Coming to terms with inequality in Burma

Burma is a country of inequalities.

Thousands of people live in close to destitute conditions in the downtown core - in small apartments in buildings from the early 20th century on streets that flood with day's garbage in the monsoon rains. They ride buses packed full with people hanging off the sides in the 100 F heat and now live in constant fear of displacement in the midst of rapid gentrification and modernization projects sponsored by the government and foreign businesses.

This is Burma's urban reality

But down the street from these realities are beautiful, modern, luxurious (and often foreign-owned) hotels. Surrounding these hotels are restaurants unaffordable to the local population serving French, American, and Italian cuisine. You can buy "traditional" jewelry that costs more than a doctor's monthly salary. And further North in the city are entire neighbourhoods of mansions and beautifully manicured parks. Some of these are Burmese, a relic of the inequality promoted by the 60 year (continuing) military regime.

In these neighbourhoods are beautiful parks and religious sites, attracting tourists from all over the world, but largely inaccessible to the general local population.

This past weekend, my mother and I took the local commuter train around the suburbs and agricultural areas surrounding Yangon. The train ride further emphasized the inequalities I witnessed in the urban area, as the downtown core reality for the vast majority of the Burmese population is magnified in the suburbs and rural areas.

I find this inequality difficult, although I realize that in many ways the same inequalities exist in my own country and throughout the West. And at home, like here, they also often take the same racialized and dynastic dimensions. So maybe what's hardest for me now, is coming to terms with the idea that although Myanmar is reforming and democratizing, those in power seem to be failing to confront these inequalities. It's hard because I know that even the human rights work I've worked on in the past was selective, calling for democratization and political rights, but refraining from promoting social and economic rights that could potentially address many of the underlying inequalities.

For now, I try to limit my negative effects here - by writing about what I'm seeing and supporting local businesses and institutions.

Off to work in the monsoon rains,
Sima