In my nomadic working life, during which I worked in over fifty different locations in more than a dozen different countries, two stand out as absolutely life- and career-changing, and they both begin with 'b': Bougainville and Burma.
The Buddhist nation of Burma turned into an almost-totalitarian state for 26 years -- 1962-1988 -- under the *Burmese Way to (Marxist, really) Socialism -- following a military coup in March 1962. Young and seemingly bullet-proof, I lived and worked there for the whole of 1975 when the dictator General Ne Win was still at the height of his power. He later shared this power with the Communists and got burned -- à la Indonesia under Sukarno -- when, in 1988, millions of Burmese from all walks of life took to the streets across the nation and toppled the national-socialist dictatorship -- without any moral or material help from the outside world.
Burma today has turned right and embraced the West -- again. The Socialist utopia -- the dream of most Burmese nationalist leaders including Suu Kyi's father, General Aung San, had turned into a nightmare. While sanctions are being lifted in Burma and inspirational activitist Aung San Suu Kyi has been released, modernisation has come to a city untouched by time for decades.
An historic transformation is happening in Myanmar, once was Burma. The country is emerging from its isolation and finally joining the 21st Century in what has been described as "the Burmese spring." This revolution is being felt most particularly in the former capital Yangon, once was Rangoon. There is at last the prospect of an end to decades of neglect and decay. However this brave new world spells uncertainty for the future of not only the unique collection of colonial heritage buildings that have miraculously survived, but also for other aspects of a the city where the national costume is worn by most of the population, the women and children have a creamy paste called "thanaka" smeared on their faces and the world's oldest buses converted from World War Two army trucks are still in service.
Burma survived being bombed in World War II and sixty years of totalitarian rule but there is a strange irony with the onset of democracy. What Rudyard Kipling described as 'This is Burma, and it will be quite unlike any land you know about', and which still existed almost unchanged during my life there, is fast disappearing. Before too many great changes occur to the unique built heritage of the old capital Rangoon, architect and film set designer Kim Buddee visited the country to photograph a moment in time which he compiled in his lavishly produced book Once was Burma.
Of course, I've bought this book as an important keepsake of my time in the Golden Land.
P.S. And here is another interesting book about Burma.
