This is an email I just recently received from Antonio Graceffo requesting help and my reply in return. Being that shaolin iis basically a missionary institution, I thought I'd post it here.
If you know an organisation or can contribute resource or contact, any and all aid will be appreciated.
Blooming tianshi lotus.
Antonio Graceffo is an adventure and martial arts author living in Asia.
He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” Currently he is
doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people. To
see all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries:
Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him
Antonio@speakingadventure.com
see his website http://speakingadventure.com/burma.htm
Antonio is self-funded and seeking sponsors. If you wish to contribute to
the “In Shanland” film project, you can donate through paypal, through the
Burma page of my website.
Any and all assistance and links or contacts can be sent directly to antonio at any of the above contacts.
Amitoufo.
Blooming tianshi lotus.
If you know an organisation or can contribute resource or contact, any and all aid will be appreciated.
Blooming tianshi lotus.
hello Antonio.
I remember when I did my tesol course seeing a book with a list of places in exactly that type of hardship and an accompanying list of organisations who have dibs and facility to help them as you were describing.
It's not the kind of thing that some of us forget so easily... it's a very very long list and @ ppl per place .. it kind of stays with us.
So, I'm really busy atm studying for next week's exams, but when I have an opportunity, I'll go through some emails and do a cpl of searches and hopefully will be able to send you a link or some contact options of organisations that you can request assistance from.
My uncle, also a long long time martial artist ( first qualified in Japan while working there many yrs ago), and an engineer built alot of the irrigation systems in the phillipines, and my billionaire uncle bought his second last wife from there. I did hear they might need some support..
as always.
Michelle Salt.
I remember when I did my tesol course seeing a book with a list of places in exactly that type of hardship and an accompanying list of organisations who have dibs and facility to help them as you were describing.
It's not the kind of thing that some of us forget so easily... it's a very very long list and @ ppl per place .. it kind of stays with us.
So, I'm really busy atm studying for next week's exams, but when I have an opportunity, I'll go through some emails and do a cpl of searches and hopefully will be able to send you a link or some contact options of organisations that you can request assistance from.
My uncle, also a long long time martial artist ( first qualified in Japan while working there many yrs ago), and an engineer built alot of the irrigation systems in the phillipines, and my billionaire uncle bought his second last wife from there. I did hear they might need some support..
as always.
Michelle Salt.
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 06:40:43 -0600
Subject: The Paramedic of Shanland
From: antonio@speakingadventure.com
Just so everyone knows where I am and what I am doing, I left
Thailand/Burma and am in Manila, studying to be a paramedic. When I have
completed the training for combat field medic I will return to Shanland as
a medical volunteer and journalist.
While I am in my course I am continuing with my Shanland project,
publishing one video and one article per week about the war against the
ethnic minority people in Burma. My body will be in the Philippines for
several more months, but my heart and my mind are in Shanland.
Since I have come here I have been hearing from a lot of other groups that
need help. The Hmong, the tribe who helped the Americans in the war in
Lao, have been hiding in the jungle, suffering, since the end of the war,
in 1975. They need me to go there and bring as much medicine as I can
carry, and of course to bring my camera. The Burmese refugees in Malaysia
and Bangladesh are living in deplorable conditions and subject to attacks
by paramilitary groups. I am inclined to try and organize an aid mission
into Malaysia but I don’t know how to start and I would need some help.
While I am in Manila, I am working on a book called, “Pinoy Paramedic,”
about the experience of studying EMS in the Philippines. The book has been
a lot of fun to write, and I will be publishing some excerpts while I am
here. Unfortunately, a reader wrote in to complain about the paramedic
articles saying they were irreverent and insulting, and I am not sure what
else was wrong with them. While I refuse to apologize for what I wrote, I
am willing to explain. Burma, while a noble pursuit, is bloody depressing.
Sometimes, I need a break from writing all of that serious stuff. Writing
about back alley organ sales in Manila is the kind of light sunny fare
that I need.
