February news ...
There is something magical about the sea … the ocean, about the way it moves. How the moon pulls high tides and low tides in and out at certain times of the day. Each day the sea is different, the landscape changes from champagne sand to aqua oceanic sea, to a spectacular orangey-red sunset. This makes the day magical with full of possibilities!
In mid February we had a Cuso Annual Volunteer Conference, some 15 hours bus ride from NayPyiTaw. The conference was held at GnweSaung Beach, where all Cuso volunteers from various ‘pockets’ of Myanmar met to share their experiences in their field. Evidently, we talked about the successes, the milestones, the challenges, the next steps ... At the end of the conference, instead of travelling back with the Cuso group to Yangon and on to NayPyiTaw, Kevin and I used our 2 day travel departure time to stay in GnweSaung Beach. We moved to Eskala resort for a couple more days to enjoy a small holiday by the sea. Aside from enjoying Cuso’s volunteer company at the conference, Kevin and I had a lovely time soaking up the sun, swimming in the sea, strolling on the beach. All we had to think about was 'how we wanted our eggs done ... ' Just what the doctor ordered!
It is clearly the dry season. As I step on every stone, slightly raised on dirt lanes in our neighbourhood, on the way to the market, mound firmly in the ground on the way to the market, I’m reminded of the time when local Thanakka men, women, children collectively worked together, racing against the anticipated monsoon to fix the pot-holes with soil and stones of different colours, shapes and sizes. With the dry season, children are now home from school for the next 3 months and return to school mid May. On our return from Gnew Saung Beach, Kevin, at the market, was greeted with a pleasant surprise. The main area where he normally buys produce, the bamboo poles were raised approximately 2 feet higher, above Kevin's head so that he wouldn't bang his forehead against the pole. The locals were quite delighted with themselves, making a point of letting Kevin know that the bamboo poles were raised up for his benefit ... :)
February was month where more shuffling occurred among parliamentary staff and officials. Like the House of Cards, officials and staff are conveniently, regularly shuffled to different departments throughout the Hluttaw – the parliament. The big boss, whom we, developed a close relationship, whom I worked with throughout my time at the parliament, he too was moved to another department, a mile away from HR department, so it seems, without any explanations. The HR staff that I’m connected to went on with their business as per usual. One of the parliamentary staff, a few days later, had quietly and discreetly placed a tattered note in room 5, in my class, on my desk with instructions of the big boss’s whereabouts.
The following day, the big boss approved, the people’s book that we created from the grassroots up, to have it printed in late March, before the end of the Cuso fiscal year.
Elsewhere in the parliament, an official celebration of a 2-year term at the Hluttaw took place at the large parliamentary-dining hall. The Tatmadaw, the MPs, Cuso Volunteers, Officials, some parliamentary staff and expat business staff were invited for the luncheon to hear the Lady give a speech on peace, in Burmese. The Tatmadaw, MPs and expat business staff sat at the front, while Cuso Volunteers Officials with some parliamentary staff sat at the very back of the room.
February ended with some confusion for some. Though it ended with both the EU and the UN jointly imposing sanctions against the government for the ongoing atrocity, others are not in sync and are turning a blind eye to all available queues: 2 expat business staff, a branch of the UN are still providing lavish lunches in lavish hotels for workshops that could easily be conducted at the parliament for $0 – zero dollars. Could it be that the $2million funds, (which these expats are receiving per month) be redirected where it counts? Another competitive expat business tourism staff also placed at the parliament is planning in mid March to take a group of staff to Germany for a tourism experience. They too, like the 2 aforementioned expats blindly go about business as usual.
Cuso as always, step up to the plate where things are done in a timely way and successfully with spending $0 dollars at the parliament. Oronie managed to merge the 3 chambers on intranet within 2 hours and yours truly was able to produce a curriculum that make sense to the people from the grassroots up.
More later ... in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for March 2018….:)
Tuesday, 27 February 2018
Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Fresh Bananas from our tree
January news ... Happy New Year!
This morning we were awakened to a fresh bunch, a hanging cluster tier bananas to eat with our muesli. All in courtesy of our humble neighbour! With a smile and a nod, he came around our house this morning to deliver bananas, while we sat on the porch with a hot cup of coffee in hand to ward off the early morning chill of 13℃ . (yes, it gets that cold!). Last night, our humble neighbour, who endlessly goes out of his way for us, had freshly harvested bananas from our tree for us to have for breakfast this morning. What a treat! Banana fruits develop from the banana wine colour heart in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers known as ‘hands’, with up to 20 banana fruit to a tier.
