Insight Myanmar

Episode #214: Whit Hornsberger's spiritual journey began unexpectedly when a devastating ACL injury ended his basketball career at the University of Calgary. The loss of his identity as an athlete plunged him into darkness, and he sought solace in surfing and partying in Australia. His path took a significant turn, however, when he discovered the teachings of the Dalai Lama and delved into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. “I laughed to myself, and I realized in that moment, I was certainly not happy!” Whit recalls upon reading The Art of Happiness. “If this was an art—that is happiness—I wanted to pursue it with as much intention as I did basketball and everything else that I've pursued in my life. So that's what got me going.”So Whit signed up for a Mahasi-style vipassana course in California led by Jack Kornfield, and then later he sat an intensive (and life-altering) meditation course with Alan Clements at the Mahasi monastery in Yangon. Eventually, Whit returned to Canada, and became a sought-after teacher. Whit’s approach merges yoga and meditation, emphasizing mindfulness in all activities. He challenges the Western approach to yoga and meditation, advocating for a deeper, more holistic understanding of the practices. He encourages students to embrace discomfort and foster awareness within it.Notably, Whit also emphasizes the interconnectedness of spirituality, shifting the focus from self-centered meditation to dedicating the fruits of one's actions to others and society. “This is the antithesis of a selfish path! It's possible to do things, including meditation, from a selfish perspective,” he says. “The ego instinct has many strategies as to how to make anything about itself, including spirituality.”Whit's dedication to giving back extends to supporting monasteries and humanitarian missions in Myanmar, and does so despite not charging anything for his courses. He believes in honoring the wisdom that originated from these places and urged his students to express their innate generosity.“When that mind goes back [after a meditation retreat] into its conditioned, myopic perspective, it doesn't think about Burma… the collection of dana for Myanmar is something that is hugely important for my own spiritual practice! And from what I've heard from practitioners, it's very important to them that we're helping out a place that has given us so much through these practices and through these teachings.”

Episode #213: Isaac Evans-Frantz outlines the mission of Action Corps, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to justice and solidarity in the face of global disasters. One of their initiatives is in support of ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Myanmar.Even though Isaac has never visited Myanmar, the work hits home in a personal way. “When I was a child, somebody came to my class and spoke about surviving the Holocaust. He had been in a Nazi death camp, he showed us the number on his arm, and he told us horrific stories. I promised myself after that, that if I were ever in a position where I knew about some genocide that was happening… I would do everything that I could to stop that!” So for him, it was only natural that the situation in Myanmar would find a place in his heart.Jade, a Kachin-American, has been working with Action Corps, and joins Evans-Frantz in the discussion. She emphasizes the importance of building a collective identity among diaspora communities, which has two parts. One regards the younger generation of the Burmese diaspora and their struggles with cultural identity as “third culture kids.” The other is the challenge of unity within the diaspora community, which is hindered by historical social, cultural and political divisions. The ability of the wider diaspora community to engage in advocacy is further complicated by the economic struggles many face in the U.S. and cultural norms of stoicism in the face of difficulties.“Feel encouraged that there are people out here who are trying to make a difference and that you can too!” Jade says in closing. “No one is ever alone. Our power really does come from coming together and being in solidarity.”

Episode #212: Sean Turnell's remarkable journey in Myanmar, spanning over three decades, reflects a life deeply intertwined with the country's tumultuous history.He first describes his extensive research on Myanmar's economy, culminating in his first book, “Fiery Dragons,” which highlighted the importance of understanding history and culture in economics.Turnell's involvement deepened when he joined Aung San Suu Kyi's government as an economic advisor in 2016, a time fraught with challenges like the constant threat of a military coup and a looming banking crisis. His efforts to reform the banking sector faced resistance—along with personal threats— due to the involvement of criminal enterprises.Following the military takeover on February 1st, 2021, Turnell was tried on trumped up espionage charges and imprisoned for 650 days. His ordeal was marked by Kafkaesque court proceedings, horrible prison conditions and multiple battles with COVID-19. Turnell did find some solace in books, and especially solidarity with fellow political prisoners. He was even able to get some guarded moments with Aung San Suu Kyi, who impressed him with her strength and resilience even in such terrible circumstances.Turnell remains an outspoken opponent of the junta's crimes, despite facing extradition threats. The experience has transformed him, making him more inclined towards activism and advocacy.Amid all those challenges, Turnell developed a deep faith in the courage and compassion of the Burmese people, believing that they will ultimately prevail in their quest for a brighter future. “From what I've seen, Myanmar is the collection of the best, the brightest, most courageous people I've ever met in my life and I remain confident that they'll win through in the end.”