I hope you will understand what I am doing. And I hope you enjoy the
paramedic pieces. Below is a story about my friend Kawn Wan, he is one of
my particular friends in Shanland and somehow when he tells what he and
his people want, it is so powerful. Please let me know what you think.
Antonio
Subject: The Paramedic of Shanland
From: antonio@speakingadventure.com
Just so everyone knows where I am and what I am doing, I left
Thailand/Burma and am in Manila, studying to be a paramedic. When I have
completed the training for combat field medic I will return to Shanland as
a medical volunteer and journalist.
While I am in my course I am continuing with my Shanland project,
publishing one video and one article per week about the war against the
ethnic minority people in Burma. My body will be in the Philippines for
several more months, but my heart and my mind are in Shanland.
Since I have come here I have been hearing from a lot of other groups that
need help. The Hmong, the tribe who helped the Americans in the war in
Lao, have been hiding in the jungle, suffering, since the end of the war,
in 1975. They need me to go there and bring as much medicine as I can
carry, and of course to bring my camera. The Burmese refugees in Malaysia
and Bangladesh are living in deplorable conditions and subject to attacks
by paramilitary groups. I am inclined to try and organize an aid mission
into Malaysia but I don’t know how to start and I would need some help.
While I am in Manila, I am working on a book called, “Pinoy Paramedic,”
about the experience of studying EMS in the Philippines. The book has been
a lot of fun to write, and I will be publishing some excerpts while I am
here. Unfortunately, a reader wrote in to complain about the paramedic
articles saying they were irreverent and insulting, and I am not sure what
else was wrong with them. While I refuse to apologize for what I wrote, I
am willing to explain. Burma, while a noble pursuit, is bloody depressing.
Sometimes, I need a break from writing all of that serious stuff. Writing
about back alley organ sales in Manila is the kind of light sunny fare
that I need.
I hope you will understand what I am doing. And I hope you enjoy the
paramedic pieces. Below is a story about my friend Kawn Wan, he is one of
my particular friends in Shanland and somehow when he tells what he and
his people want, it is so powerful. Please let me know what you think.
Antonio
Living to Help His Shan People
By Antonio Graceffo
“Inside Shan State we cannot teach Shan language. And, when youth talk
about politics there is retaliation. Even talking about the meaning of
democracy, even thinking about the meaning of democracy is dangerous.”
Said twenty year old Kawn Wan.
After his family was murdered and his village Burned, Kawn Wan completed
his education and became a teacher and caretaker of orphans in Shanland,
Loi Tailang, Shan State Army (SSA) Headquarters.
“You foreigners, when you aren’t happy with something, you go and change
it. You protest and fight. But here in Burma, it is impossible for us.” He
explained.
Kawn Wan sits in the bamboo hut he shares with several other teachers. The
orphan dormitory is just across the way, and the boys are busy hiking a
mile, down the mountain to bath in the river and wash their school
uniforms for the next day. The uniforms are comprised of Shan trousers and
pressed white shirt.
“It takes an hour to get the shirt clean.” Said a boy, toiling to bang out
the wrinkles with a rock. Life in Loi Tailang is predicated on schedules.
Kawn Wan and a few other grown-up orphans are the official caretakers of
the young kids, but the children know their daily chores and for the most
part, they do them. This includes the two mile river hike, daily, as the
thrice daily hike all the way back to the school, on the other side of the
camp, where they get their meals.
Some boys who have finished with their laundry are playing takraw, a game
similar to volleyball, where the feet, rather than hands, are used to get
the rattan ball over the net. The orphan area is surrounded by defense
trenches and air raid tunnels, where the boys know to take refuge in the
event of an attack. Further down the hill is a line of punji, sharpened
stakes, designed to keep out the enemy. The steaks serve as a warning, to
keep innocent people from walking into the landmines.
Seeing the boys laugh as they struggle to kick the ball over the net, you
would think this was a normal school, at recess, anywhere. But it isn’t
anywhere. The school, the dormitory, the base, and Shanland itself are
inside of Burma. And, if it wasn’t for the thousands of Shan State Army
soldiers protecting them, the orphans, as well as all the other refugees,
would be killed by the forces of the SPDC, the junta that rules Burma.
