Old currency notes and the value of a friendship

While searching something in my computer, I came across this photo that I have already posted somewhere, maybe on this blog.

The Kyat 5 note was what I liked most when I was teens. My parents did not allow to eat out. That meant no pocket money provided when I was in the middle and high school. For me, not a big deal. I bought vitamin pills from the shops (New Bogyoke Market and Open market). And I resold at school class room, saying those pills were tonic, very good in £$%^&*...Too much demand. In a short time, I had to make Paracetamol and Burmeton available. Those days, selling medicines was absolutely legal for everybody in Burma and no license was required. I don't know about now. My profit did go to nearby small Chinese restaurant where I enjoyed garlic noodle with grilled pork.

My minute business did not stop in my secondary school. During my final year in the medical school, my father gave me some money to buy a car, after denying to buy a Sony Walkman two years earlier. The reason was that I had been using my girl friend's car all the time. He was not so comfortable for it.

But I never bought a car. Instead, I lent the money to others who were crazy with gambling . They were mainly from Rangoon university, Dental colleague and Medical colleague. Interest rate was 10% a month. It was a glorious time. I drove different and different kinds of cars as I took those temporarily for my money. Of course, I did not communicate with them directly as I was studying for my MB degree. I had some good friends. Their commission fee was 2% and I took only 8% interest for myself. Since then, I have already learnt the value of good friends and meaning of mutual interest.

UK Burmese society

My uncle arrived in the UK 40 years ago. Apparently, 90% of his class mates left Burma during U Ne Win's era. Most moved to the US. Some to Australia. Some came to the UK. At that time, Burmese doctors were able to work straight away in British hospitals. No need to sit exam. But later it changed. Burmese graduates after 1970s (I can't remember the exact year) need to take the GMC (General medical council) exam for registration, according to my father.

Obviously, the population of migrant Burmese doctors grew gradually during the last decades. But a sharp rise occurred during 1995 -2005. I thought once they finished medical school in Yangon, all of them fled to Heathrow airport desperately. London witnessed loads of oriental looking young graduates preparing exam and applying for jobs.

2006-2007 was the turning point for many oversea doctors. As a result of thousands of international migrant graduates, even native British graduates were unable to secure their jobs. (Britain employment system is based on human right, that is what I was told. Once short-listed, the interview panel only considers the candidate's skill and experience, nothing concern with race, religion, skin colour, nationality ) . The government has no power to change that employment law which is based on human right . So the immigration rules had to be changed. Consequently, those from Indian subcontinent and from Burma had to move to somewhere else, such as Australia and New Zealand. Now, many of my friends have been working in Queensland and New South Wales since then.

However, these days, we can still see at least 1 or 2 Burmese doctors working in NHS hospitals across the UK. In some infirmaries, up to 5 -6 people gather.

When we check on other groups of Burmese immigrants, again, thousands have been living, some settling in British isle. Lately I learnt on the blogs and facebook that young people celebrated Burmese new year and water festival in London. It was amazing. Last week, "Buddha's day" show was also held in west London Ealing area. I have never seen such a well organized Burmese occasion before. (some photos here)

I feel Burmese people are getting more organized these days compared with previous times. What happened before was that there were several groups , mainly based on the political point of view. Some people were reluctant to go to Buddhist monastery where the anti-government activists are dominant, with the thought that someone would be closet informer and might face a big problem when they go back to Burma.

Now the atmosphere looks relaxed. No need to worry too much. Apparently, Burmese government does not bother too much. Well, the new strategy of Naypyidaw authorities is that they pick up only leaders or outstanding activists, instead of random arrests. From the Burmese student's point of view, again, they do not need to care too much for some reason. There are some options to stay away from the control of Burmese generals. Forget about ordinary people. British government has been kind enough to grant son of former Burmese police general San Thein (ရဲခ်ဳပ္စံသိန္း) as political asylum a few years ago, according to my sources. Everybody knows San Thein was a high ranking military officer.

Of course, many students in west London seek asylum. One of the predisposing factors would be recent restriction of student visa extension. According to the home office website, the show money is around £7,000 per annum. As a blogger, if you check on the Burmese blogs, you can see anti- government slogans on some blogs . That means logically that the blog owner does not need to care about Burmese government. He/she could have been a British subject or could be a successful asylum seeker. I learnt a lot of such stories from my business parter who has been living in West London area.

