APATHY is a byproduct of colonialism which makes people think that independence is a mistake. Maybe it is not only oppression by foreigners that is the problem—but rather the combination of guns, prisons, and effective coercion, something that happened before in Burma, and is now happening once again.

It reminds me of U Po Kyin. How could one forget that obese man in Orwell’s novel Burmese Days: vileness on earth, in a hot country unable to