“In Shanland, even the little children when you ask, what is your dream,
they say, I want to go home.” Said Kawn Wan.
Most of the children came to Shanland because the SPDC burned their
villages or killed their parents. They seem happy to be living in a place
where they have so many brothers to play with, but like people everywhere,
their instinct is to want to go home. Unfortunately, there is no home to
go back to. And, until the war is over, or until Shanland wins its
independence, a trip to Loi Tailang is one way. It would be too dangerous
for the children to consider going back.
Kawn Wan came to Loi Tailing in 2001, and has now spent nearly half his
life living as an orphan and Internally Displaced Person (IDP).
When the SPDC killed his mother and forced Kawn Wan to leave his village,
in 1996, he was so young he couldn’t carry his own gear.
“The SPDC soldiers came to our village and told us we had to move into the
town.”
The Burmese government forces frequently forcibly relocate villagers in
order to better control them. Those who resist relocation are often
murdered, and their homes are burned. In Kawn Wan’s case, his village was
forced to move into a city.
“In the city it is hard for us to survive because we are countryside
people. We don’t know how to get food in a city. Some people escaped from
the town. From when I left until now, I didn’t hear anything about my
family. They left the town to look for food. Then people told me the SPDC
caught them.”
Eventually, Kawn Wan made it to Loi Tailang. He finished school and Shan
college. Now, in addition to taking care of the other children, he works
as a teacher of English and Shan Kung Fu. Kawn Wan teaches the nearly lost
Shan martial art to the children in the hopes of preserving their culture.
“If we do not win,” said a Shan military officer, “Some day, if you want
to know about Shan culture, you will need to go to a museum.”
Some of the boys living in the orphanage are not orphans in the strictest
sense of the word. One or the other of their parents was still alive when
they came to live in Loi Tailang. Inside Shan State, the SPDC has made
life very difficult. Parents cannot take care of their children the way
they want to. Shan children don’t have access to education. At Loi
Tailang, at least the parents know that their children can attend school
and get three basic meals per day.
“They come day by day.” Says kawn Wan. “Some come alone, and some come
with a relative. Their Uncle or the headman bring them here, because
inside Shan State life is so bad. The government doesn’t allow us to teach
Shan language at school.”
The orphans here are not only Shan, but also Lahu, Pa-O and Palong. The
student body is composed of all of the ethnic groups who live in Shan
State. Colonel Yawd Serk, the military and political leader of Shan State
Army stresses the importance of racial tolerance. All of the many ethnic
groups in Burma have suffered at the hands of the Burmese Army, but the
SPDC has long used disunity as a tool for controlling the ethnics. If they
combine their forces, under a single military ruler, the many tribes far
outnumber the Burmese in the tribal areas. The Burmese soldiers are
conscripts, who suffer oppression at the hands of their superiors. The
tribal people, on the other hand, are fighting for their homes and
families. United, there is no way they would lose.
“All the ethnics can bring children here to study.” Explained Kawn Wan.
The term Shan State Nationalities is often used to describe the many
peoples living in Shan State. “Some of them can’t speak Shan when they
arrive here. So, they learn it. We also teach them English, Thai, and
Burmese.”
“When I lived in Shan State I didn’t know what is democracy, what is human
rights, what is other countries do. I didn’t know. I came here and I was
sent to Shan college, and I learned. And now I can use my skill to help
other people.”
Between leaving his village and coming to Loi Tailang, Kawn Wan lived as a
novice monk in Thailand.
“I was a temple boy, cleaning the temple and studying with the monks, but
could not go to regular school because I had no Id card.”
Many of the Shan leaders were monks in Thailand at some time in their
lives. Up to about age fifteen the Thai police are rather forgiving about
asking for ID. But, once the boys reach adulthood, they have to have legal
papers to remain in Thailand, or they have to go home. The problem for the
Shan, of course, is that they have no home to go back to. Luckily, Kawn
Wan found a home at Loi Tailang.
