Haute couture made to measure ...

November news
The rain has stopped!  It’s the dry season and it’s turned cool, cool enough to enjoy (wearing) a cardigan in the evenings and early mornings.  One might even think about getting another blanket to warm up from the 17℃  evening chill.     By noon, by day however, with the warm sun,  temperatures quickly rise-up to 30℃ to 35 ℃.  

With the dry season,  each morning, straw hat ladies and men  beside our house, lay 3 large heavy plastic sheets, green, blue, red tarps across the narrow dirt road, covering both sides of the road to spread, arrange dried rice on them .  Every 15 to 20 minutes or so, in unison they rake the rice, sit around the raked rice to pick out unwanted husks and then begin the same meticulous raking motion over again, taking great care not to miss any gap, to erase footprints of any sort.  Families of roosters, mother hens and their young curious of this new event, looking for a bit  of action,  for a bit of rice for themselves, manage to walk across the sets of freshly raked rice to pick out a morsel or two when no one’s looking … :) 

November was a month of weddings and haute couture made to measure …Talented couturière are busy stitching beautiful wedding dresses, longyis for the guests. Equally special, wedding invitations are forever beautifully adorned in colourful Myanmar glitter letters wrapped in ribbons, sequences; typically a reflection of the bride and groom’s attire.   It’s been a month where weddings are now in full swing with loudspeakers plunked in the middle of roads everywhere in town, blocking and redirecting traffic.   Loudspeakers of course are set up for everyone to hear the throbbing 'loud' music, for anyone to take part in this unique experience …? 

As for work, parliamentarians have returned to their constituencies, to their villages for six weeks and are expected to return to the NayPyiTaw parliament next year – the second week of January 2018.   As a result of the MPs absence, all cafeterias are again closed and will re-open on their return.  Further, during the MPs absence, parliamentary staffs here at the parliament spend time going through more files to rip and shred.    Could it be  that highly talented, skilled and  highly qualified parliamentary individuals, with law, economic, IT skills and much more, could be of  benefit to each other: MPs to parliamentary staff and vs ?   Instead of spending countless, mindless time shredding files?    

MPs could potentially hire highly qualified parliamentary individuals to work directly with them for vital administrative support:    Parliamentary staff, with their skill set could potentially  make some or major political decisions etcetera  that will evidently positively effect and profit both parties in their jobs and keep them both in this high profile, profitable business instead of quitting early?

Before the MPs went home, for 2 weeks, I had the opportunity of working with 3 MPs , 2 women and a man who had sought me out for conversational English and to play catch-up in general. They said that ‘they missed me and enjoyed talking with me in English.  It was good practice for them … :)’   During one of our many conversation, one of them mentioned that he was overworked needing personal paper work assistance at the parliament and, with his constituency. The other two, both women doctors simultaneously agreed that it would indeed be most helpful to have personal parliamentary assistance when in session, if not  to receive parliamentary assistance in both places part of the time: at the parliament and at their constituencies.   

In Canada, in the West and in other parts of the world it is common for all MPs to receive subsidy with personal parliamentary assistance.    In this case, PMs could potentially employ a team of two or three personal parliamentary assistants, who’s tasked, could be from administrative responsibilities relating to legislation to research, media relations, lobbying and much more ....     According to staff , some MPs already receive some limited inconsistence assistance from committee staff members based at the Lower and Upper houses:  Amyotha and Pyithu – MPs working stations.

How could these MPs be funded?  Potentially they could receive funds from International donours’, instead of subsidising expats who receive high salaries and who’s money could be better used for the MPs , And, the parliamentary staffs’ overall well being.

Ironically, elsewhere at the parliament, The JCC  a.k.a. the Joint Coordinating Committee  (made up of a local eclectic  Pyramid team: a Chair, 3 MPs, 12 Parliamentary Officials and Staff)   have asked for another emergency meeting with the UNDP, a branch of t he UN.  The first, in September to ensure their renewal contract with the parliament was indeed still in progress; a sudden realization of potentially imposing international aid restrictions on the parliament due to instability in some part of the country.  

In November, the JCC called for yet a 2nd unexpected meeting with the UNDP and all NGOs and diplomats, who sat at one end of the room facing  Parliamentary officials at the other end to enquire the UNDP’s 4-year strategic scheme, yearly and monthly budget.   It transpired that the UNDP  didn't have a plan, spending close to 2million US dollars a month on  ‘little projects, on Shopping lists without tangible long term evidence or sustainability that MPs claimed was indeed impractical’.     What's more, they were also reluctant to share with parliamentary officials how the money was spent.   Apparently, the some 100 UNDP employees are moving from Yangon to NPT sometime in the New Year with a  new restructured plan?   

At the meeting and again recently, I had the pleasure, the opportunity of meeting some of the local UN-Yangon staff who appeared competent and eager to assist the people at the parliament.   As a result, I’m very much looking forward to working with them, with positive thinking individuals.  With their presence and talents, it looks that they will make a difference in the parliament!  Besides, it means that jobs will be given to the locals instead of the expats.   Cuso has it right!  They are indeed well prepared!  Cuso volunteers are on the ground and work from the grassroots up giving the people the right on job support: workshops, strengthening and building the capacity of the Myanmar people and much more ....

November  ended with some memoirs of our Cuso May cohort and a new Cuso Volunteer.  Our wonderful Cuso cohort, who arrived here in Myanmar with us last May 2017, all left Cuso prematurely for one reason or another.  As for me - for us Kevin and me, I have endeavoured to start my placement on a clean slate and to remain open minded despite some ups and down that one naturally encounters with any situations.   

November ended, here in NayPyiTaw, with a fresh new pair of Cuso eyes who’s joined the parliament.  Geoffrey is the ICT Advisor for the 4 ICT parliamentary units.  We ride to and from work together, which is a time to play catch-up and plainly enjoy each other’s company!

More will be posted at a later date ... :)  In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for December ....