioned buses. Bus drivers would tend to turn it on full blast to keep their seats cool because it is where the machine is throbbing.

Back to Sports in a Davao neighborhood

Today I broke free from a personal myth that I could no longer play basketball. I still can despite gaining weight and this strange feeling of distrust that I couldn’t even last a minute in the court.

We played ball early afternoon, after a hearty lunch of seafoods and grill today in a friend’s place along Jacinto Extension.

I was with a group of photographers visiting a friend to help him up with some academic requisites. While I began to feel envious of their cameras, I entertained myself with mangosteen and luckily another friend invited me out of respetar if I want to play.

How could I refuse. My last streetball game was in 1999, when we all anticipated the coming of the Y2K bug. That was eons ago.

Davao can do even better!

From Ferdie Ciento: “… I enjoy learning things about Davao and Mindanao. Suggestion lang, kung sana may picture tour din sa famous ninyong Davao International Airport na ma-ifeature dito sa site mo, kita ko kasi ang exploreiloilo.com at maganda ang presentation nila lalo na sa updates about their place including business and tourism prospects. Sana lumago pa ang Istambay sa Mindanao…mabuhay kayo!”

Big Thanks to Ferdie C!

Honestly, I hopped by www.exploreiloilo.com and I liked the site. It’s maintained by a 19-year old nursing student. It contains beautiful images of Iloilo City, including old churches, malls and their new “airport of international standard.”

Even if, however, I find Iloilo City via exploreiloilo’s appeal surprisingly attractive and also memorable since it was my city from 1994 to 2000, I still think Davao City, can do far better.

Lost and Found in Samal

After cocktails at the party launching Duty Free Philippines’ return to Davao on Wednesday, I hurried to Samal Island with another reporter to cover the inaugural ceremonies of the newly elected city government officials there.

Somebody told me my energy was amazing, it was already past 1p.m. when we took the ferry from Sasa Onse to Babak pier.

It wasn’t, however, a sound decision. Of course, not because the coverage was not worth it.

I always find solace in the island across that’s why I wasn’t able to resist the temptation to tag along. Rural life is irresistable, especially when work gets into your nerves as stressful. To cross the Davao Gulf with the 15-minute boat ride was like taking a dose of stress management.

Reflections: Learning from people in the Thai – Burma border

In October 2005, I spent around a month of fellowship with Shan people from Burma exiled in the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai (CM). It was a month of learning and realizations. A trip to a South East Asian country gave me an exposure to international issues such as on Burma.

My role would be to help Saengjuent, an intern from the CM-based Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) to apply or at least help process the things he learned from MindaNews when he went to Davao City in August 2005. The SHAN director, Khuen Sai, (middle, 2nd photo) asked me to help him train the younger members of their news agency on news writing.

I had four students in the workshop each of them played different roles in the agency. There is Arn Tai (“Ahn Tie”), the most senior who writes news in Thai language. There’s Harn Mueng (“Hahn Moong”) the translator to English from Shan language. Also, we had the guy who writes Shan language news, Noom Korn (“Noom Kohn”) and the agency’s internet guy “Muengjuent”.

They were a bunch of young and telented Shan news workers, very much eager to learn.

If we have no classes and meetings, they would encourage me to go out of town and explore the countryside. I spent time visiting areas where SHAN have contacts with communities.

They also brought me to tourist attractions in CM, like the Doi Suthep (as shown in the photos). That’s a mountain resort ran by the Kingdom of Thailand. The Thai King spends his summer time there.

Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) are neighbors. I heard they have a love-hate relationship through centuries. Now, Burma is under a military regime. The Thai government is using moderate diplomacy towards the military junta: they have close economic ties but from time to time Thailand joins the international community in pressing Burma for democracy.

As a result of internal hostilities between Burma and several rebel groups from ethnic states of Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the country and find their way along the Thai-Burma border through the years. The border is closed to passage in most points, but still a big number of refugees cross, largely in Northern Thailand via undisclosed routes.

The Thai government has designated “refugee camps” in selected areas. However, they are not refugee camps, in toto based on international standards—according to groups helping refugees.

According to some sources in the camps, the refugees from Burma’s states are considered by the Thai government as economic migrants, not refugees. Apparently, they lack support for livelihood inside small camps and have to look for informal jobs in proximate Thai towns along the border without identity.

