In 2005, Rita Kuk walked into a classroom where she was the only Asian face, beside her sisters who accompanied her. Her family had moved across the world and she was forced to start from what she calls, “ground zero.”

The U. S. Census reported a population of 135,500 residents in Calhoun County in 2011. A little more than six percent of that population is foreign-born, many who come to America with refugee or asylee status. This year, the Calhoun County Public Health Department listed at least 28 percent of the county’s foreign-born population as Burmese, with the likelihood that they were underrepresented in the study.

By KYAW HSU MON / THE IRRAWADDY

RANGOON — A landmark monthly magazine on human rights and democracy in Burma is showing strong sales just four months after launching, according to its director.

Available at book stores in Rangoon, Naypyidaw and Mandalay, the Burmese-language Journal of Human Rights and Democracy covers topics that just a few years ago would have not have made it to publication under the censorship of the military regime.

But it was launched in May—amid an opening up of Burma’s print media environment after a quasi-civilian government took power in 2011—by the Myanmar Knowledge Society (MKS), with backing from a Norwegian aid agency. The first four editions have covered some of the most pertinent issues in Burma today—people’s rights, democracy in transition, freedom of speech in Burma and hate speech.

By SAMANTHA MICHAELS / THE IRRAWADDY

RANGOON — The entrance hall to Lumbini Academy is not like that of a typical school in Burma. Just inside, behind a winding staircase that leads to classrooms upstairs, a few children run around an indoor playground, racing down yellow and red slides, while a boy sits on the ledge of a small indoor pool, watching a collection of fish swim by.

“We’re teaching the children the difference between living things and nonliving things,” says Khu Hse Phaw, a 32-year-old preschool teacher. “We go out and show them the fish, the plants and the turtles—we have those, too.”

Covenant World Relief

For over a year, increasing violent conflict in Burma has caused many communities and thousands of people to become displaced within their own country.

But recently the Karen National Union has participated in talks of peace. While concerns still remain about a possible resurgence of the Burma Army, many leaders are hopeful that these conflicts will officially draw to a close in the weeks ahead.

One major concern is what the political status of the Karen people will be. They worry that the Burmese government will confiscate their land (as has happened in other ethnic areas). They also worry that the government will prevent them from teaching in their own language and managing their own civil departments (Health, Education). Much remains to be seen in the outcome of these peace talks.

Author: Adam P MacDonald, Halifax

John Blaxland recently acknowledged that return to military rule in Myanmar is becoming an increasingly marginal (but not impossible) prospect. The expected international and domestic retaliatory actions to a return to military rule in Myanmar are a major deterrent, as they could potentially derail Myanmar’s political stability, economic development and threaten important cease-fires.

This, combined with an entrenched position in the political architecture that preserves their institutional autonomy and influence, has encouraged the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) to play a back-stage and non-disruptive role so far in the democratic reform process. Eliminating avenues of military interference is a necessary condition for such reform, but by itself it will not guarantee Myanmar’s democratic future.