Young nuns in Hsipaw (photo: Carly Hammond)

There are some special places on earth which lure you such that you make damn sure you visit and once you get there, become hooked and vow to return.  Such is my experience with the magical land of Burma.

Probably my earliest exposure to Burma was when I worked at Lonely Planet. As a company publicist, I defended the company’s Myanmar (Burma) guidebook, which by its very publication, promoted tourism in a country whose globally-revered pro-democrary leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was advocating a travel boycott. Lonely Planet’s line was, and remains, that tourism is a sector which locals can benefit from economically and that its guidebook helps travellers make more informed choices both about whether to go, and if they go, how to positively impact the local population.

Burmese girl on Inle Lake tributary (photo: Carly Hammond)

Monks on their morning alms in Kalaw (photo: Carly Hammond)

Living in Thailand a couple of years later, I encountered a number of Burmese people and and started to learn more about the atrocious human rights record of the military junta. After reading a revealing report about human rights abuses perpetuated by foreign investment in Burma’s natural resources, I decided that I would visit and make up my own mind.

The month I spent in Burma was one of the most memorable of my life.  Engaging in some writing for Lonely Planet, I travelled from Rangoon up to Mandalay and then into the countryside, spending a significant portion of my time in the eastern Shan State, in small towns with minimal numbers of travellers and maximum opportunities for engaging with local people. From jaw-dropping cultural sites like Bagan to border towns bustling with Chinese trucks and traders, I managed to scratch the surface of a diverse and culturally rich country that mirrored no other. As anticipated, certain parts of the country were off-limits to foreigners; the military’s method for controlling what gets seen and what doesn’t. However no one stopped my interactions with Burmese people, giving me precious insight into how locals felt about their homeland and providing an amazing two-way exchange which I treasure to this moment. Day after day I would encounter older generations of Burmese, typically educated by the British and devoted supporters of the National League for Democracy (NLD). I discovered their appetite for international politics, which included tuning in short wave radios to catch the BBC World Service, and a strong desire to make connections with the world beyond their own borders, a freedom which we take for granted. With these poignant experiences my time in Burma felt vindicated, so long as I made conscious decisions around how to minimise the contribution my tourism dollar made to the junta.

Downtown Rangoon (Photo: Carly Hammond)

Mandalay Fort (photo: Carly Hammond)

A decade on and I am still yet to return, but there’s barely a week that goes by where I don’t think about the country and its people. I recently read Amitav Ghosh’s remarkable novel The Glass Palace, which brought chapters of Burma’s fascinating history to life, and provided a new layer of appreciation for the towns and sites I visited and an understanding of the individual toll of colonialism. In Australia, I’ve been fortunate enough to expand my knowledge of Burma and its people through close interactions with some Chin refugees, a growing diaspora. A largely Christian community, spending time with the Chin people has given me a better understanding of the ethnic diversity within Burma and experiences of a minority culture living within a repressive regime, which I didn’t really get a sense of during my travels.

I’ve also followed Burmese politics with a keen interest, which until recently, gave little signals of hope. However reforms over the past six months have ignited some real optimism. Firstly, in September 2011 the new ‘civilian’ government shocked activists worldwide when it announced it would halt construction of the controversial $3.6 billion Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River because it was ‘against the will of the people’. Sorry? The Burmese government decides not to pursue a mega project with its closest ally, China, because it cares about its people?!

Portrait of Burmese oppostition leader, nobel peace prize winner and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest, in Rangoon, 2010. (Copyright: K C Ortiz)

The next piece of good news was the release of over 100 political prisoners a month later, followed by Aung San Suu Kyi announcing that she would stand for election to parliament in 2012. Holy moly! Early December, Hilary Clinton became the first US Secretary of State to visit Burma in over 50 years since the military dictatorship commenced, signalling a possible end to long-standing sanctions in place by the US, EU and Canada. Then in January a ceasefire was reached with Karen rebels and the government committed to releasing over 600 more political prisoners.

In Singapore in January, the Burmese President Thein Sein said “the future of Myanmar lies in peace and stability, while economic development is a secondary priority for the country”.  There’s clearly no flies on him, as the former will almost certainly ensure the latter.  An outstanding question remains though whether these these political and economic reforms will deliver positive outcomes for Burma’s most in need, or merely legitimise a grab for the country’s natural resources by the west and present a thin veiled democracy which masks ongoing repression.