“When we live here, our heart is warm. These children don’t have parents,
so I love to help them and be an older brother for them.”
What is the future for Kawn Wan’s young students?
“When they graduate, they don’t have to be soldiers.”
The Colonel gives the boys freedom to chose their own career.
“They can be teachers. They can be whatever they want. They can go to work
in an NGO, or in a government department.”
The government of Shanland is called the Reconciliation Council of the
Shan State (RCSS). The governmental departments are in place, and staffed
with bright young Shan waiting for the world to recognize them as an
independent country.
“If we have only soldiers, we cannot build our country. So, we need to
educate our people, to have skills, to help develop our country. Even me,
I lived with soldiers for a long time, but I didn’t want to be a soldier.
I want to be a teacher. I don’t want to have a high position. I just want
to stay with the orphans and take care of them. This is my dream.”
“It is important to teach the children what are human rights so they know
the good way for them.”
The Shan all respect Aung San Suu Kyi, but they are realists.
“I think the NLD (National League for Democracy) cannot do anything for us
inside of Shan State. We have never seen them. They haven’t visited us.
“I like other countries, they have democracy. I like Thailand. I only
don’t like that I don’t have the ID card, but our food and everything
comes from Thailand. I like the Thai King.” All Shan people respect His
majesty, King Rama IX of Thailand. On the day of his 80th birthday, no one
worked in Shanland. The villagers put on their best clothes and met at the
temple to pray for the King’s health.
“We teach the children to respect Him.”
On the wall in his bamboo hut, just above his Buddhist shrine, Kawn Wan,
like so many other Shan, has a trinity of kings. These include, the last
Shan King, King Rama V of Thailand, and King Rama IX.
“Even if we don’t know the future, our leader is trying his best to find
our victory. Some of us work in different ways, but we have the same goal.
Some work like soldiers. Some have skills and can help a lot of people.
Even if we cannot go live inside Shan State we can have our school, and we
can teach the children freely. Inside Shan State we cannot teach Shan
language. And, when youth talk about politics there is retaliation. Even
talking about the meaning of democracy, even thinking about the meaning of
democracy is dangerous.”
Kawn Wan is fully committed to the path he has chosen.
“I don’t think about getting married. I think about my students. I
sacrifice my life to help them.”
I asked Kawn Wan what message he would like to send to the American people.
“I want the American people to know that we have a country, but we cannot
live in it. We have no human rights. The Burmese government doesn’t do
anything for us. We want the Americans to help us, to tell the SPDC to
give us democracy. We want the power in the hands for our people. We want
to live freely, like other countries. I think because in America they have
freedom, and in democracy country, they have rights, and they will use
their rights to help us. Please share our information with other people.”
By Antonio Graceffo
“Inside Shan State we cannot teach Shan language. And, when youth talk
about politics there is retaliation. Even talking about the meaning of
democracy, even thinking about the meaning of democracy is dangerous.”
Said twenty year old Kawn Wan.
After his family was murdered and his village Burned, Kawn Wan completed
his education and became a teacher and caretaker of orphans in Shanland,
Loi Tailang, Shan State Army (SSA) Headquarters.
“You foreigners, when you aren’t happy with something, you go and change
it. You protest and fight. But here in Burma, it is impossible for us.” He
explained.
Kawn Wan sits in the bamboo hut he shares with several other teachers. The
orphan dormitory is just across the way, and the boys are busy hiking a
mile, down the mountain to bath in the river and wash their school
uniforms for the next day. The uniforms are comprised of Shan trousers and
pressed white shirt.
“It takes an hour to get the shirt clean.” Said a boy, toiling to bang out
the wrinkles with a rock. Life in Loi Tailang is predicated on schedules.
Kawn Wan and a few other grown-up orphans are the official caretakers of
the young kids, but the children know their daily chores and for the most
part, they do them. This includes the two mile river hike, daily, as the
thrice daily hike all the way back to the school, on the other side of the
camp, where they get their meals.