Shortly after our banana harvesting adventure, we’ve since noticed that 3 new banana shoots are already sprouting from our old banana plant that was recently cut down to the ground.
Here on the home front, Kevin and I take advantage of cool January temperatures to take a stroll either in the Herbal Garden grounds or within the neighbourhood. The soft breeze almost engulfs us with whiffs of snowy-white perfumed flowers that guard the Iron Gate. Our humble neighbour, on one fine day, aware of the heavy scented gust that too gushes his household, demonstrates the process of what the white flower seed can do. The benefits. White flowers, some already in seed clustered on stems, our humble neighbour seems to perform a crushing magical motion for us to see; his hands pressed together with a plant seed between his hands, he shows us how seeds can easily soften into a powdery form. Proud of the outcome, with a heavy throaty chuckle, he announces how this fresh powder is unique to Myanmar and how readily available it is for anyone to use and how good it is for a woman’s skin. With this wealth of information, I offer him to pop by our little courtyard to harvest them at any time he so wish to share with his wife and eldest daughter … J
Interestingly enough, one of our individual speaking presentations at the parliament is to do with ‘fashion’ that defines who we are as a person. What compels us to be who we are and to do the things that we do? Is it environment, our upbringing, our culture, the language we speak, I ask? Questions for conversation are what we highlight regularly in the classroom.
Talking about highlights, at dinnertime in January, a black Mercedes drove in to our parking lot to request our passports and updated visa. The 2 official immigration officers and the dual role individual: driver and English interpreter, stated, after scrutinizing our official documents 3 times over, that our papers were in perfect order. Despite the fact, that the interpreter had assured us that we no longer needed to show our papers at the NayPyiTaw immigration office the next day, Cuso SuSu had already warned us of our immigrations visit, that it was indeed necessary to go through the immigration official procedure through KoAung, our go between person who ended it up looking after things for us. Naturally, this was another immigration routine check –in to ensure that our papers were in order!
When it rains, it pours, or better yet, there’s never a dull moment to be had! That same evening, the right-hand hinge of the iron-gate rusted off its hinge. However, nothing could be done with it immediately, because we were leaving for the dentist in Yangon. As a result, the Iron Gate was left open at the discretion of the humble neighbour who looked after things for us during our absence.
Elsewhere in NayPyiTaw, at the parliament, the parliamentary leaders met with us Cuso volunteers, Geoffrey and I and other International Business staff to welcome us to the New Year, to recapitulate some of the good work that we were doing for the parliament and what were our next steps?
The 3rd week of January brought us another Cuso Volunteer. In courtesy of Cuso SuSu , we dined at the Tai Restaurant just outside the SweKyaBae township to welcome the new volunteer François. Naturally, at the parliament on Monday morning, I was disappointed to move out of the parliamentary Research ~ HR office to join Geoffrey and François in the old JCC room sandwiched between the Research and International parliamentary offices. Rationale: Parliamentary officials felt it best that we Cuso volunteers share a room separate to parliamentary staff.
Yes, we thought long and hard about our wish for all you to ring in the New Year in. Together with good health and happiness, we've added an extra hope for 2018, another wish for you to experience, something extra. We wish you wonderful friendships, a skill that captures your imagination, a job that offers fulfilment, and, of course, new things in your life that will make your heart sing like the 2 birds who sing to us every morning at the wake of dawn, preparing a bird’s nest on one of our mango trees.
On this happy, joyful note, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for February 2018….:)
This morning we were awakened to a fresh bunch, a hanging cluster tier bananas to eat with our muesli. All in courtesy of our humble neighbour! With a smile and a nod, he came around our house this morning to deliver bananas, while we sat on the porch with a hot cup of coffee in hand to ward off the early morning chill of 13℃ . (yes, it gets that cold!). Last night, our humble neighbour, who endlessly goes out of his way for us, had freshly harvested bananas from our tree for us to have for breakfast this morning. What a treat! Banana fruits develop from the banana wine colour heart in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers known as ‘hands’, with up to 20 banana fruit to a tier.