Little girl selling cheroots at Mingun Paya (photo: Carly Hammond)

While a long, hard road to recovery remains, I for one, am optimistic that things can only get better.  I long for the day when I can return to this remarkable place, meet more inspiring locals and engage in new friendships across the seas without fearing for their safety each time I make contact.  I long for the day when the rest of the world realises this unique jewel in Asia’s crown, can travel to Burma without completing a PhD in tourism ethics and has the opportunity to experience the people and cultures of this amazing country first-hand.

Old meets new - colonial shopfronts dwarfed by a modern building in Kuala Lumpur (photo: The Other)

Malaysia is truly the quintessential Asian melting pot, with the main ethnic groups – Malay, Indian and Chinese – each making a distinct and vibrant contribution to the country’s social, cultural and economic fabric. While I knew a bit about Malaysia’s ethnic makeup before visiting the country, to see it in action is another thing and as a traveller, I can’t pretend that my experiences did much more than skim the surface. At a glance there appears ‘One Malaysia’ – from hotels staffed by people from all races to groups of friends with different backgrounds – the dominant racial groups intermingle widely and have a presence across most parts of the economy.  Or do they?   Pre-dating the long-standing and controverial President Mahathir, government policy preferenced the rights of ethnic Malays – aka the Bumiputra - as a means of redistributing wealth. This worked to disempower dominant ethnic groups, notably the Chinese and Indians, by restricting their ownership of business and ability to work in the public sector.  While it appears that the affirmative action policy is no longer officially in force today, its ramifications are profound, and these groups are still marginalised and experience discrimination in many facets of life.  For example, it is rare for non-Malays to get jobs in government and the top jobs in corporates are typically given to Malays. Take Imbi Market, a morning hawkers market in Kuala Lumpur, packed with stalls selling very yummy traditional food treats.  Apparently the market is going to be shut down, being sacrificed for a big commercial development, and the mostly Chinese vendors are powerless to protest. Perhaps race is irrelevant in this case, but that’s not the sentiment of the local Chinese.

Young girl in the central market, Kuala Terengganu (photo: The Other)

Pernakan Mansion, Penang (photo: The Other)

Not surprisingly, social cohesion is not all that it could be and in a tokenistic effort to unite the different ethnic groups, and present a front of equality, there are initiatives such as ‘Harmony Day’, which we were in Penang for and amounted to little more than a public holiday enjoyed by many.

The average traveller will barely notice any of this though, and to that end, Malaysia does a pretty good job of welcoming tourists and giving visitors a fantastic smorgasbord of culture, including a lifetime’s worth of food to sample. Penang is the gastronomical hub, and locals take great pride in helping you learn about their famous dishes and eating venues.   With its recently granted World Heritage status, the island’s Georgetown is fast becoming a muse for creative entrepreneurs and quaint hole-in-the-wall places like Amelie give the island yet another feather in its cap.

Seafood vendor, Gurney Drive, Penang

But for all of Penang’s laurels, the best food I had on our holiday was in none other than Kuala Lumpur, at a modern Malay restaurant called Bijan.  Here I enjoyed one of the greatest culinary experiences of my life to which words do no justice: prawns stir-fried in a creamy durian sauce (I lost count of how many prawns I got), accompanied by an outrageously delicious (even carnivorous South African husband agreed) wild fern salad.   If you ever get the chance to visit KL, make a booking and make sure you go here.  If only a picture could tell a thousand flavours… social harmony or no social harmony, this is all KL needs to lure me back.

Prawns in a durian curry sauce at Bijan

Thembi Ndlovu, South Africa (www.ianvancoller.com)

My early travels to Asia and Africa added some depth to my understanding of ‘maid culture’, as I quickly observed the ubiquity of domestic help across the middle and upper classes.  My kneejerk reaction to seeing so many maids in homes was abhorrence.  It seemed to sum up all that was wrong with the world, with privileged people continuing to amass wealth and to prosper off the back of the disadvantaged poor, forced to take any work available, accept low pay, enjoy next-to-no rights and commonly be separated from their own children in the process.  The recent American film Mammoth captured this irony of globalisation, telling the story of a family in New York employing a Filipino lady as a live-in nanny.  While the young professional couple effectively outsource the bringing up of their child in order to work more to fund their affluence, their nanny is separated from her own two children in her quest to earn a decent income and provide for their future.

