Singapore!

[Above photo: A welcome sign.]

31 March 2021

Conner called Than Htun Aung, our cabbie, for me yesterday. He arrived promptly at 6AM and we loaded my bags, again. At this outing, an hour earlier than last week’s, Yangon International wasn’t crowded and I sailed through my stations of the cross. All the Singapore airlines workers recognized me, my overweight baggage charge, and my massive overstay fees. The immigration officer at the Overstay Counter smiled nervously as I gave him $1530 US. Then I moved through the Immigration line quickly, went to the boarding area, and continued to read John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany for the next hour until we boarded. It was an easy passage.

Because I’ve been sending this blog out weekly or more praising the CDM and the protesters and criticizing the coup, because I have frequent Signal or WhatsApp chats with my students—most of whom are in hiding—, and because I am a signatory on a letter that was put together by someone in my Fulbright Group and that got to Secretary Blinken, I worried that I might be a target. That a soldier randomly pulled me aside and photographed my passport as I was leaving the Overstay Counter on my last attempt to leave also worried me. On my second outing with protesters, a 4 hour march in Yangon, many young men with telephoto lenses were snapping shots. The Chinese are rumored to have contributed their facial recognition skills to the Burmese military. Oh, I also donated one of my bank accounts in six different denominations of checks to support the CDM, about $5000.  That is what the military REALLY doesn’t like.

I arranged with Conner and Jose that I would text them each at every step—arrival at the airport, completing check-in, completing immigration, boarding, and arrival in Singapore. If the chain of texts ended abruptly, they would notify the Embassy. Happily, the chain held. I wasn’t as important as I thought!

Over 540 dead now, 158 last weekend alone. One Myanmar citizen was killed by the military every 80 minutes during the month of March, including 30 children. There are ongoing airstrikes in ethnic areas, killing civilians. Two protesters in different cities were thrown onto burning piles of tires and perished. It is getting very fierce. I’m glad to be out. If the military is ousted, I’ll return, next October at the earliest. What is more fun and meaningful for me at this stage of my life than contributing to the development of mental health services there? Nothing I can think of.

This hotel rents in 6 hour blocks, like those cubicles I’ve heard about in Narita or wherever in Japan. Unlike the KH Hotel near us in Yangon which is now closed but as it was failing was renting by the hour. This is not that sort of establishment and serves a great purpose for someone with a long layover and a few dollars who wants to get a shower and sleep.

I am now going to watch something funny and mindless (for the viewer) on TV.  I want to flush some of this out of me.