Who said no good Burmese food in Britain

I still remember someone from Woking was mourning in her living room, expressing her feeling how much she missed Burma, claiming that no good Burmese foods available in this country. Well it may be true if she kept staying in a limited small place. In fact, Woking is not such a small town. A rather crowded cosmopolitan place.

This evening, no grill, no oven bake at all. I cooked Burmese foods.

Rice ,with parsley and one tea spoonful of Flora: cooked in microwave. You know cooking time is 20 min in full power of 650 Watts. Rice and water ratio is 1:2. KOM said she use rice cooker what I never own one in Britain.

Pork, carrot and green beans with sage and onion: Mince pork and seasoning put on the hob. After 5 min, defrosted carrot and beans were added. mixed properly. 10-12 min later, OXO gravy powder with a hint of sage and onion was poured down after dissolving with a cup of water. After 6-7 min, ready to serve.

Vegetable variety fry: nothing special. Hot fry with soya sauce and oyster sauce. 5 min job in max gas mark.

Total cooking time for all above was around 22-24 min.

Who said Burmese foods not easily available in Britain?

Rice, Pork mince with a hint of sage and onion, veg variety fry

confused.com 2

It was my early days in England. Her name was Rebecca. She was a nurse. A single mum with 2 kids, struggling her tough life. She took off-sick frequently. I overheard nursing stuffs talking about her " Becky's late again" "Becky doesn't not turn up again". I must admit, at first I confused if Becky was her nick name. How funny I am. Of course, Becky is short name of Rebecca, like some other names, such as Bob for Robert, Bill for William, Debbie for Deborah, Toni or Vicky for Victoria , Andy for Andrew and so on.

I think these are not really English language from Cambridge grammar or Oxford dictionary. I might a bit exaggerate if I say that being familiar with host country's tradition and culture is essential for someone from east working and living in English speaking society. But, at least such kind of knowledge will help your well-being in new society, making friendship with other people in harmony in a short time like Mae. Appreciate that.

In west London, I am really glad to see loads of Burmese speaking people. They are well organized. They shared in 2 or 3 bed houses. They have been clever enough how to sort out to remain in the UK legally. They are able to make extensive friendship within the Burmese community as if west London were part of Burma. It is really nice. According to my contacts living there, it is a well known fact that guys usually compete bitterly each other to win a relationship once a girl arrived from Yangon . I think it is multi factorial. One of the reasons would be patriotic, I suspect. :)

It can be said that friendship and relationship are linking each other at some point, but different in terms of nature of personal involvement. Chronologically, relationship is usually preceded by friendship in many models. Some start relationship in first instance. Some may take up to a decade. Well it is a complicated sociology topic what I never understand completely. But one interesting thing I came across on the Face book is some one from Myanmar has been advertising that she is in an open relationship. Oh Jesus! Burmese people have been in such a great time.

I know the meaning of open relationship before. Anyway I checked on the net.

An open relationship denotes a relationship (often between two people) in which the participants are free to have sexual intercourse with other partners. If the couple making this agreement are married, it is an open marriage.(Wiki)

a facebook setting that allows you to give in to your sluttastic urges while keeping a "saftey net" around in the event that you're unable to hook up with anything hotter. (Urban dictionary definition 3)

I really confuse what is going on among Burmese facebookers. Recently, a chap has been declaring himself that he is interested in both men and women . I think I am not stupid enough to announce on the world class social network if I were really interested in guys :)

Modern Burma? welcome!

It is reassuring that Burmese people inside and outside the country have been increasingly becoming open minded with the fading of Ne Win's influence, getting more familiar with western culture, despite the fact that the US and EU countries keep claiming there is no human right in that ASEAN nation. I know that there is a tough restriction of speech and activities, and the state controlled puppet judges give the Guinness recordable long prison sentences to the political opponents.

On the other hand, I believe that Burmese society has been updating itself, going westernisation gradually. During this Burmese new year season, there are loads of ordinary Myanmar nationals going holidays abroad, which was a sought-after opportunity only for high ranking officers in 1980s. It is nothing new to say. We can learn easily those changes from the people came back from Burma and on the Internet. Moreover, a sharp rise of blogging and using community net woks means we can check the recent development of the society easily although it would not cover the whole Burmese people.

