Growing oversea Burmese community across the world

Last week, I was in a Christmas gathering party, led by London Karen community. When I received the invitation via email, my first thought was I could meet a few people there and I would have a chance to make a couple of new friends for fun and for information. I decided to join them. It took place in a church in West London.

I brought a bottle of wine as a routine whenever I go to gathering party. Surprisingly, over one hundred of Karens were already in the church, which has got enough space for attenders. Some were teenagers. Some were in their 30s. A few were over 50. They were speaking mainly Burmese and Karen. I found out some were using English. I felt that the atmosphere was pretty friendly and visitors were served with Burmese tradition fish soup ( Mont Hin Khar) , which was really tasty. Apparently a senior Karen man cooked it.

After praying God, young musicians started entertaining with fantastic music. I was told one of them had been working as music teacher after graduated in England. I was introduced with several people, who were ITs, nurses, doctors, accountants and others who were also working at decent professionals. I never come across previously Burma's ethnic minors in London who has made such an established society. I only heard before that there is a big Karen community in Sheffield which is in Yorkshire.

I notice Burmese are not keen to explore new places in history. Instead, they want to stick in the place where they were born. But the political and economic situation in Burma have been pushing more and more people to go abroad especially over the last two decades. As a result, at least one or two persons from each household emigrated. These days they can be seen in most countries, from east to west, including small islands like Seychelles and St Lucia.

Most people blame that it is the military government in Burma that leads to this situation. But if you think in different way, you can see a larger number of Burmese have been settling with their good status, already enjoying a good life style in affluent places. It will never happen if Burma is not in trouble.

Personally, I would encourage more Burmese to come out for the benefit of the nation and its people. Basically, once Myanmar, always Myanmar wherever you live. Take Vietnam for example. American vietnamese have been playing an important role in economic boost of that south east Asian country.

In the internet era, I feel that Brain drain theory is no longer applicable. Brain network has been established across the globe. What you need is "access"

Parker ballpen review

Basically I am fountain pen fan, not ball pen. But last time, I bought this Parker ball pen from local Pen Sense without intention while shopping around  at town. It looked nice . Only £18.

Unfortunately, my first problem with this stainless steel pen was the ball point which delayed to work, not enough ink even after forceful test strokes on white paper.


The next  issue is that it is too much slippery in my  fingers. Every time I wrote, I needed to concentrate not to lose from gripping point. I have no idea why tip end metal surface so smooth. 

Everybody knows that the Parker ball pen is  not posh in the world standard.. But wondering why the manufacturer did not test it properly before sending to market. Maybe poor  customer feedback system or they dont care feedbaclk. Another possibility is that rival pen producers have been managing to produce such non-user friendly product after putting their cells in production line of the Parker. Just thinking. My thinking may not be realistic.

I have Lamy pens which are really nice with comfortable hand grip. So I did not expect this kind of issue before buying this Parker ball pen.

IPad and Nottingham town centre

My ipad case

Bank holiday weekend!

I put on easy Autographs shoes. Sunny weather so I did not think I needed my old CK duck feather-filled jacket. So I chose Blue harbour beige coloured cotton one instead. I drove to town. I was sure the Costa was still open till late afternoon in this summer time. I was right. There were some coffee lovers still there. I bought medium sized Americano and walked out of the corner coffee shop, heading to the city hall area where people were sitting and standing  in groups.
My one hand was holding ipad as my idea was to read a book in open space. I love to do so. The coffee cup was in my other hand. After sitting there for sometime, I felt a bit cold. I walked around in the nearby small lanes. I saw some party goers.

After 5 min walk, I noticed that someone stared at me from one corner. He was an Afrio-Caribbean young man with a hooded jacket. He was shorter than me. 3 min later, I was on the pavement along the tram line. I found he was following me from 50 yardsbehind. I kept walking. And I suddenly sat down on road side chairs. And I looked around. He suddenly hid behind the one of the buildings. But he was still peeping at me. Nutter!. I showed him 2 finger sign. I was not sure he saw it or not. Then I rushed to my car I parked in nearby roadside.
I was checking myself. Why was he stalking me? What's wrong with me? Of course, I was holding my ipad in my hand . Usually, I put it in my bag.

I heard locals called their town "Shoottingham"  as a joke. Of course, a high shooting incidence in Nottingham. In recent new year days, apparently 3 shooting in first 10 days of 2011 . Other crime rates are relatively high as well.But Nottingham has got a good health care with the largest teaching hospital in Europe, called QMC. Of course, it is needed..

Photo:  Panoramio

Laptop not allowed to carry on Myanmar rail

 In many countries, the train operators make wifi internet access and power source  available on their carriages for travellers. But in Myanmar (Burma) it is different. Forget about the internet. If you carry a laptop, you may face a problem.

One of my facebook friends had to pay fine when he carried a laptop on Myanmar domestic rail.

One funny thing is the rail authority wrote down as "typewriter" in Burmese on the receipt instead of "laptop". Fine was 2100 Kyat (Myanmar currency)

Japanese quake and Burma Nagis

Recent Japan quake and tsunami  hit world's news head lines. I am really sorry for Japan and its people.

This disaster reminds me 2008 Nagis cyclone which left Burma with extensive damage and well over 100,000 deaths. For some reason, Burmese government declined to accept the majority of foreign aids. Moreover, many volunteers were arrested by charging with so called anti-government activities. I sincerely believe that governments normally prioritise their people's benefit.

Protected Singapore for being a tiny one

It is good to know a country's housing market when you are trying to buy a holiday home or when you want to run a property business abroad. Britain is a really flexible country to buy and sell property. It should not be a big deal so long as you have enough money and a property solicitor. But Singapore is not like that. There are a lot of restrictions to become a home owner. It is understandable that it is a small country and it needs full protection. Otherwise, rich countries will take over it in the name of new landlord. If you read the following piece of news from Singapore, you may get some idea about what is going on in that South East Asian nation.

HDB has decided to do away with the sibling scheme from Monday onwards. This means that unmarried Singaporeans and PR siblings whose parents live abroad will not be allowed to buy new or resale HDB flats.

This scheme covered siblings (brothers and sisters) who are unmarried and whose parents are not living in Singapore to buy new or resale flats. Currently, only unmarried individuals over 35 years old can buy from the resale market (which is another reason to get married in Singapore other than for love or money).
This decision has been made in light of the ease of renting single rooms or whole HDB units. Also, HDB has found out that unmarried Singaporean or PR siblings who buy new or resale HDB flats have only made up a fraction of the total HDB transactions, so it is unnecessary to continue with this scheme.

This only applies to transactions from Monday, 21st February, onwards. If you think you’d be affected by this abolishment, check out our 'HDB For Rent' section!
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