Some boys who have finished with their laundry are playing takraw, a game
similar to volleyball, where the feet, rather than hands, are used to get
the rattan ball over the net. The orphan area is surrounded by defense
trenches and air raid tunnels, where the boys know to take refuge in the
event of an attack. Further down the hill is a line of punji, sharpened
stakes, designed to keep out the enemy. The steaks serve as a warning, to
keep innocent people from walking into the landmines.
Seeing the boys laugh as they struggle to kick the ball over the net, you
would think this was a normal school, at recess, anywhere. But it isn’t
anywhere. The school, the dormitory, the base, and Shanland itself are
inside of Burma. And, if it wasn’t for the thousands of Shan State Army
soldiers protecting them, the orphans, as well as all the other refugees,
would be killed by the forces of the SPDC, the junta that rules Burma.
“In Shanland, even the little children when you ask, what is your dream,
they say, I want to go home.” Said Kawn Wan.
Most of the children came to Shanland because the SPDC burned their
villages or killed their parents. They seem happy to be living in a place
where they have so many brothers to play with, but like people everywhere,
their instinct is to want to go home. Unfortunately, there is no home to
go back to. And, until the war is over, or until Shanland wins its
independence, a trip to Loi Tailang is one way. It would be too dangerous
for the children to consider going back.
Kawn Wan came to Loi Tailing in 2001, and has now spent nearly half his
life living as an orphan and Internally Displaced Person (IDP).
When the SPDC killed his mother and forced Kawn Wan to leave his village,
in 1996, he was so young he couldn’t carry his own gear.
“The SPDC soldiers came to our village and told us we had to move into the
town.”
The Burmese government forces frequently forcibly relocate villagers in
order to better control them. Those who resist relocation are often
murdered, and their homes are burned. In Kawn Wan’s case, his village was
forced to move into a city.
“In the city it is hard for us to survive because we are countryside
people. We don’t know how to get food in a city. Some people escaped from
the town. From when I left until now, I didn’t hear anything about my
family. They left the town to look for food. Then people told me the SPDC
caught them.”
Eventually, Kawn Wan made it to Loi Tailang. He finished school and Shan
college. Now, in addition to taking care of the other children, he works
as a teacher of English and Shan Kung Fu. Kawn Wan teaches the nearly lost
Shan martial art to the children in the hopes of preserving their culture.
“If we do not win,” said a Shan military officer, “Some day, if you want
to know about Shan culture, you will need to go to a museum.”
Some of the boys living in the orphanage are not orphans in the strictest
sense of the word. One or the other of their parents was still alive when
they came to live in Loi Tailang. Inside Shan State, the SPDC has made
life very difficult. Parents cannot take care of their children the way
they want to. Shan children don’t have access to education. At Loi
Tailang, at least the parents know that their children can attend school
and get three basic meals per day.
“They come day by day.” Says kawn Wan. “Some come alone, and some come
with a relative. Their Uncle or the headman bring them here, because
inside Shan State life is so bad. The government doesn’t allow us to teach
Shan language at school.”
The orphans here are not only Shan, but also Lahu, Pa-O and Palong. The
student body is composed of all of the ethnic groups who live in Shan
State. Colonel Yawd Serk, the military and political leader of Shan State
Army stresses the importance of racial tolerance. All of the many ethnic
groups in Burma have suffered at the hands of the Burmese Army, but the
SPDC has long used disunity as a tool for controlling the ethnics. If they
combine their forces, under a single military ruler, the many tribes far
outnumber the Burmese in the tribal areas. The Burmese soldiers are
conscripts, who suffer oppression at the hands of their superiors. The
tribal people, on the other hand, are fighting for their homes and
families. United, there is no way they would lose.
“All the ethnics can bring children here to study.” Explained Kawn Wan.
The term Shan State Nationalities is often used to describe the many
peoples living in Shan State. “Some of them can’t speak Shan when they
arrive here. So, they learn it. We also teach them English, Thai, and
Burmese.”
