A Town So Close, But Yet So Far

By KYAW ZWA MOE Saturday, July 30, 2011

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But he kept anticipating a return to Burma.

“I always thought that ‘Maybe this coming Thingyan (the Burmese water festival), or that coming Buddhist holy day, I’ll go back,’” he says. “However, now, it seems I’ll be buried here with that dream.”

“But who knows,” he adds with a smile. “I might get that chance to go back home one day, because my life will be long. I’m pretty sure I will live to be 120 years old.

Mae Sot wakes up early, especially in the markets. One of the liveliest is known as Zay Gyi (big market) among the Burmese, and as markets usually do, it paints an accurate picture of the town’s character and inhabitants. This morning, many Burmese teashops in and around the market are crowded with Burmese customers, including me and Moe Kyo, who in 2004 founded the Joint Action Committee for Burmese affairs, which is mainly focused on protecting the rights of Burmese migrant workers...

This is an abstract of Kyaw Zwa Moe’s article that appears in The Irrawaddy’s latest e-magazine. To read the full version visit: http://issuu.com/irrawaddy/docs/irr_vol.19no2_june2011_issuu/20?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed

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COMMENTS (6)

Dave Wrote:

02/08/2011

A cracker of an article indeed - top marks!

nicole wolf Wrote:

31/07/2011

Thank you Kyaw. A very touching look at a town through the life of one.

Michael Wrote:

31/07/2011

Hi,

Can you provide the actual address of this man in this article?

I would like to donate some money to him.

Thank you

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:

31/07/2011

WHAT A FASCINATING ARTICLE

U Hla Phyu is a great man. We would to honour him. Greatness has nothing to do with fame; fame is a product of media manipulation. Any traitor can be famous with the help of the western media. Real heros and heroines, amongst the masses, are never recognised by the media.

We would also like to help the Burmese community in Mae Sot.

That part of Thailand was part of Burma. almost of half of Bangladesh belonged to Burma. What they call Chittagon is our 'Sittagaung', meaning war front/bridgehead.
Ask any Bangladeshi what the meaning of Chittagon is, they cannot answer.

Because of colonialism we lost territories around our current national boundary. FACT!

We convey our utmost respect to U Hla Phyu.

We are ready to support you materially if you contact us.

[email protected]

Greetings to all our Myanmar people in Mae Sot.

ON THIS OCCASION we thank IRRAWADDY for publishing this article.

Maung Aung Wrote:

31/07/2011

This is a compelling story. It's better to have read the whole story in the e-magazine. Mae Sot is a very unique town for Burmese people. Mae Sot seems to be a town for Burmese for many more years as long as Burma remains like now.

Kyi May Kaung Wrote:

31/07/2011

Beautifully written and should be built up into a full scale biography, fiction, or creative non-fiction of book length and published in print or e-version (Kindle etc.)

Much published work set in Burma is not that well written.

The article on Laiza is also good.

Unfortunately, the e-magazine is very hard to read - that format is very hard because of need to zoom in and "turn" the pages etc.

The painting illustrating the Mae Sot article is also very good.

Kyi May Kaung