My trip to Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia were really inspiring connecting with both my global human rights work, and my personal passion to find ways to address poverty issues under my FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative. One thing of note, poverty is poverty no matter where one finds it. There were so many similarities with my work in Africa under my FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative with what I saw and experienced in Myanmar and Cambodia. Below follows just a short sense of what I view both professionally and personal and impactful trip.
In Burma (official name is Myanmar), I traveled on my own 4 hours south to see one of the Buddhist pilgrimage sites called Golden Rock, 654 ton rock overlaid with 24ct gold which for millennia has rested on about a one foot square patch of mountain. A lock of Buddha's hair is reportedly inside the rock. Challenge for me was walking barefoot 1/2 mile on hot stone as no shoes or sock are allowed on the trek up the path to the site. The following 7 days were Human Right Watch (HRW) Board member days. We had a series of meetings with: parliamentarians, human rights activists, journalists, and political prisoners who were blacklisted during the years Burma was closed until 2011 when it begin its transition from military rule. We also visited the old historical sites in downtown Rangoon (official name is Yangon), where the protest marches took place led by the Buddhists, which begin the political transition which we see today in Yangon 3 years after their protest. Many of our meetings were held in the capital Nyapyidaw (as the capital is not Rangoon/Yangon). We met with the country's President and Ministers of Defense, Information, Homeland, Religious Affairs, and Social Welfare as several foreign ambassador based in Myanmar to hear their views on the transition, and next steps. Our focus was on efforts to make the transition from military rule to democracy successful. We had discussions about the ethnic discrimination against the Rahinga. As HRW Board ...
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