Coup Continued

[Above photo:  The only bird to come to our bird feeder. Note the feed; we thought we were buying birdseed but got brightly colored pellets of something else, instead. I wouldn’t eat it either.]

8 February 2021

The coup continues, with growing gatherings of protesters. They assemble at Hledan Center, nearby Yangon University where students triggered the 1988 revolution. They then march across town on a proscribed route to Sule Pagoda and adjacent Maha Bandula Park. Yesterday the crowd of marchers was estimated at 2000. Today it swelled to 10,000+. Plus, the roads were filled with cars of NLD supporters, honking horns and holding up the 3 finger “Democracy” sign, all heading for Sule. Although there were many police and army present at Sule, there was apparently no violence. The doctors, nurses, and support staff at 70 government hospitals across Myanmar are doing “Civil Disobedience”, the details of which I am not certain.

We’ve had guests for supper the past two nights. On each night at 8PM pots were banged all over Yangon, setting up a deafening din for 30 minutes. It is a way to “drive out the evil spirits”; we used it in Boy Scouts to chase off hungry bears from our campsites. Irene and I walked up our driveway in the dark last night to the road to view the pot bangers from there. Our elderly landlords were in a small pocket garden behind their house, banging away. We joined in from the balcony of our home.

Rumors abound. For example, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi provoked the coup because she was getting on in years, had a strong hand having won the November election by a landslide, and wanted to complete the removal of the military from the government. Or, a senior general in Rakhine State has sided with the Rohingya and is commanding his troops to oppose the military in Nay Pyi Taw. Or, Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with treason and faces something between 20 years and the death penalty. Or, Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from detention. And on and on. Fortunately, through Kelly I have excellent, high level sources of information to correct the “fake news”.

The military government has shut off the internet and phone service for the weekend, presumably to interfere with the opposition organizing. The services go on and off at irregular intervals. It was compounded today by the electricity going off. There is a countrywide curfew from 6PM to 6AM. I had to cancel my Sunday webinar.

As ex-pats, we stay out of the fray. It isn’t our country, we can always hop a plane home (assuming they open the airports which are now closed), and our presence may lend credence to the old military saw that “outside agitators”, in cahoots with Aung San Suu Kyi, are involved. That is a Chinese CP trick, fooling no one, I think. They used it during the demonstrations in Hong Kong to de-legitimize the protesters and distract from the genuine issues.

It feels like the protests may grow and become violent. Then, again, the military may let people march and bang on pots until they weary of it. The outcome is at least as unpredictable as the price of GameStop.

It is pretty hilarious, watching the Republican Party try to deal with their Marjorie Taylor Greene wing: pedophiles, Satanists, cannibals, Frazzledrip, Hugo Chavez, bullets to congress people’s heads, and on and on. I forgot the Jewish space lazers starting the forest fires in California. Some of them are still so shaken by Hillary. Imagine the temerity of That Woman, wanting to be president! There are many thoughtful essays about why people are so susceptible to these wild ideas. I am drawn to the ones that suggest adherents can find what they want in them. Some want an excuse to be violent and an acceptable outlet for their hatred/racism/fear, some want more certainty in their lives, some want to feel special and in-the-know about “secrets”.  The joy of conspiracy is that it provides a way to explain Everything, kind of like a religion. “I don’t know why it happened that way, but God has his reasons.”  Whew, glad there is a holy explanation for the molestations, rapes, murders, wars, cancers, and other assorted miseries allowed, if not enabled, by an all-powerful being.

I apologize to those who are offended by the above. I think that, despite the loving feelings and generous, self-less deeds enacted by many religious leaders and followers, we could just do this as humans and humanists, not as members of this or that exclusive or competing religion. It too often sets up magical thinking, exclusivity, irrationality, anti-science and suppression of knowledge, persecution, and antagonism, “holy wars”—-my god is kinder, smarter, stronger, wiser, righter than your god.  My Bible/Koran/Sutra has the true word. Kind of like fraternities and sororities.

Clearly, I am not about readership here. It is difficult enough for us all to get along together, without bringing exclusivity or a doctrine of superiority into the mix. Religion is often used hypocritically for political manipulation, obscuring underlying issues of economic inequity, oppression of women and minorities, and on and on. Witness the Evangelicals in support of DT, a liar, a womanizer, an adulterer, a rapist, an exploiter of religion.

On a lighter note, I accompanied Kelly on his regular Sunday outing to l’Opera, a wonderful Italian restaurant with outdoor seating on landscaped grounds at the northern edge of Inya Lake. It has an excellent tennis court and, more importantly, an ongoing tennis tournament. I got to watch some very good tennis (Kelly and Andrew winning in doubles) and some mediocre tennis (“I can play better than that.” I told myself.). I had good conversations with several people and enjoyed a fine pasta Amatriciana. I plan to return Sunday mornings on occasion; it is a good place to meet people and also to get information about the coup.  Maybe I’ll even pick up a racquet. The owner, Francesco, is an avuncular 85yo Italian. His first wife died of cancer so he married his secretary from his days as the Italian consul.  Bo Bo is a smart, engaging, university-graduated Myanmar woman. I had a terrific talk with her. I like the mix of characters, from the art gallery owner to the microfinance expert to the power company business facilitator to the head of a UN Agency, all with interesting tales and collected wisdom about working in Myanmar.

This is my first coup. It feels similar to the attempt in the US. First they broke in; then, “Now what?” It’s difficult for me to see a successful or even face-saving military end-game here.