Chezile Twala, South Africa (www.ianvancoller.com)

Perhaps what shocked me the most was seeing how good people doing amazing things abroad also play into this dual economy, with foreign aid and development workers commonly hiring domestic workers and/or nannies, quite simply because of the cheap-as-chips labour.  Surely, I pondered at the time, if all these ‘humanitarians’ could just pay their staff more money and guarantee them similar rights to what they themselves enjoyed (such as sick leave and superannuation), these communities would ultimately be a whole lot better off and perhaps may not need so much foreign assistance in the first place.

Irene Maleke, South Africa (www.ianvancoller.com)

But age is mellowing me out a bit and I now see a lot more ‘grey area’ than I did before.  I’ve come across many examples of friends and family abroad who employ a maid and in the process, invest significantly in helping that person and their family, whether it be through sponsoring the worker’s children’s education or paying for life-saving medication and treatments.  I’ve also accepted that for many domestic workers, this work represents their only real employment option and particularly for ‘illegal’ migrants in developing countries, is an opportunity for them to work and live in a relatively safe environment.

Zanele Ndlovu, South Africa (www.ianvancoller.com)

In Australia, while cleaning and domestic help is still one of the lowest paid forms of work, it’s possible to make a half-decent living.  After having a baby and returning to part time work, I finally bit the bullet this year and hired cleaners to come and do the kind of things that we just weren’t doing often enough like mopping floors and vacuuming.  A young migrant couple clean our place fortnightly; they work really hard, have recently themselves bought a house and are making a good life for themselves.  As they are employed through an agency, we pay a little bit more, but at least know that they have some employment rights and benefits. There are also some great innovative social enterprises in Victoria which provide migrants with employment opportunities as cleaners including AMES and the ASRC.

Agnes Kelekegile, South Africa (www.ianvancoller.com)

About the photos:

Interior Relations is a series focused specifically on the lives of domestic workers—nannies and maids — who in the words of photographer Ian Van Coller – seemingly embody the daily reproduction of apartheid-era relations in South Africa today. “This portrait series explores the deep fault lines between the country’s public democratic ideals and the ongoing racial and economic inequality more than a decade after apartheid’s end. The institution of domestic service, so engrained in South African culture, is a complex arena of interaction that brings individuals together who would otherwise stand on opposite sides of an enormous gulf in ethnicity, culture, education and poverty into an intensely intimate, personal and sometimes awkward interdependence. These “relationships” hold unique potential for transformation in a society that was previously so conflicted, in part because black and white South Africans have led such separate lives.”

“On a trip home to visit my family in South Africa in 2005, I was struck by the general persistence of domestic workers being employed in the homes of most white South Africans. There are more than 1.5 million black South Africans who still serve as maids, nannies and gardeners in wealthy and middle-class white households. New laws regulating the domestic service industry ensure that employees receive decent wages and are not exploited by having to work unreasonably long hours. These and other government protections have changed the working conditions, as well as the attitudes toward domestic service as fewer South Africans can afford live-in help, and more women prefer to maintain their own residence, apart from the family or families that they work for. Yet in this immediate post-Apartheid era, there remain few employment opportunities for many black South African women aside from domestic work. And with a fifty-percent unemployment rate, domestic service fills a critical need for women seeking to support their families.”

www.ianvancoller.com

Why? Because young children absorb information at at a phenomenal rate – in fact, some language skills peak in babies and 0-3 years is the most critical period for gaining competency in a language. But this is the just the tip of the iceberg.  Studies show there are various cognitive benefits to learning two languages from an early age; a no-brainer really, given that the child will be forced to think in more complicated ways as they deal with different language structures and concepts.  But really, above all else, why wouldn’t I do my best to give my child a second language which they can either build upon later in life, or use as a foundation for learning another foreign language, or, worst case scenario, ditch with nothing lost but perhaps something small gained (such as the knowledge that there’s a bigger world out there beyond our immediate surroundings).