The situation I like most is people have got more opportunity to write what they think, what they believe and what they experience on their blogs and social networks. This made, in turn, them more and more frank and open-minded while learning what is going on in the world. I noticed that some Myanmar girls are happy to show off their pics with short skirt and tight jeans on the net which was unacceptable manner in last 10 years of this ancient community. ( I know this is the happy time for comment guru like Strike :) .. )

Of course, we don't have a negative impact on them in this era when even gay marriage has been recognising in some parts of the world . It should be a part of the human right issue, isn't it? The more interesting development is even some Myanmar men have also been revealing their interest and desire on the net. We can not criticise someone else's personal choice, can we? But I must say bisexuality is too much for a Burmese, I believe.


As her video clip was posted on KMO's blog lately, I had a chance to watch her singing and dancing style. I must say this girl with Afro-Caribbean hair style, had a great effort in her performance but unfortunately not so artistic. In fact she is popular among Burmese audience.

Orientalised East London

10 years back, we needed to go to Greenwich or central London if we wanted oriental foods. I remember there was also a Thai grocery shop in Earls Court which is far away from East London. Around 2005, I found out another shop in Walthomstow market street. I think it was a Thai shop, but most oriental foods were available from a variety of vermicelli, glutinous flour to bamboo shoot, dumpling and Vietnamese chilli sauce. Next, I came across a small Thai shop in Stratford shopping mall, but it closed after sometime.

During the last a couple of years, at nearby Tesco Extra in Gallion Reach, Chinese and Thai foods have been on the separate shelves. I saw some ready-made noodles and sauces. In the vegetable and salad row, more kinds of bird eyes chillies (hot+, ++,+++,++++) are waiting for their customers . One great improvement is I can get ung choi. (ကန္ဇြန္းရြက္)

As you know London is a cosmopolitan city and several kinds of foods are available, such as Mediterranean, Latin, Arabic, Indian, Bangladeshi and so on. Well, Chinese take-away shops are every where. But when we need Burmese style foods, we have to depend on Chinese and Indian shops. It is not bad, I think. In Upton park, even baby mango appears in its season. We can also get catfish (ငါးခူ), labelled with produce of Myanmar, and banana tree (they called it like that), at Bangladeshi shop. These are important ingredients when we make traditional fish soup while some people use handy canned fish.

Lamb curry, Ung Choi and mushroom and vegetable variety

Burmese foods contaminated?

Well, Someone might say I am fussy. But I am not really a fan of Burmese preserved food while here in Britain I can get a variety of fresh foods easily. You may say I was raised with those Burmese foods when I was young. Yes, exactly I was. But, people may change from time to time according to their experience, education and environment. I don't think Burmese foods are much superior than others after trying several world foods. No , I am not saying Burmese foods are not good. These are really fine foods according to Indian friends.

A few years ago, a lady lived in my home who just arrived from Burma. A few weeks later, she looked depressed , saying that she had been missing proper Burmese foods. We tried to cook for her a couple of times. I think rice and chicken curry . But her response was what I did not expect. She said it did not look like Burmese curry. Since then I could not help her any more. That lady went back to Burma in next a few weeks. Of course, her family was running a Burmese restaurant down town Yangon, later I learnt that. I still don't get it why she was expecting to stay and eat exactly as she was in Burma even after deciding to come to the western Europe. Basically, strong but flexible and adaptable people survive in the UK according to my knowledge.

The following is an interesting news about Burmese tea leave prickles.

Photo: Channel News Asia

Tea leaves from Myanmar recalled
Singapore: A range of pickled tea leaves imported from Myanmar have been found to be unsafe for consumption. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) which has issued a product recall says it has detected the presence of Auramine O which is a yellow dye used as an industrial colouring agent for coloring silk, otton, paper and leather.

