TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Myanmar:
Doing Things Their Own Way
Perry Jackman
When
I arrived in Myanmar,
I had no idea what to expect. After reading the port to port article,
all I
knew was that Myanmar
was under a military dictatorship and that it was trying to isolate
themselves
from the rest of the world. After spending several days in Myanmar, I
have found that Myanmar to be more vernacular than transnational, but I
also noticed that it is trying to keep up witth the rest of the world
in their own way.
While
I went to Yangon, I did notice that
it was the
least westernized place we have been to. The most westernized thing was
the advertisments. All of
advertisements were in Burmese and had Burmese models, however the
picture
seemed to like westernized ones. There were a lot sexy advertisements and all of the models were wearing western
clothing. I also saw restaurants that seemed to be restaurant in the
Westernized world, but not quite. For example, I saw a Tokyo Fried
Chicken. I don't know about you, but I asscoiate Japan with sushi and
chop sticks, not fried chicken. To the naked eye, it looked like a KFC,
but that would be too westernized, so Burma has come up with Tokyo
Fried Chicken. I also went to the Shwedagon Pagoda and noticed people
wearing
Burmese traditional clothing like long skirts, but I also noticed many
wearing
westernized clothing. I saw a lot of t-shirts with American cartoons on
it. The
picture I included shows a
boy with a British soccer player on it. While I was in Burma's biggest
city, I only found three examples of the outside world. Even though
they have been isolated from the rest of the world, it seems that they
are Even though
I saw some transnational examples, I found more vernacular examples.
When
I went to Bagan, I found many vernacular examples and I did not find
one thing
that was transnational. Bagan is known for being land of a thousand
pagodas.
All they have is traditional pagodas that are hundreds of years old.
Instead of seeing of seeing tall buildings, you would see ancient
pagoadas. At night, you would see bright lights from the city, the only
light I would see was from the moon. Bagan was untouched from the
outside world, which was a beautiful thing to see. Bagan
also had
hundreds of little village communities. The
homes in
village were about
as big as my cabin
on the ship. The houses had dirt floors and bamboo beds and no
electricity. The village people lived a simpler way of life. They
were also the
nicest people I have ever met. They would take your hand and lead me to
their homes give me their child to hold and feed me. They were so
trusting, I feel that I would never find this in a westernized city.
These people were living a simple kind of life. It seemed that
they
did need the technology or big cities. They were happy just the way
they were.
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