Category: Current

Current Issues & News on Burma & Burmese people with the sub sections – News, Feature, Interview, Photo-News, Op-Ed and so on

Yawning Bread – Singapore shows Burmese dissidents the door

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Led by Singapore’s George Yeo, Asean foreign ministers last September “expressed their revulsion to Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win over reports that the demonstrations in Myanmar [were] being suppressed by violent force”, and called on the military junta there to “work towards a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had spoken “to his ASEAN counterparts… and [would] be writing to Senior General Than Shwe,” the joint Asean statement said [1]. During that period, Singapore was the rotating chair of Asean, and people thought this unusually strong statement was a hopeful sign of where Singapore stood. But was this government, always so boastful of its “integrity”, being sincere?

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Burmese Ethnics in Oakland, bay area held memorial service

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Burmese Ethnics in Oakland, bay area held memorial service for

8888 – 20 years anniversary of Burmese democracy uprising

MoeMaKa

August 9, 2008

The event was held at “Dhamm Ayeyeik” Burmese Buddhist monastery. It was organized by Burmese community resettled from the Thai-Burma border area to this Oakland city. The “swan”, Burmese traditional lunch was prepared by volunteer Burmese families and “Mohingar”, Burmese traditional food similar to “fish chowder” was served to the attending guests.

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Conversation with Sayadaw U Kovida

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from Spring 2008 Turning Wheel

Conversation with Sayadaw U Kovida

 

by Maia Duerr and Hozan Alan Senauke

 

  

Sayadaw U Kovida is a highly respected senior monk who was born in Burma 81 years ago. Although he now lives in exile in New York, he was once the patron of Ma Soe Yein monastery, one of the oldest Buddhist schools in Burma.

  In 2001, Sayadaw visited the U.S. and stayed at the Sasana Joti Center, a New York monastery. Every year he went back to Burma, but since September 2007, he has not been able to return. Sayadaw is now the patron of Sasana Moli – the International Burmese Monks Organization – founded in October 2007. Sasana Moli (which translates to “crown jewel of the monastic community”) is an alliance of more than 50 monks from the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Canada, and Malaysia.

  On December 15, 2007, BPF staff members Alan Senauke and Maia Duerr had the honor of a private audience with Sayadaw at the Mettananda Vihara in Fremont, California. The day before, Sayadaw was awarded an honorary degree from the University of San Francisco on behalf of all Buddhist monks in Burma. We met on the second floor of the vihara, with several members of the Burmese community joining us. Sayadaw welcomed us with a bow and a warm smile, and sat in a chair near the altar of the Buddha beautifully decorated with food offerings. Maung Yit served as our translator.

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