Details of the recalled products:

• 1: Ah Yee Taung Pickled Tea Leaves


• 2: Ah Yee Taung Pickled Tea Leaves (Normal)


• 3: Ah Yee Taung Pickled Tea Leaves (Red)


• 4: Ah Yee Taung Pickled Tea Leaves (Sour & Spicy)


• 5: M&N Pickled Tea Leaves (Extra Spicy)


• 6: M&N Pickled Tea Leaves (Spicy)


• 7: M&N Than Lwin Fwn Food Products Lon May Pickled Tea Leaves


• 8: M&N Than Lwin Fwn Food Products Pickled Tea Leaves
  
• 9: Shwe Toak Pickled Tea Leaves with Mixed Nut
  
• 10: Soe Win Gold Label Tea Leaves, 70 g (Best before date Jul-09)
  
• 11: U Ka Kar Green Tea Leaves


• 12: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves (Blue) - "Girl"


• 13: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves (Red) - "Boy"


• 14: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves (White) - "Girl"


• 15: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves with Mixed Peas


• 16: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves


• 17: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves (Sour & Spicy)


• 18: Yuzana Pickled Tea Leaves with Peas


• 19: Yuzana Plantation Pickled Tea Leaves


• 20: Zayan Pickled Tea Leaves (Hot & Spicy)

Full story on Channel New Asia

Burmese way of Buddhism

I am a medical doctor. That does not mean my care is limited only on my patients. But I would consider the welfare of my patients as well as all other living creatures. Whenever I have a chance, I help. I have been ready to help old people on the street whenever they require to do so. I assist the disabled people. I feed starved foxes. I donate some money on a regular basis for rescued pets. I have been a regular donor in RSPCA, Oxfam, Cancer research and many local charities. With the help of DEC, I was able to contribute some to 2001 Bhuj (Indian) earthquake, 2004 Tsunami, 2005 Kashmir Earthquake and 2007 Nargis. I love my profession. I love my hobby.

A few days ago, I requested a senior Burmese blogger to sign a petition. That is about to stop brutal killing seals in Canada. Unfortunately it was declined to do so. I never expected such a disappointing response. I know our action will be a little effective or zero effective. But I strongly believe that we need to fight against brutality in this civilized world as much as we can.

I still remember about Burma where approximately 75% of people are Buddhists. Buddha explained that if someone does a bad thing, he or she has to pay back in the future. Someone has to suffer in this life. Because that one did a wrong thing in the past life. It is logical, I think, if we are really travelling from one life to another after death. But interestingly, many followers of Buddha have a different concept. For example, if someone had to have his leg amputated after an accident, they might blame him by saying he might cut other's leg in the past life, as a result he has to return similar thing this time. Of course, there are some sympathy and empathy. But these are diluted by their concepts. Again, Buddhist people see animals as living creatures with sins. Because of their sins in the past, this time they have to become animals to suffer. It is not uncommon to see women in Burma donating monks with delicious foods while stoning starved stray dogs. In many Burmese households, it is traditional that their pet dogs are fed with food remains and bones instead of preparing a proper dog food.

According to the concept based on Buddha's guide , can we say Nay Phone Latt has to go such a long term jail because he did a similar thing on someone else in his past life? How would you explain in Buddha's way why U Than Shwe is untouchable so far?

Foods from Burma

Source:

I came across this BBC news about a Burmese traditional food, Green Tea Leaf which has been contaminated with industrial chemical.

It is not new. As far as I remember food processing and storage in Burma is unhealthy in many circumstances. Contamination with harmful bacteria and chemicals is very common. Peanut oil and sunflower oil contaminated. Fish sauce contaminated. Dried chillies contaminated. Vermicelli contaminated. Seasoning powders contaminated. Dried shrimps contaminated. Many more.

In England, loose motion is treated as a serious condition, regardless of frequency. But in Burma, it is inevitable for everybody. Main cause is eating unhealthy food. Lately, a friend of mine has been enjoying ready-made fish soup which is produce of Burma and offering me to try it while saying that it is a sought-after food in England. I had to decline in polite way while saying "it's disgusting" in my mind. That is the one reason I never go to occasions held in Buddhist monastery where people are traditionally served with foods, most of them are imported from Burma. Moreover, a group of people might share a bowl of soup with a common spoon. Who knows who has oral herpes in the group?

5 Kyat currency note in central London

I think it was in last July. I went to Tottenham court road where I normally buy books. I was surprised when I saw this 5 Kyat note with the Bogoke's head. Just sharing what I saw.

Corruption: Burma, Iraq, PNG and the UK

According to the news, Papua New Guinea will remain one of the most corrupt pacific countries. In east Asia, Burma and in middle east, Iraq are at the bottom of the list of most corrupted countries.