Shortly after our banana harvesting adventure, we’ve since noticed that 3 new banana shoots are already sprouting from our old banana plant that was recently cut down to the ground.
Here on the home front, Kevin and I take advantage of cool January temperatures to take a stroll either in the Herbal Garden grounds or within the neighbourhood. The soft breeze almost engulfs us with whiffs of snowy-white perfumed flowers that guard the Iron Gate. Our humble neighbour, on one fine day, aware of the heavy scented gust that too gushes his household, demonstrates the process of what the white flower seed can do. The benefits. White flowers, some already in seed clustered on stems, our humble neighbour seems to perform a crushing magical motion for us to see; his hands pressed together with a plant seed between his hands, he shows us how seeds can easily soften into a powdery form. Proud of the outcome, with a heavy throaty chuckle, he announces how this fresh powder is unique to Myanmar and how readily available it is for anyone to use and how good it is for a woman’s skin. With this wealth of information, I offer him to pop by our little courtyard to harvest them at any time he so wish to share with his wife and eldest daughter … J
Interestingly enough, one of our individual speaking presentations at the parliament is to do with ‘fashion’ that defines who we are as a person. What compels us to be who we are and to do the things that we do? Is it environment, our upbringing, our culture, the language we speak, I ask? Questions for conversation are what we highlight regularly in the classroom.
Talking about highlights, at dinnertime in January, a black Mercedes drove in to our parking lot to request our passports and updated visa. The 2 official immigration officers and the dual role individual: driver and English interpreter, stated, after scrutinizing our official documents 3 times over, that our papers were in perfect order. Despite the fact, that the interpreter had assured us that we no longer needed to show our papers at the NayPyiTaw immigration office the next day, Cuso SuSu had already warned us of our immigrations visit, that it was indeed necessary to go through the immigration official procedure through KoAung, our go between person who ended it up looking after things for us. Naturally, this was another immigration routine check –in to ensure that our papers were in order!
When it rains, it pours, or better yet, there’s never a dull moment to be had! That same evening, the right-hand hinge of the iron-gate rusted off its hinge. However, nothing could be done with it immediately, because we were leaving for the dentist in Yangon. As a result, the Iron Gate was left open at the discretion of the humble neighbour who looked after things for us during our absence.
Elsewhere in NayPyiTaw, at the parliament, the parliamentary leaders met with us Cuso volunteers, Geoffrey and I and other International Business staff to welcome us to the New Year, to recapitulate some of the good work that we were doing for the parliament and what were our next steps?
The 3rd week of January brought us another Cuso Volunteer. In courtesy of Cuso SuSu , we dined at the Tai Restaurant just outside the SweKyaBae township to welcome the new volunteer François. Naturally, at the parliament on Monday morning, I was disappointed to move out of the parliamentary Research ~ HR office to join Geoffrey and François in the old JCC room sandwiched between the Research and International parliamentary offices. Rationale: Parliamentary officials felt it best that we Cuso volunteers share a room separate to parliamentary staff.
Yes, we thought long and hard about our wish for all you to ring in the New Year in. Together with good health and happiness, we've added an extra hope for 2018, another wish for you to experience, something extra. We wish you wonderful friendships, a skill that captures your imagination, a job that offers fulfilment, and, of course, new things in your life that will make your heart sing like the 2 birds who sing to us every morning at the wake of dawn, preparing a bird’s nest on one of our mango trees.
On this happy, joyful note, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for February 2018….:)
Saturday, 30 December 2017
Year end - Looking through the lens of a foreigner
December News - a point of view
December consisted of weddings, luncheon celebrations
to Christmas gatherings; Instructing a new set of ESL classes to making some
progress with the Resource Activity Book known as ‘English Voices of Myanmar’. From
looking through the lens of a foreigner over the last 6 months in NayPyiTaw to
our usual theatre of humanity in our local neighbourhood.
