Life in Myanmar Burma.

Schools out. All Children have to wear the same uniform Seminarians visiting the convent

As I said before motor bikes and the likes are not allowed on the main road into Yangon and the roads are fairly good for Burma. However, once you get off the main road then you see the real situation that most Burmese have to live in. The side roads are full of potholes. The pavements are a death trap because of the many broken pavements, the open drains. Even though the roads are crowded with all sorts of people and traffic it is actually safer to walk on them than on the pavement. When you walk down the side roads you really get to understand just how poor the average Burmese are and how everyone is trying to scratch a living. It is very bleak for them at this time.

There is not much work in Yangon at the moment and those who do work especially the shop assistants earn a pittance average wage being about 2000 Chats about a couple of dollars a week. And one wonders how long their jobs will last. The one thing I noticed was the lack of foreign visitors and because of that there was hardly anyone in the department stores only the rich young things, usually Chinese, with nothing to do only window shop. The amount of shop assistants to those actually shopping was about three to one customer. To make themselves look busy they were moving and straightening the products on the shelves. I heard that each night after the store closed for business they had to make an inventory of all the shelves in their care, then do the same thing before they started. This has a two fold effect. First it gave the manager knowledge of how much had been sold and has any goods been taken during the night. The assistants watched you like a hawk as you entered their area and would not leave you alone until you had gone on to the next station. This was so that you didn’t steal anything. If anything goes missing from their station they are the ones who have to pay for it. It is very sad.

As I was walking down the street I happened to pass a paint spraying shop. This was right next to the supermarket. They were just spraying one wing that had just been repaired but there were about eight people on the job. When it was done then rather than switching the engine on which would have wasted petrol they all pushed it out onto the street. Many of the women from the country do the labouring jobs on the building sites. The age range is from the young in their twenties to those who look old but most probable are only in their fifties. You seeing them carrying stones and bricks to the builders on their heads and baskets of mortar. You see them hammering the cobblestones in part of the road that has been damaged by fuel polluting lorries and buses of all kinds, some of them pre-date even me. They put tar on the road with their bare hands. They are poorly dressed and e poorly fed as well. They look gaunt and are full of dust. They get even less than the shop assistants, yet they still work because every little thing helps. It is amazing to see how many women sweep the streets who are very poorly dressed, very undernourished.

There is no such thing as health and safety in this country. Everyone who has a job are just so grateful to have one. Most of the restaurants have only one or two people eating in them. The big hotels are all virtually empty, so the staff are mainly trying to look busy. I know Aung San Suu Kyi (the unofficial leader of the opposition party opposing the Army Generals who rule,) tells the westerners not to come but I think that it is hurting the poor people the most. Those at the top are really not affected as they have money anyway from all the Oil, Teak and Gem stones they are selling to the Chinese and the Indians. The ones that are being affected by the lack of tourist are the ones who can least cope with the downturn of everything. Those who have nothing have even less now, as there is no need for their labour. We went to a Japanese restaurant and we were the only ones there and when you think of all the staff they have to support it cannot go on like that.

If you can afford it go there. You will certainly get value for money. A five star hotel would only cost you little more than 50 dollars plus. It is very pitiable to see such lovely people being abused, suppressed and brutalised. I hate getting political but one eventually has to stand up and be counted because any form of abuse has to be confronted. That is the one thing the western governments have not done regarding Burma. They are too scared of upsetting the governments of China and India. I call it hypocrisy especially now after the war with Iraq and Afghanistan and the situation in Africa.