Malaysia’s score in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has not improved this year. The country’s ranking declined to 47 out of 180 countries in 2008, compared to 36 out of 91 countries in 2001 and 43 out of 179 countries in 2007. Source. Thailand has risen from 84th to 80th in the rankings. Source

The UK had dropped from a score of 8.4 out of 10 to 7.7 out of 10 in the last 12 months - the first time it has ever fallen below 8. That means the score put the UK joint 16th on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), alongside Ireland but one place above the USA. Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were judged to have the lowest levels of corruption on a score of 9.3, followed by Singapore on 9.2 and Finland and Switzerland on 9.0. Somalia was bottom of the list with a score of 1.0, with Burma and Iraq on 1.3, Haiti on 1.4 and Afghanistan on 1.5. (Source).

Full result is here.

As far as I remember, in Burma (Myanmar), teachers corrupt. Students have to give bribes in the name of gift to pass exam or to secure a high mark. Doctors corrupt. Most give more medical attention on paid patients. Judges corrupt for less or heavier sentences. Income tax officers corrupt for less taxation. Immigration officers corrupt. I saw some Chinese with Myanmar passport in London. They never speak Burmese. Civil servants corrupt by saying their salary is quite low. Bribery is everywhere at hospital gates, at the check-points at border areas, On the streets when traffic police stopped the cars. At the offices.

At the same time, partiality is very common in employments, company permits, export and import permits and many thousands of partiality going on.

The worst thing is people in Burma are no longer aware that they have been corrupting. They think that it is a usual thing they are doing.

Aung San Oo is a useless bastard?

It was in 1988. Many people in Burma were expecting Aung San Oo to come back and take a lead. But it never happened. For me, it is understandable that people may be struggling for their survival, prioritizing personal or financial matters. But now, it is over 20 years on. He is still silent while Burma has been passing through several man-made disasters and natural disasters. What he has done are building a luxury mansion house in historic area of Bagan and trying to own her late mother’s lakeside property in Yangon.

Many Burmese wonder why he did not pay attention to own people. Being a naturalized American is not an enough reason. Is he a workaholic? Is he an alcoholic? Is he a schizophrenic? Was he in jail when the country needed him? Is he a womaniser? or has he been chasing young boys?

Those questions came to our mind. Because many believe that Aung San Oo has been ethically doing wrong. His father, General Aung San, was a national leader, whose performance in such a short time was fantastic, while fathering unpopular Aung San Oo and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But now Aung San Oo has been where?

According to the Burmese tradition, the eldest son ,like Aung San Oo, has a moral duty to complete what his assassinated father wanted. He should support Burmese people who are in the hell these days. He just neglects.

There is an English proverb. Like father, like son. In Aung San Oo's case, Father national hero, Son the useless.

But, as a doctor, whenever I see people, I have got a habit of checking from the medical point of view, from their pattern of walking, their appearance to the way of their thought and believe. Everybody has their own reason why they do or do not. You can’t blame easily. Some people may have some sort of phobias. Some people have fear of open space. This condition is called Agoraphobia. Other examples of phobic conditions are:

-Entomophobia-Fear of Insect (common among young girls)
-Spectrophobia- Fear of specters or ghosts. (common among Buddhism)
-Xenoglossophobia- Fear of foreign languages. (a proportion of Myanmar bloggers, they keep posting only in Burmese, claiming that they love Burmese language, Burmese culture)
-Xenophobia- Fear of strangers or foreigners (the majority of officials in Burma)
-Ochlophobia- Fear of crowds or mobs. (In Burma, gathering of people not allowed)

Do you think Aung San Oo has a kind of phobia?
Tell me he has what kind of phobia?

Once Burmese, always Burmese. But

Lately, a friend of mine has tried to claim that I have been away from Burmese things despite the fact that I was born in Burma. Yes, it is true that I was born in Dufferin Hospital, now called Yangon Central Women's Hospital.

I moved to England for some but strong reasons. Basically I like Burma and Burmese people. But there is a proportion of Burmese culture and tradition I can not accept or tolerate. I can not follow unfortunately. I am not happy with some traditions and cultures. The easiest example is too much discrimination against age, sex and social class in Burmese society. Moreover, many people believe that if they donate the best foods and materials to Buddha monks, they would get back similar things in the future while neglecting the starving dogs waiting outside the monastery. So-called holy people might feed dogs only when some rice and bones are left after their meal. I must say today's Buddhism in Burma is not so practical in many ways even though Buddha's philosophy is awesome. I think it happens when people mess up their ego with religion.

