Lara Damiani

The Moustache Brothers are not just a traditional a-nyeint pwe (vaudeville folk opera with dance, music, and jokes)…they are artists brave enough to speak out in a country where a joke against the government can get you jailed. Lu Paw, the English speaker of the three, provides some tongue-in-cheek humour about Burma and gave permission for this footage to be made public. Lu Paw’s brother, Par Par Lay was spoken about in the Hugh Grant film “About A Boy”. In 1996, he and cousin Lu Zaw were sentenced to seven years hard labour for telling jokes about Burma’s generals at an Independence Day celebration at Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound in Yangon.

no comments Burma

I took my camera to Burma in March, 2009. The oppression is thick. You can feel it and you can see it. The government is building a new capital and spending millions of dollars on creating a luxury land for themselves while people continue to live in poverty.

And it never ceases to amaze me how people can continue to go there as tourists and not open their eyes to the oppression and corruption. If you travel in Burma, travel with a social conscience and when you come home, do what you can to help.

How can we just stand by and let the military junta of Burma continue to do what they do ?

no comments Burma Burma, Corruption, Human Rights, Oppression