Burma is a very special place for me. It's very poor and like Tibet, the last thing it needs is dramatic regime change or the different states will just slug it out like they did in the Balkans. If you read Monocle recently that article on Kosovo might help you understand because its great but also deeply depressing when the tribes get all....tribal. The best chance it has is for ASEAN to do SOMETHING but Asians have a culture of non inteference to the point where I've seen people run over by a car in Bangkok and nobody helps. It's not evil, its just a cultural fault. We have lots and lots too.
However China pretty much uses Burma as one of its Southern Ports so they have a lot of influence. But probably not enough to tell the Generals they are scum. They may not want to burn their bridges either.
So yesterday I finally bumped into my dealer again. I've been avoiding him because he sold me that Pop Communism painting and even though he's a nice guy, he's a bit pushy on the sales but yesterday was unavoidable so I did the decent thing and took a look around his gallery. That was a mistake because I found a painting about Burma there.
A Chinese person doing a painting about Burma takes a sort of internationalism that is hard to grasp to those outside this country. My heart melted and I bought it instantly. But I've been thinking about it, because I don't necessarily need to stack up on paintings and actually I put a deposit down on another painting that is about China and will be with me for the rest of my life. More on that later.
So I want to repay Burma and Rangoon back for the haunting beauty of Bagan and the tranquility of Pyae by offering this painting for sale. All money to the Burmese even if I have to fly there and stuff some dollars in someone's hand because I think they might be hit by a famine after that cyclone/hurricane/tropical monsoon that wiped out a 100 000 or so.
It's pretty desperate as I understand things.
If someone knows how to turn this into a meme/contagious content I'd be very grateful.
It is a creeping discomfort and travesty of humanity to witness suffering. I find that it is really rare, if at all, that a government and a people are sympatico. And I am not sure why, because what is the intention of a government to begin with? The beauty of actions can touch the soul of many.
ReplyDeleteNow if you could use your brilliantly creative brain to make this viral or find me a buyer. I'd probably stop off in Hong Kong on the way back if I have to fly there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your first comment Sherri. I practically had to bully you into social media. But we're friends and you know I'm an arsehole :)
howdy. there's a facebook application http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2440701991 that you could use to raise money/ auction the painting and activate/inform your network.
ReplyDeleteYou could get all Marcus-y and set up a challenge- perhaps set up some mates as team captains (ah we all love compteition!)and challenge them with tasks (raising the auction money? getting people to contribute micro payments?), with penalties for the loosing teams (for a cause)...
howdy. there's a facebook application http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2440701991 that you could use to raise money/ auction the painting and activate/inform your network.
ReplyDeleteYou could get all Marcus-y and set up a challenge- perhaps set up some mates as team captains (ah we all love compteition!)and challenge them with tasks (raising the auction money? getting people to contribute micro payments?), with penalties for the loosing teams (for a cause)...
Howdie Katie! Thanks for the constructive sessions. I shall do those but I'm also flying to LA and will put it into a dealers hand for a comission too if I can. Should raise a few dollars in the States I hope :)
ReplyDelete