Episode #211: Enze Han, an Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, conducted ground-breaking research that analyzes patterns of conflict in relation to geography. His study, "Rugged terrain, forest coverage, and insurgency in Myanmar," analyzed the tumultuous years from 2010 to 2018.His findings revealed a strategic dance within the country's terrain. Conflict tends to avoid the extremes of high- or low-density forests, following an inverted U-shaped pattern related to conflict and forest coverage. Too light, and the military’s superior weaponry and technology give them too much of an advantage; too heavy, and their superiority is neutralized, giving ethnic forces too much of an advantage. So conflict happens in between.Elevation is also a key consideration; both rebels and the military favored the mountains. Even though the military historically dominated the Bamar regions, they have more recently established bases at higher altitudes, which are mainly in the country’s ethnic regions and allow them to extend their reach there. This strategic move is couples with systematic deforestation, which not only generates illicit profits for military leaders and their cronies, but also helps flush out ethnic fighters.Han's study predates the coup, so it primarily examines military-ethnic skirmishes in mountainous and forested areas, but not the Bamar heartland. However, post-coup Myanmar has introduced conflict between Bamar-led PDF groups and the military, which still adheres to the same terrain-forest patterns.

Episode #210: Andrea Gittleman's deep familiarity with Myanmar spans 15 years, and is rooted in her work with the Burma Lawyers' Council in Mae Sot. With meager resources, the council educated Burmese migrants on their labor rights in Thailand while documenting atrocities back in Myanmar. Witnessing the regime's grim human rights record firsthand, Gittleman embarked on a mission to garner international momentum for a commission of inquiry.Today, as the policy director for the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, Gittleman is able to draw on her Myanmar expertise, as the center has been tracking violence against the Rohingya since 2013. The museum's current Rohingya exhibit aims to make the tragedy tangible, urging introspection on missed opportunities to prevent genocide and ongoing human rights abuses.The impactful influence of the exhibition resonated in Washington as U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, credited his 2022 visit to the museum for informing his solemn declaration that the military's brutal atrocities met the legal definition of genocide. Gittleman emphasizes that the determination, while certainly not a cause for celebration, serves as a crucial catalyst for political momentum and the potential protection of innocent lives at risk.“We want to make sure that we're doing what we can to share this information with the public and those who are able to spread it within their networks,” she says in closing. “We’re trying to keep momentum going and keep a focus on the plight of people at risk of atrocities across Burma, and doing what we can to make sure that that policy conversations can continue to take that with the utmost seriousness.”

Michael Haack sheds light on the intricate world of US sanctions and their impact on Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprises (MOGE) and the wider Myanmar military regime. Haack, a familiar voice on the podcast, has spent two decades advocating for Myanmar, playing a pivotal role in the passage of the Burma Act.These latest sanctions, as Haack explains, cut off US financial services to MOGE, affecting loans and transfers, which may seem minor but actually have a profound impact. MOGE, being a vital source of foreign exchange for the military, deals primarily in US dollars, making these sanctions more significant than they initially appear. He believes one positive effect is that they will make it harder for the regime to acquire dollars for weapons.However, he says they are ultimately, not a game changer, contrasting them with the EU's more potent sanctions, which compelled even China to divert funds intended for MOGE into escrow. He emphasizes that US sanctions were drafted with Thailand's interests in mind, allowing Myanmar to continue selling gas to its eastern neighbor. Haack hints at the US prioritizing its relations with Thailand over opposing Myanmar's regime, and also notes the influence of corporate lobbying.Haack also points out that the history of US sanctions includes targeting the garment industry, which disproportionately affected vulnerable workers, and how such sanctions often serve as moral victories rather than practical solutions.Haack closes by criticizing what he calls the “semiotic loop,” in which good news from Myanmar is amplified without meaningful change. He highlights the challenge of navigating Myanmar's “low information environment” and the influence of diverse groups, from religious organizations to corporations, in shaping US decisions. Haack's insights reveal the complexities of international sanctions and their implications for Myanmar's ongoing struggle for democracy.

