The last book I read was The Trouser People, an extremely depressing book about Burma or Myanmar. (Of course the book is depressing. How could one write an uplifting and sunny book about a savage military regime that cuts deals with international drug lords to keep their government afloat, and keeps a Nobel Peace Prize winner under house arrest from 1989 to 1995?)
The “generals” in charge of Burma fund their regime with drug-money (Burma’s only growth industry), and let their people starve, cutting off their citizens so that they live in complete isolation from the rest of the world. They warn against the “corrupting Western influence”, and yet entire regions of the country are planted in opium poppies. Most of the heroin that arrives in the “corrupting West” is nurtured in the regions of Burma … regions that COULD be used to grow … oh, I don’t know … CORN? Something the people of Burma could EAT??
Anyway, I digress.
There are snippets of Burmese writing in the Trouser People, and it is a very unique-looking written language, based on interconnecting circles. Beautiful, and Dr. Seuss-ish. The author of the book said that one of the greatest compliments a teacher could give a Burmese student learning to write was: “Your handwriting is so nice and round.”
Here is the Gettysburg Address in Burmese.