Which brings me to the present day as I endeavour to teach my 16 month old daughter French.  I’m undoubtedly facing an uphill slog given French is not the native tongue of myself or my husband, however I’ve studied it for a number of years and reckon that I can only try my best.  To date, we’ve got flash cards, music, a DVD series, and pop-up books… all which means very little if I can’t string a proper sentence together, hence I’m refreshing my verb conjugation skills and looking to enrol in a refresher conversation course.  But while it’s only early days, I’m sensing that part of the battle will be tackling (or ignoring) occasional perceptions of this as a self-indulgent bourgeois crusade.  Too bad.

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Apart from learning from and watching my bilingual friends who are raising bilingual children, there are tons of resources out there to inspire and guide this journey such as this amazing blog and other more traditional resources such as the ever-faithful Foreign Language Bookshop.  And should we still be living in Australia when our daughter hits primary school age, it’s pretty exciting to see bilingual state schools beginning to pop up around the place.

The good news is that after only a month of so of speaking French to her, our little girl is responding to all kinds of questions, words and statements.  Of course, we think she’s utterly brilliant and gifted, but whether she is or not, it’s remarkable to observe the learning process and the capacity for toddlers to absorb multiple translations of words.

I’d like just a little bit of that baby brilliance myself, s’il vous plaît.

The series focuses on 6 ‘ordinary Australians‘, whose initial sentiments towards asylum seekers range from empathy to utter contempt, with a good sprinkling of apathy all round.  Each of these people is taken on a journey from their comfortable home environments to follow a typical journey of a refugee, in reverse, to get a taste of the danger, fear, grief and uncertainty which the average asylum seeker ensures as they travel the long hard road to freedom.

6 participants of 'Go Back to Where You Came From'

The show is confronting. Why? Because as any good reality tv show should be, it’s very real.  The ignorance is real, the racism is real, and even the occasional bouts of compassion are real.  But what’s most confronting is the overwhelming familiarity of these attitudes and the realisation that this is Australia in 2011, not America in the first half of the last century or apartheid South Africa in its latter half.  How did we come to this?  While my inclination is to lay blame on Pauline Hanson and our former PM John Howard (“We will decide who comes to this country”), our ‘island mentality‘ extends back far further and has deep and complex roots.

Whatever their personal sentiments (or migrant background for that matter) Australia’s current leadership looks certain to continue to exploit this issue for political gain and for the most part, take Australian media along for the ride.  If we want to turn the tide, it’s up to us ‘ordinary’ folk to make an effort.  Not just by eating at our local Sri Lankan restaurant and supporting Amnesty International appeals, but to get the facts out there and have the hard conversations with people we know (and I’m sure everyone knows someone like Raquel) who just don’t get it and are (self-confessed or not) racist.

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Encouragingly, it seems that for a number of the show’s participants, reality does indeed hit home and their views on refugees and asylum seekers transform over the course of the gruelling 25-day journey.  Such is the power of forging relationships and putting a face to those who are demonised day after day.

Let’s hope that the interest and discussion extends far beyond the SBS demographic and into the political battleground of western Sydney for it to begin to impact national policy.  Already thousands of comments have been posted on news sites, international media are weighing into the debate and last night the series was Twitter’s number one trending topic worldwide (#GoBackSBS).

Yes, indeed, the world is watching.  But do we care Australia?

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Valiantly led by a number of News Ltd newspapers, the media who were reporting on the launch of the ad decided that a new campaign emanating from nine large Australian community organisations representing roughly 3 million Australians, and supported by high profile Australians, wasn’t sufficient news material.  Much better to turn the story into a personal attack on Cate Blanchett for daring to voice her opinion in support for a carbon tax given her own private wealth.  It was very nasty and very misleading journalism but media outlets of all ilks pounced with prime time blanket news  coverage and the debate about Cate’s involvement and the campaign tactics (distinct from debate about the carbon tax) went on for days.

As the media drama was unfolding, the ‘any publicity is good publicity’ mantra became our motto for optimism but the incident inadvertently raised some questions around the implications and effectiveness of engaging high profile celebrities to support a campaign.