Now I have been in Great British. You may ask if I do like western culture. Generally I would say yes. It is more convenient for me. More practical. Less discrimination. But I must say it is not so perfect either. But so far, I am happy with it. OK, on the day, I can not able to tolerate, I might move to another place. Easy and straight forward. Other British people have been living across the world for many reasons. Why not me? In whatever natural disaster or bomb blast happened anywhere, British casualty involved. That means British people are in all places logically.

To be honest, I like to see Burmese . A few days ago, Myanmar bloggers did gathering in Singapore. They also prayed from detainee Nay Phone Latt who is a Buremse blogger. It was nice when I checked the photos. Apparently, people, including me, like party, gathering and celebrations. It is amazing to see loads of Burmese young chaps abroad.

Obviously, nowadays, more and more Burmese people are moving out of their own country. What does that mean? Is that a sort of Brain drain? No, it is just an out-dated philosophy. Now we are in Internet era. We connect. Wherever the brain is, we can use it through networks. That is what I believe. Do you think the brain of newly graduated doctor from Burma is ready to treat patient effectively. That kinds of brains need upgrade at somewhere.

Good to see many Burmese across the world, from New Zealand, Singapore to Norway, Jamaica and Canada. In fact, Burmese migration is late. Other people have already built their strong society for many years or decades. Anyway, I am an optimistic despite today's political and economcail situation in Bumra. I like more Burmese moving out of country. I like this situation. Who made it? Have U Than Shwe and his generals been pushing many youngsters to go abroad ? or Has Daw Aung San Suu Kyi been sacrificing to create this situation. Or Is that the consequence of what Burma has been a victim while USA, Russia and China playing power and opportunist Asean countries taking advantages from Burma?

To conclude, once Burmese, always Burmese, but

Teacher appreciation and financial show business

Today, a friend of mine emailed me saying that there will be a teacher appreciation celebration in next few months, asking me how much money I can contribute. I think someone or a group of our class mates got that fantastic idea to appreciate our teacher’s help in our way to a doctor. Basically that is good news as our medical school classmates can gather, offering something to our teachers, most are in their 70s. I was so excited and I replied how much should be appropriate.

He emailed me again this evening. I was shocked by list of amount of money they proposed to donate. Someone has pledged Kyats 10 million (equivalent to over £4500/ US$ 8000). 2 guys pledged US$ 2000 equivalent. The majority of class mates have already promised to contribute $500 and above. Which come to my mind desperately is how much I should donate. Very difficult question! It is true I am working and my income is above average in England. At the same time, I have been with a big financial commitment. Two dozens of bills normally come every month. I have to think twice to go one night trip to Netherlands.

I feel a smell of fish as I know very well about nature of our classmates. We are friends, at the same time, we are permanent rivals. When we are in school, we competed for a higher mark for 7 years. After graduated, we are still racing for wealth.

This teacher appreciation celebration is a great opportunity for our classmates to show their wealth. So many people won’t miss it. But for me, I am still thinking with many questions.

Is paying homage to teachers with some foods and drink in traditional way not enough?

Do our teachers really need our support?

Has our Burmese tradition changed to donate teacher essentially in cash?

Should I participate in their financial show festival?

What would they say if I don’t donate enough amount of money?

How much should I spend in this time?

Any idea welcome!!!

Narcissistic personality disorder

I am not a psychiatrist. But I'd like to post a psychiatry related disorder this time.

That is Narcissistic personality disorder. The characteristic features are as follow:


1-has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2-is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3-believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by other special people
4-requires excessive admiration
5-strong sense of entitlement
6-takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7-lacks empathy
8-is often envious or believes others are envious of him or her
9-arrogant affect.

At least five of the above are necessary for a diagnosis

You may check the poeple around you. Who has got this mental problem?

Dway and his ?cause of death

Yesterday I heard that Myanmar Actor Dway died suddenly. It is too early to say why it happened. I have no chance to obtain his medical history. But as a medic, which came to my mind was Brugada syndrome. ( I am not saying his cause of death is Brugada syndrome)

This is an inherited condition (gene defect) causing fatal irregularity of heat beat and sudden death. Normally heart is beating on its electricity. In this condition, there is a defect in heart’s electrical system. The person with this condition may not notice any heart problem or he may experience synoptic attacks before fatal attack.