I talked to many of these “migrants” in the camps I visited. I visited three but allowed entry only to two: in an area near Piang Luang and in an area north of Fang. They told me stories of violence, persecution, rape, extreme poverty and “culture of fear” in their homelands under the strong hands of the military.

I would have wanted to enter the third camp, near Mae Hong Son, which is a tourist city where Kareni (from Burma) women are shown to tourists like a “human zoo.” If you could remember photos of women with very long necks clad with some kind of a neck apparel, that’s it.

I did not enter that “tourist spot”. I agreed with my Filipina colleague in the internship program, I don’t want to add to their “commercialization” even if I know that they have consented the attention.

Back to the third camp. I could not enter because journalists were barred from entering these camps. Our guide, Si Moon, who works with a Shan NGO in the area, brought us to a quasi-camp, just beside the no-journalist refugee camp.

I was told that it would be dangerous for journalists to come in because the Thai authorities would “make it difficult for you”. I have insisted on a more logical explanation, but shut my mouth when my hosts showed some reluctance. I did not insist at all. What are they hiding there?

Well, at least we entered the “quasi-camp”. It is called so for a number of reasons. I could remember perhaps two: one, although I’m not very sure about it this time — that’s where candidates for political asylum live; and two, that’s where the disabled were taken cared of.

In that camp, I met and heard the sad but brave stories of the ex-soldiers in the first photo. Oo Reh (right) and Saw Teru (left) both 35 when I met them on 18 October 2005 along the Thai-Burma border near Mae Hong Son, (eight hours drive from Chiang Mai). Chiang Mai is almost two hours away by plane north of Bangkok.

Both of them are victims of landmines planted by the Burmese military and also by their own army. Oo lost his arms and one eye. Saw lost his sight. They both admitted ignorance about landmines when their commanders ordered them to clear their way of the mines.

In the Burmese war zones, military leaders, according to the two victims, use forced labor to clear areas from landmines. Many innocent people died because of these ‘illegal’ war weapon.

As we spoke, I hesitated to continue interviewing them because our presence and our questions seemed to have opened wounds that were about to heal from their tragic past. Oo expressed deep sadness of missing his family across the border. Saw said he did not know if his parents are still alive in Daw Tau Ka a village across Mae Hong Son, where landmine exploded and injured him.

But Saw also corrected us. He said their wounds won’t heal anymore. “If you see us in pain, there is not much we can do to take away that experience from us”. He said he also could not help from being “sad” about his ordeal. Instead, he appealed for journalists to help them help others. “There should be no more additional victims of landmines,” he said.

“Please write about us. Please tell them to remove all the mines around the world,” he said. “You do not know how painful it is. It is not like a bullet that could kill you in an instant. This one we bring all our lives. It has to stop!” (Oo and Saw spoke in Kareni and Burmese, while Si Moon translated it for us.)

It was indeed a depressing moment. I know the situation has not improved across the border. Both of them and tens or perhaps hundred of thousands more had been displaced from their homes because of hostilities and continuing tension between military forces of the Burmese junta and the rebel groups.

But I know I was there for a reason. I remembered both Oo Reh and Saw Teru when I came face to face with Myanmar’s tourism minister who told the press during the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Davao City in January 2006 that there is peace in Myanmar and that people there are happy.

Both victims, like the good soldiers that they said they are, told us also about the things that make them happy. Saw listens to music while Oo finds time interacting with the other residents in the camp. Both are taken cared by a small foundation helping victims of landmines across the border.

It was indeed a learning experience for me. It made me resolve to become a journalist who works for peace and to give voice to those who find themselves ignored. I saw and felt no difference between these people and those I met back in Mindanao who had been continuously plaged with evacuation, hostilities and poverty too. All of these are problems of human insecurity, prevalent everywhere.

When my Shan friends gave me a unique send-off dinner, where we squatted around spicy and exotic Shan and Thai food, in Chiang Mai on 21 October 2005; I felt the camaraderie among neighbors refreshed in my mind. I might have entered a “collective” that is different from mine because of cultural, historical, racial, economic and other divides; still I think we just belong to one neighborhood in Asia. I still think there are more similarities than differences.

Asians are divided in many respects, but are common in many things too. That trip made me see further, beyond my constructs of myself and the world. It opened my eyes to an interconnected world where there are local manifestation of global problems. And perhaps, local solutions too that have bearing across borders.

(The internship program was sponsored by the South East Asia Press Alliance or SEAPA based in Bangkok, Thailand)