Celebrity involvement in campaigns, politics and social and environmental issues is by no means a new phenomenon, and for many charities and causes, provides an avenue for generating public interest which would otherwise be unattainable.   Why?  One simple reason is because the media typically lap up stories involving a celeb.  But what is new is that despite their reliance on and devout coverage of celebrities, some media outlets seem to have a (selective) contempt for the campaign tactic of engaging celebrities, the result being the  subversion of a campaign’s key messages and, one could argue, the sabotage of a campaign.

The irony of it all.

Fortunately for our Say Yes campaign, the notable Australians who have come on board have done so because of their own deep convictions and longstanding commitment to the issue at hand.  As a result, and coupled by the media’s short attention span, the criticism levelled at Cate and to a much lesser degree, Michael Caton, proved hollow and quickly ran out of steam.  But not before generating an extraordinary amount of publicity and beaming the Say Yes campaign into most Australian households, setting us up quite nicely to boost attendance and gain additional media coverage for a series of climate rallies held around the country this past weekend.

So what does this mean for engaging high profile people and celebrities to support a cause?   Is any publicity worthwhile even if it takes your message off track?

Each campaign is different, as will be the media and public’s responses, but the fundamental principles are the same as for any marketing campaign.  While promotion is integral to success, you must have a solid product to begin with.  Also important to remember; while the media’s role should be to report news, for some outlets (sadly often those with the highest circulation/number of viewers or listeners), the focus is on creating the best ‘story’ at any cost.  Know that when you engage someone with a big profile to help build the profile of your initiative, the increased opportunities bring with them increased risks and vulnerabilities.  Work strategically, be discerning with your media targets, plan for multiple scenarios and hopefully the investment will pay off for all involved.

Ask many left-leaning, well informed Australians what they think about France’s ban on wearing the burqa in public and you’ll typically hear cries of dissent and disgust at this violation of human rights and attack on religious freedom.  However, talk to the same people about a topical issue involving Christians or the church in Australia, and you’ll often witness a derisive raise of the eyebrow or a dismissive response along the lines of ‘bloody god-botherers’.

In Australia, it seems slurs against Christians and Christianity are more culturally acceptable than slights levelled at other religions or faiths. I can only speculate on the reasons for this, a likely one being because Christianity is part of many western liberals’ cultural and family heritage (often bringing with it much trauma), people have a sense of ownership over it and therefore consider it to be an acceptable punching bag.

Given our history, Christianity is also the public enemy number one of the secular state, and around the country Christians pay the price for over-zealous proselytisers and the media storm surrounding them.  Curiously, while the aforementioned politically correct citizen will be the first to stand up for persecuted Muslims and decree that not all people practising Islam are fundamentalists, prejudices towards Christianity are less discerning with Christians often treated as a homogenous group. I wonder too if Christians aren’t occasionally a victim of tall poppy syndrome, where people find it confronting when they encounter someone who proudly wears their annointing on their sleeve and are simple in their happy, positive approach to life.

I find this all quite ironic given the supposed post-discriminatory world we live in, where mantras of multiculturalism and religious tolerance dominate and rhetorically at least, are embraced by most of us. Perhaps the time have come to dig a bit deeper, to look at own our ideological shortcomings and challenge our biases.  As one philosopher said “Prejudice cannot see the things that are because it is always looking for things that aren’t”.

I started to think about where the greatest needs for compassion are across our society and came up with a (non-exhaustive) list:

The obvious
- People who are less fortunate such as homeless people, asylum seekers or people living in poverty
- People living with a disability or illness
- People who have plain had it really tough

The less obvious
- People who have found themselves on the wrong side of life including people in prison
- People who practice a (different) religion or who hold contrary values and beliefs
- People who have different sexual preferences

And where compassion is perhaps needed most
- Family
- The corner shop guy who sells you your newspaper
- Friends
- Your taxi driver
- Work colleagues
- The sprightly telemarketer randomly calling you from halfway across the world
- The woman waiting at the bus stop with you
- Yourself

So the moral of the story is that compassion shouldn’t be selective, nor saved up for those most ‘worthy’.  And in the wise words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama ‘If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion’.

photo: Tony Mcdonough (www.rawimage.com.au

My earliest introduction to fine jazz emanating from Africa occured when I stumbled upon Abdullah Ibrahim‘s African Suite in my local library a number of years ago. Ibrahim is a veteran jazz pianist and composer from South Africa who has played a foundational role in defining African jazz and, over the course of his career, collaborated with other South African jazz greats such as Hugh Masekela and Basil Coetzee, and more further afield with Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Known as Dollar Brand in his early days, Ibrahim seems to produce a new record every year, with each new recording every bit as emotive and distinctive as the last one.  Being exposed to his confident melodies which convey the optimism (or otherwise) of the era during which they were composed was my earliest proof that Africa had a jazz scene worthy of deeper exploration.