Some more facts of this condition are as follow.

Patients are mainly found in South East Asia.
Male is 8 times more common than female.
Unexplained death among close relatives
Heart is otherwise normal. First presentation would be fatal irregularity of heart beat.
So far, there is no medicine to take regularly to prevent sudden death.

Only option is implantable cardiac defibrillator.

An implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) is a small electronic device installed inside the chest wall to prevent sudden death from cardiac arrest due to life threatening abnormal heart rhythms. The ICD is intelligent enough to monitor the heart rhythm. When the heart is beating normally, the device remains inactive. Once the heart develops a life-threatening irregular rhythms, the ICD delivers an electrical "shock(s)" to the heart to terminate the abnormal rhythm and return the heart rhythm to normal.

More about Brugada Syndrome:
Brugada foundation
Brugada on Wikipedia

Myanmar music festival and Myanmar food fare

This is the email message from a friend of mine.

Dear Friends There will be Myanmar Music Festival and Myanmar Food fare on 1st July 2007.It has been proved to be successful and we raised over £2000 last time for Magwe medical students. And we all had a very good time and enjoyed our traditional Myanmar food. This time you will have the chance to listen to professional singers (Khin Mg Toe, Zaw Myo Htut, May Kalar and Yadana OO) in addition to our dedicated semi-professional singers (doctors and their families). You will be able to enjoy a variety of Myanmar food at low price. You can listen to the music, enjoy the delicious Myanmar food (Yummy!), socialize with other Burmese, chat away with mates, etc. The money raised through karaoke and food will go to a London monastery renovation, Magwe medical student stipends and Aung Theitpann Orphans' school (in Irrawaddy Division). So I would highly recommend all of you to participate in this special event if you are not on-call or you do not have other commitment. I hope you will enjoy the event. Do not forget to practise your favourite song/songs. VENUE Burntwood memorial Hall 18 Rugeley Road Burntwood Staffordshire WS7 9BA Date and Time : 01/07/2007 11 am - 06 pm

Why is a gas rich country still dark?

Myanmar earns $2B in gas sales

YANGON, Myanmar, June 20 (UPI) -- Myanmar earned more than $2 billion from the sale of natural gas in the past year, official media said.

The Myanmar Times reported June 8 that the country's earning from natural gas sales in the 2006-07 season was $1 billion more than the previous year.

In 2005-06, the former Burma earned $1.079 billion from gas sales, and in 2006-07 it earned $2.16 billion, the report said.

Source:

I have a question. I'm just wondering if someone could tell me why Burma is still in the dark. Forget about small towns in Burma. Even in large cities like Yangon and Mandalay, the electricity supply is very irregular. Average 6 hours a day. A friend of mine from Yangon told me a few months ago, no electricity in such a hot weather. Children could not sleep.

Where is the money from gas sale? Investing in Russian's carcino or trying to buy Man U? Anyway, hopefully the responsible persons would be aware of shortage of basic human need in this 21st century and would have done necessary actions. Keep our finger crossed!

Otherwise, those from the country without a regular electricity in the cities and towns, where owning well over a decade-old car is still a sought-after status symbol, may have no point to be proud of being Myanmar among the world people.

Myanmar Bloggers' wish

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I saw this news item on Google Myanmarese news.I lost contact with Burma for 3-4 months as I have been in a tough working situation. What is going on in Burma? Maybe I will google.

God's Verdict?

According to Wikipedia:

"In March 2007, Soe Win was in a private hospital in Singapore. The government would not disclose the nature of his illness, though it was reported in the media that he was suffering from leukemia. He returned to Myanmar on May 3, 2007, but then returned to Singapore later that month. The Myanmar embassy in Singapore said he was being treated for a "serious health matter"

Soe Win was best known for his part in the crackdown on democracy protestors in 1988, deploying troops around Rangoon University and ordering them to shoot at Rangoon General Hospital during the upheaval.

He is widely regarded as the mastermind behind the deadly attack against National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters in the May 30, 2003 Depayin Massacre."

Is that God's verdict?