Our neighbours across the road continue to
endlessly entertain us with the usual theatre of humanity. What with the older sister and brother
holding, dropping their large woven garbage bamboo basket, alternating between
picking- up fallen garbage to racing behind the navy blue garbage truck with other
children teasing one another, while Kevin right behind them watch the ins and outs on the way – taking part of
the charming chaos; To grandpa’s new diverting scheme in keeping his grandson
busy with this and that, taking a risk in cajoling him only to find
that his family has already left for school, quietly, wide eyes watching
them drift by from a distance… While mom still bellows Myanmar words that we still
don’t understand. This time not at her son, who by this time is at the end of
the dirt road far from her, but hollerss at another family whom they share their
little compound with … :)
December began with a luncheon celebration
to welcome new parliamentary staff, bestowed and organized by parliamentary officials, which I gladly attended with the office staff. Everyone raved about the Indian chicken curry
with chapatti especially prepared by talented parliamentary staffs for this
special occasion.
On the weekend, in early December, we celebrated
another special event. Kevin and I
attended my colleague’s wedding at the SweShiDaw restaurant where, on our
arrival, arm in arm with one of the hostesses, we were ushered to the parliamentary
officials’ tables rather than having the opportunity to sit with my colleagues,
which I would have preferred; simply, to reconnect with them and to introduce
them to Kevin. The bride and groom,
fixed smiles, were donned in beautiful attire and tirelessly walked from table
to table for snapshots. We had a lovely
time and food delicious.
For Christmas, we Kevin and I had a festive BBQ dinner party with
friends and had a delicious decadent unique meal. Definitely mouthwatering range of
flavours and textures that consisted primarily of several meat dishes: Italian
sausages, pork chops, steak, spareribs with wine, beer, cocktails to ring the New Year in – the 2018 count down …The
company, the food, and relaxing ambiance was more than I can say. We’re so lucky!
As for work, my old class, though
previously agreed by the officials that I were to have them for one full year - 2 terms, was dissolved for reasons I will never know and 2 new sets of ESL
classes were constructed. However,
something good always comes from something that one may naturally be
disappointed with at first.
Initially with this sudden change, it meant
that I had little time to hold my small parliamentary group or my MPs’ English
conversational group or in developing the Resource Activity Book that my former
students and I began to write from the grassroots up. However, my new classes are just as smart and
geniuses and talented as my former 2017 parliamentary class!
That is to say that although the Resource Activity Book ‘English Voices of Myanmar’ is
progressing at a slower pace, with the consent of the big boss, I was able to touch base, reconnect with some
of my former students for the Myanmar translation. I have also been given the consent to work
with some of my present students to work on the book.
As for looking through the lens of a
foreigner over the last 6 months in NayPyiTaw, we had some very good times and
some challenging ones.
We feel very fortunate to have landed in a
local community, living among the locals to experience the special things that
we would never otherwise have experienced, if we had stayed in a hotel where
other expats are expected to stay . By
day end, a surge of excitement rushes over me, down my spine as I enter our
little dirt road and pass children squealing with delight, neighbours waiving and chatting and
Kevin sitting on his red chair awaiting for my arrival from a hard day’s work.
Though we have a TV with one channel, TV
is the last thing on our minds. To date,
I’ve read 19 books (different genre). Normally, at home, I might be lucky if I
read 6 – 7 books the most in one year. As
soon as I finish reading one, I’m already excited to start working through another; another story of people’s lives, love, friendship, their hopes,
wants, etcetera. That's when you realize how lucky you are to have the life that you have. I’m in the process of reading ‘Hotel on the
Corner of Bitter Sweet’ , Jamie Ford. Look it up – it's a good read about love and friendship between an American-Asian couple.
More
will be posted at later time ....:) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots
of laughter for January 2018....:)
Sunday, 24 December 2017
Happy Holidays ....
Wishing
all you in Cambodia, Myanmar and around the World a very Happy, Healthy Holiday Season
and a Prosperous New Year 2018 – We wish you a year filled with love, joy
and much more !
We miss
you and often talk about the good times that we had together ...
Kevin,
(my accompanied partner, my husband) and I have ventured off once again across
the Ocean. This time to Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar ... !
We look
forward to sharing our ongoing adventures with you.
More
will be posted at later time ....:) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots
of laughter for the rest of December .... Alice / Kevin Chandler xo
Friday, 22 December 2017
Yamin Mg Mg
About Me – Brief Biography
I
am Yamin Maung Maung. I was born in 27th of March, 1991. I have five
family members. My father is an officer working at the Myanmar Railway station
at the Ministry of transportation. My
mother is a good housewife. I have three siblings including me. I have two
younger brothers. They are University students
As my saying childhood, I started school at the age of 5. I was a primary and high school student at the No. (3), B.E.H.S Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, Yangon. The schools are located on the Upper Pansodan Road and a school for only girls.