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The next – and perhaps life changing – discovery I made was the Ethiopiques series, found in my favourite Melbourne music shop Discurio a couple of years back. The earliest Ethiopiques compilations bring together a number of prominent Ethiopian jazz artists from the 60s and 70s, who while celebrated in their heyday, have faded from the limelight without the accolades they truly deserve (Where is Ry Cooder when you need him?).  Their sounds are unlike anything I’ve heard before – enigmatic, sophisticated, soulful, funky and if nothing else, redefining of this often maligned country. So you can imagine my euphoria last year when I found out the father of Ethio-Jazz was touching down on our shores. I had the immense privilege of meeting and enjoying an unforgettable evening of mind-blowing music with Mulatu Astatke. Pleasingly, Mulatu’s career – and that of some of his contemporaries such as Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayehu Eshete – is enjoying a resurgence as younger generations of music-lovers around the world encounter the magical sounds from Ethiopia’s ‘golden age’ and lure these pioneers back to the stage and studio.

Up close and personal: Mulatu Astatke mesmerises his audience at the Order of Melbourne, October 2010 (My photo)

The all-too-premature passing of another renowned South African jazz musician Zim Ngqawana this week is a reminder of the amazing music that comes from Africa, and how much more I have to discover!

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It was my earliest introduction to the concept of a social venue which can galvanise a team of volunteers committed to its aims and prosperity.  These days I hunt these places down; particularly restaurants and cafes which have been set up to address a social issue as well as contribute to a city’s culture.  Here’s some of my favourites as well as a couple I’d like to check out:

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby St, New York

The Bookstore Cafe in NYC’s SoHo is one of several social enterprises established to fund Housing Works’ programs which support marginalised communities particularly the homeless and people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. This cafe sells books and music, and is staffed largely by volunteers.

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in NYC

Social Roasting Company
307 Racecourse Rd, Flemington (Melbourne, Australia)

I stumbled across Social Roasting Company in my ongoing quest for decent cafe fare in Melbourne’s west and can only report utter goodness. Not just the goodness of creating jobs for long-term unemployed, or the goodness of brewing fine ethically-traded coffee beans, but also for serving up very good food.  If you make it here, don’t go pass the dukkah poached eggs, with wilted spinach, beetroot relish and a home-made hash brown. YUM.

KOTO
59 Van Mieu St. Dong Da District, Hanoi (Vietnam)

Vietnamese-Australian Jimmy Pham set up KOTO (Know One, Teach One) in 2000 as a small sandwich shop aiming to providing training and employment to street kids and disadvantaged youth in Hanoi.  It’s now a two-storey restaurant with a fully-fledged hospitality training program and training centre operating in Hanoi and Saigon. Largely frequented by expats and travellers, the food is fresh, tasty and the formula seems a winner with similar concepts springing up around around the country).

KOTO smoothie to die for (photo credit: Steve Jackson)

Fifteen
15 Westland Place, London

You would have had to have been living under a rock for the past decade not to know about Jamie Oliver’s famous London restaurant (also expanded to Cornwall, Melbourne and Amsterdam), providing disadvantaged young people with the opportunity to train and become professional chefs.  The restaurants are posh, with prices to boot, but well worth a visit, particularly the flagship resto in London.

Shebeen
Address TBA, Melbourne (Australia)

It’s a simple proposition: buy a tasty beer from a developing country and money will go back to a development project in that country.  Shebeen is still a bar in the making, but one I have little doubt will be a winner if its founder’s prior achievements are anything to go by.  Help it happen here.

If you know a special place – anywhere in the world – that is a great place to visit, eat or drink at and does good, please post a comment. I’d love to know about it!