“When I lived in Shan State I didn’t know what is democracy, what is human
rights, what is other countries do. I didn’t know. I came here and I was
sent to Shan college, and I learned. And now I can use my skill to help
other people.”
Between leaving his village and coming to Loi Tailang, Kawn Wan lived as a
novice monk in Thailand.
“I was a temple boy, cleaning the temple and studying with the monks, but
could not go to regular school because I had no Id card.”
Many of the Shan leaders were monks in Thailand at some time in their
lives. Up to about age fifteen the Thai police are rather forgiving about
asking for ID. But, once the boys reach adulthood, they have to have legal
papers to remain in Thailand, or they have to go home. The problem for the
Shan, of course, is that they have no home to go back to. Luckily, Kawn
Wan found a home at Loi Tailang.
“When we live here, our heart is warm. These children don’t have parents,
so I love to help them and be an older brother for them.”
What is the future for Kawn Wan’s young students?
“When they graduate, they don’t have to be soldiers.”
The Colonel gives the boys freedom to chose their own career.
“They can be teachers. They can be whatever they want. They can go to work
in an NGO, or in a government department.”
The government of Shanland is called the Reconciliation Council of the
Shan State (RCSS). The governmental departments are in place, and staffed
with bright young Shan waiting for the world to recognize them as an
independent country.
“If we have only soldiers, we cannot build our country. So, we need to
educate our people, to have skills, to help develop our country. Even me,
I lived with soldiers for a long time, but I didn’t want to be a soldier.
I want to be a teacher. I don’t want to have a high position. I just want
to stay with the orphans and take care of them. This is my dream.”
“It is important to teach the children what are human rights so they know
the good way for them.”
The Shan all respect Aung San Suu Kyi, but they are realists.
“I think the NLD (National League for Democracy) cannot do anything for us
inside of Shan State. We have never seen them. They haven’t visited us.
“I like other countries, they have democracy. I like Thailand. I only
don’t like that I don’t have the ID card, but our food and everything
comes from Thailand. I like the Thai King.” All Shan people respect His
majesty, King Rama IX of Thailand. On the day of his 80th birthday, no one
worked in Shanland. The villagers put on their best clothes and met at the
temple to pray for the King’s health.
“We teach the children to respect Him.”
On the wall in his bamboo hut, just above his Buddhist shrine, Kawn Wan,
like so many other Shan, has a trinity of kings. These include, the last
Shan King, King Rama V of Thailand, and King Rama IX.
“Even if we don’t know the future, our leader is trying his best to find
our victory. Some of us work in different ways, but we have the same goal.
Some work like soldiers. Some have skills and can help a lot of people.
Even if we cannot go live inside Shan State we can have our school, and we
can teach the children freely. Inside Shan State we cannot teach Shan
language. And, when youth talk about politics there is retaliation. Even
talking about the meaning of democracy, even thinking about the meaning of
democracy is dangerous.”
Kawn Wan is fully committed to the path he has chosen.
“I don’t think about getting married. I think about my students. I
sacrifice my life to help them.”
I asked Kawn Wan what message he would like to send to the American people.
“I want the American people to know that we have a country, but we cannot
live in it. We have no human rights. The Burmese government doesn’t do
anything for us. We want the Americans to help us, to tell the SPDC to
give us democracy. We want the power in the hands for our people. We want
to live freely, like other countries. I think because in America they have
freedom, and in democracy country, they have rights, and they will use
their rights to help us. Please share our information with other people.”
He is the Host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” Currently he is
doing a film and print project to raise awareness of the Shan people. To
see all of his videos about martial arts, Burma and other countries:
Antonio is the author of four books available on amazon.com Contact him
Antonio@speakingadventure.com
see his website http://speakingadventure.com/burma.htm
Antonio is self-funded and seeking sponsors. If you wish to contribute to
the “In Shanland” film project, you can donate through paypal, through the
Burma page of my website.
Any and all assistance and links or contacts can be sent directly to antonio at any of the above contacts.
Amitoufo.
Blooming tianshi lotus.
Comment