In 2007, I passed the matriculation exam and received an A.G.T.I Diploma in 2009. Then I joined the Eastern University of Yangon and specialized in Physics starting with 2nd year. I didn’t need to attend from the 1st year as I got the A.G.T.I Diploma.
In 2011, I graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Science in Physics. In 2013, I got this job as a Lower Divisional Clerk at the Speaker’s Office of the Pyithu Hluttaw. After my 1st year, I was promoted to as an Upper Divisional Clerk 2 years later I was again promoted as a Deputy Staff officer on 2nd June, 2017. I still work at the same office with 4 years experience at the parliament here in my section.
As my saying childhood, I started school at the age of 5. I was a primary and high school student at the No. (3), B.E.H.S Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, Yangon. The schools are located on the Upper Pansodan Road and a school for only girls.
In 2007, I passed the matriculation exam and received an A.G.T.I Diploma in 2009. Then I joined the Eastern University of Yangon and specialized in Physics starting with 2nd year. I didn’t need to attend from the 1st year as I got the A.G.T.I Diploma.
In 2011, I graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Science in Physics. In 2013, I got this job as a Lower Divisional Clerk at the Speaker’s Office of the Pyithu Hluttaw. After my 1st year, I was promoted to as an Upper Divisional Clerk 2 years later I was again promoted as a Deputy Staff officer on 2nd June, 2017. I still work at the same office with 4 years experience at the parliament here in my section.
More will be posted at a later date … 🙂 In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for December and the New Year …. :)
ကိုယ်ရေးအကျဉ်း
ကျွန်မ၏အမည်မှာ
ယမင်းမောင်မောင်ဖြစ်ပါသည်။ ၁၉၉၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လ ၂၇ ရက်နေ့တွင်မွေးဖွားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မ
တွင် မိသားစုဝင် (၅) ဦးရှိပါသည်။ ကျွန်မ၏အဖေသည် နိုင်ငံဝန်ထမ်းတစ်ဦးဖြစ်ပြီး
အမေသည် မှီခိုသူဖြစ်သည်။ ကျွန်မတွင် မွေးချင်းမောင်နှမ ၃ ယောက်ရှိပါသည်။ ကျွန်မအပါအဝင်
တက္ကသိုလ်တက်နေဆဲဖြစ်သည့် မောင်လေး ၂ ယောက် တို့ဖြစ်ပါသည်။
ကျွန်မသည်
ကျောင်းနေအရွယ် အသက် (၅)နှစ်မှ စ၍ မူလတန်း၊ အလယ်တန်းနှင့် အထက်တန်းများကို အ.ထ.က (၃)
မင်္ဂလာတောင်ညွှန့်၌ တက်ရောက်ပညာ သင်ကြားခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မတို့၏ ကျောင်းသည် အထက် ပန်းဆိုးတန်းလမ်းမပေါ်တွင်တည်ရှိပြီး
အမျိုးသမီးများသာ တက်ရောက်ရသည့် မိန်းကလေးကျောင်းဖြစ်ပါသည်။
၂၀၀၇
ခုနှစ်တွင် တက္ကသိုလ်၀င်တန်းစာမေးပွဲ အောင်မြင်ခဲ့ပြီး ၂၀၀၉ ခုနှစ်တွင် A.G.T.I
(IT) ဒီပလိုမာ ရရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။ ၂၀၁၁ ခုနှစ်တွင် သိပ္ပံဘွဲ့(ရူပဗေဒ) ကို ရန်ကုန် အဝေးသင်တက္ကသိုလ်မှ
ရရှိခဲ့ပါသည်။
၂၀၁၃
ခုနှစ်တွင် အငယ်တန်းစာရေးအဖြစ် ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ရုံးတွင် အလုပ်စတင်ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့ပြီး
တစ်နှစ်ကြာသောအခါ အကြီးတန်းစာရေးအဖြစ် ရာထူး တိုးမြှင့်ခြင်းခံခဲ့ရပါသည်။ အကြီးတန်းစာရေးလုပ်ငန်းတာဝန်
များကို ထမ်းဆောင်ခဲ့ပြီး ၂ နှစ်ပြည့်သောအခါ ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ် ဇွန် လ ၂ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒုတိယဦးစီးမှူးအဖြစ်
ထပ်မံ၍ ရာထူး တိုးမြှင့်ခဲ့ပါသည်။ ကျွန်မသည် ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော်ဥက္ကဋ္ဌရုံး တွင် လွှတ်တော်ရုံးဝန်ထမ်းအဖြစ် တာဝန်ထမ်းဆောင်နေသည်
မှာ ၄ နှစ်ကျော်ခန့်ရှိပြီဖြစ်ပါသည်။
Thursday, 30 November 2017
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.