Episode #209: Susan Zaw’s father and grandfather were both military men, and she had never really been a real fan of the National League for Democracy (NLD). But on February 28, shortly after the coup, everything changed. Her neighbor, a taxi driver, accidentally was hit in the neck by a soldier’s stray bullet. He was immediately rushed to the hospital for an emergency operation, but while in recovery, soldiers came and whisked him away. It is common practice for the military to apprehend those who have been injured by soldiers, and then fraudulently charge them with assault. So victims suffer doubly, injured by the military, then arrested for it.Then on March 27, Armed Forces Day, Susan found herself in a large but peaceful protest. The military responded with force, however, killing 30 people. Some of Susan’s friends were arrested, and she, herself, barely escaped to safety. The military claimed that the soldiers had acted in self-defense against a violent mob. It was a blatant lie, and Susan was disgusted.The trauma of those experiences left a deep mark on Susan, and led her to throw her full support behind the democracy movement. She soon became active in raising funds for CDM and PDF groups. Her family initially had reservations, but Susan was determined, and her family relented.Eventually, she was invited to join a group attempting to reach out to soldiers in the hope of finding common ground and reminding them of their empathy. This led to an invitation for her to teach English to defectors, and reach out to their wives as well. Those connections have been so successful that Susan’s group has been tasked with working with the defectors’ wives to make contact with the spouses of those who are still deployed, and convincing them to be on the right side of history.

Panel discussion on why Myanmar's struggle for democracy has been ignored, addressing topics such as challenges in fundraising and support, difficulties faced by the democracy movement, creating positive narratives, leadership and collaboration, cultural tendencies and gratitude, the significance of wearing a ruby, and the extraordinary youth of Myanmar's democracy movement.

Episode #207: Seeking a way to satisfy a growing internal discontent, Nobuko Nakano turned to psychedelics and other drugs, and hard partying in her youth. It was hard for her to stop, even after taking her first vipassana meditation course in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. Finally, though, she felt she had come to a fork in the road, and made the commitment to spend an extended period of time sitting and serving courses at Dhamma Aloka. Becoming more grounded in the practice, she traveled on to India and stayed at the Dhamma Giri, where she also took an extended Pāḷi course.Around that time, she and her partner enrolled in a 45-day vipassana course in Dhamma Sindhu in Gujarat. They had plans of returning to Australia and becoming more committed in their relationship, but on this course, something fundamental shifted in Nobuko; she realized that a relationship commitment in lay life was no longer for her.She ended up in Burma, where she decided to ordain as a nun. The ceremony was surprisingly emotional for her, and even nine months into wearing robes, the pain of having let go of her relationship with her boyfriend was still so acute that one day she decided to disrobe and go back to him, until a senior nun talked her out of it.She dedicated her time in robes to pariyatti study and intensive meditation practice, until several issues started bubbling over from under the surface. First was the disparity in how male and female monastics were treated in Burma. Yet even more egregious was the growing, anti-Muslim propaganda that was starting up (and eventually led to the Rohyinga crisis). She couldn’t reconcile how a community that had been so supportive and generous towards her, and was so committed to following the Buddha’s teachings, could become so hateful and paranoid. Nobuko realized that it was time for her to move on from Myanmar.Nobuko had still not disrobed when she finally returned to Melbourne, and her mother confided to her that she wanted her to return to lay life. She said, “I hadn't lived in the world for nine years, so I gave it some thought, and I decided, ‘How about I give it a shot being back in the world, and try to be a good, wholesome, dhammic person in the lay life, a contributing member in society?’”

Episode #206: Soon after Delphine Schrank arrived in Yangon in 2008 as a Washington Post reporter to cover the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, she realized that life under the brutal military was a big part of the story there. Her curiosity led her to uncover a thriving underground network of dissidents committed to building democracy. Her resulting book, The Rebel of Rangoon, delves into the lives of two main protagonists, Nway and Nigel, offering a nuanced perspective on their sacrifices and struggles.Nway's commitment to the movement stemmed from a pivotal moment in medical school when he chose activism over a comfortable life. Nigel, on the other hand, was initially disillusioned by politics but found his calling during the Saffron Revolution. Delphine also writes about other key figures, such as Win Tin, who dared to speak out against the regime, and Aung San Suu Kyi.The role of Buddhism and meditation in sustaining activists even behind bars is also explored. Delphine dispels the misconception that Burmese Buddhism leads to passivity, highlighting how it strengthens resolve and encourages self-sacrifice.While nonviolent resistance defined the pre-transition period, the post-coup resistance and National Unity Government (NUG) now considere armed resistance as necessary to confront the military's unrelenting duplicity, violence and brutality.“They haven't got to the destination,” she says in closing, “but they're getting there eventually, so I still have huge faith in them. And because of the sacrifice, the understanding of that long struggle, and all the other things that many of them have, and even the Buddhist philosophy underlying all this, they're going to get there, it just might not be in their own lifetimes. And some of them are willing to accept that. But they're going fight like hell until they get there and lose a lot of people along the way.”