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 ....
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 ℃.
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?
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 ....
Saturday, 28 October 2017
We are Here in Cambodia!
October News
Time goes quickly. It’s hard to believe that Kevin and I have been here in NayPyiTaw for almost 6 months. It means that we are still having some enjoyable times … taking several trips around NayPyiTaw to get my laptop, that crashed recently, fixed, again. Celebrating newcomers, different groups of Parliament UK staff who have taken shifts, since I’ve been here, to work at the Pyidaungsu Parliament; while sadly biding farewell to a Cuso volunteer couple who left NayPyiTaw prematurely, a theme all too familiar. Connecting with colleagues at work for a communal delicious lovingly prepared Myanmar picnic, a fusion of ethnic cuisine displayed on one of the leader’s large desk. The sound of la vie quotidienne from our little community in our neighbourhood is still going strong. The two-year old brother, with grandpa by his side to comfort his grandson, continue to wail while watching his dad and his 2 older sibling leave home for school on the family’s motorcycle. While the boy next door, hunter green longyi with a well pressed white shirt sets off to school on the family bicycle, shoots a glance, a wave, a pleasing smile our way. Though we’ve had many activities on the go, I have no real excuse for not writing. My motto is to procrastinate until guilt creeps in to tell me that it’s time to put pen to paper.
Kevin and I spent our first part of our anniversary in Kalaw which is a cool hill station and in Inlet lake. They are both located in Shan state about 6 hours by bus to the east of NayPyiTaw. We have had some tasty Asian food including barbecue duck and dim sum and some crispy fresh baguettes. Inlet Lake is a tourist destination but it is still the low season. We went on a private boat trip that was interesting but deafening because of the longtail engine. The engine sound echoed in our ears thereafter before we were able to communicate again.
As I speak, we are here in Cambodia for 2 weeks visiting with friends and colleagues in Phnom Penh, Kep, Sihanoukville. We plan to visit Mondolki at a later date. Though we were warned that Cambodia, in particular Sihanouk was not only becoming highly developed, becoming a zoo of high rises, a jungle of concrete: casinos, hotels, et cetera that were in the midst of being constructed, and, being taken over by approximately 5 million Chinese entrepreneurs, overnigth? we still welcomed it with open arms, despite this revelation however .... catching up with news, and the general Asian life style and most importantly with friends and colleagues that we so much missed. It is indeed a nice break for us and it's the very place we wanted to spend our ongoing anniversary celebration in.
Our favourite place is Kep. Kep is known as the ‘little French Riviera’ of Cambodia. It’s a popular place for tourists and it is the place to relax, sleep and soak up the sun on a sleepy afternoon. The best part of the day is taking a stroll to the sailing club with wonderful friends for a glass of wine and to end up with at the crab market to watch the sunset while eating crab slathered in Kempot pepper sauce.
As for work, on our return to NayPyiTaw from Cambodia, the MPs are back at the parliament! With the MPs arrival, extra security has been placed, so it appears. The large tattered set of orange pylons, line across the road just before the turn off to the Parliament, were restored with a number of police guards that sat at their station taking count of the number of cars that squeezed through the narrow open spaced pylons! What’s more, extra police guards and parliamentary guards were at their gate stations to welcome the MPs return. The cafeterias, open to MPs and staff, are now back in full swing. One of the cafeterias was set up closer to the Pyidaugnsu wing for easier access to staff and to save time walking the 'mile-long' hallways ....
With the welcoming of the MPs, 28 new parliamentary staff joined the parliament. These new staff had successfully passed their last month's entry exams to work at the parliament. During their week long orientation, they visited all 3 houses: Pyidaungsu, Phyithu and Amyotha. They read their contracts, listened carefully to the leaders' regulations, expectations et cetera. At the end of the week, fully inducted, the new staff were given two longys each, their parliament uniform to wear for work.
Photos will be posted at a later date.
More will be posted at a later date ... :) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for November ....
Time goes quickly. It’s hard to believe that Kevin and I have been here in NayPyiTaw for almost 6 months. It means that we are still having some enjoyable times … taking several trips around NayPyiTaw to get my laptop, that crashed recently, fixed, again. Celebrating newcomers, different groups of Parliament UK staff who have taken shifts, since I’ve been here, to work at the Pyidaungsu Parliament; while sadly biding farewell to a Cuso volunteer couple who left NayPyiTaw prematurely, a theme all too familiar. Connecting with colleagues at work for a communal delicious lovingly prepared Myanmar picnic, a fusion of ethnic cuisine displayed on one of the leader’s large desk. The sound of la vie quotidienne from our little community in our neighbourhood is still going strong. The two-year old brother, with grandpa by his side to comfort his grandson, continue to wail while watching his dad and his 2 older sibling leave home for school on the family’s motorcycle. While the boy next door, hunter green longyi with a well pressed white shirt sets off to school on the family bicycle, shoots a glance, a wave, a pleasing smile our way. Though we’ve had many activities on the go, I have no real excuse for not writing. My motto is to procrastinate until guilt creeps in to tell me that it’s time to put pen to paper.
Kevin and I spent our first part of our anniversary in Kalaw which is a cool hill station and in Inlet lake. They are both located in Shan state about 6 hours by bus to the east of NayPyiTaw. We have had some tasty Asian food including barbecue duck and dim sum and some crispy fresh baguettes. Inlet Lake is a tourist destination but it is still the low season. We went on a private boat trip that was interesting but deafening because of the longtail engine. The engine sound echoed in our ears thereafter before we were able to communicate again.
As I speak, we are here in Cambodia for 2 weeks visiting with friends and colleagues in Phnom Penh, Kep, Sihanoukville. We plan to visit Mondolki at a later date. Though we were warned that Cambodia, in particular Sihanouk was not only becoming highly developed, becoming a zoo of high rises, a jungle of concrete: casinos, hotels, et cetera that were in the midst of being constructed, and, being taken over by approximately 5 million Chinese entrepreneurs, overnigth? we still welcomed it with open arms, despite this revelation however .... catching up with news, and the general Asian life style and most importantly with friends and colleagues that we so much missed. It is indeed a nice break for us and it's the very place we wanted to spend our ongoing anniversary celebration in.
Our favourite place is Kep. Kep is known as the ‘little French Riviera’ of Cambodia. It’s a popular place for tourists and it is the place to relax, sleep and soak up the sun on a sleepy afternoon. The best part of the day is taking a stroll to the sailing club with wonderful friends for a glass of wine and to end up with at the crab market to watch the sunset while eating crab slathered in Kempot pepper sauce.
As for work, on our return to NayPyiTaw from Cambodia, the MPs are back at the parliament! With the MPs arrival, extra security has been placed, so it appears. The large tattered set of orange pylons, line across the road just before the turn off to the Parliament, were restored with a number of police guards that sat at their station taking count of the number of cars that squeezed through the narrow open spaced pylons! What’s more, extra police guards and parliamentary guards were at their gate stations to welcome the MPs return. The cafeterias, open to MPs and staff, are now back in full swing. One of the cafeterias was set up closer to the Pyidaugnsu wing for easier access to staff and to save time walking the 'mile-long' hallways ....
With the welcoming of the MPs, 28 new parliamentary staff joined the parliament. These new staff had successfully passed their last month's entry exams to work at the parliament. During their week long orientation, they visited all 3 houses: Pyidaungsu, Phyithu and Amyotha. They read their contracts, listened carefully to the leaders' regulations, expectations et cetera. At the end of the week, fully inducted, the new staff were given two longys each, their parliament uniform to wear for work.
Other news, the dry season has returned and brought with it
ants that have returned to our house. It's now the burning season so you
can imagine the smoke and smell that we’re about to encounter Our humble neighbour,
spent hours cleaning our front garden and driveway and, conscious of the smoke, burnt the dried vegetation
at night so that we could escape the smoke.
Photos will be posted at a later date.
More will be posted at a later date ... :) In the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for November ....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)