Many years ago I studied with lovely Burmese students - I often wondered what happened to them when they went home. I also met Ang San Suu Kyi's brother in law, somehow through my Bhutanese friends, but can only remember that I made a prat of myself in his home! But for years the struggle of the Burmese against the military rumbled on. Then suddenly she was "freed" chastised by the world for her views on the Ruhingya muslims. The Burmese people though love her and voted for her in their droves. Now they are out on the street fighting for their democratic rights and the Generals have taken back control of the country. They are firing on their own people - an illegal act - yet saying that the people are the ones in the wrong. Why are so many governments so shit.
The British Government meanwhile is debating whether to trade with the Genocidal Chinese Government, but our moral stance does not seem to stop us selling arms to the KSA to bomb Yemen with. And here in England, I have had a nice quiet if snowy birthday and our virus traumas go on, sometimes we seem to move forward but often we seem to move backwards, with the Government now planning on imprisoning people who fail to declare their travel movements accurately when coming into the UK from certain hotspots.
One of the extraordinary aspects of Covid UK is the NHS responders volunteer system. Requests for help get sent out and picked up by the volunteers and they spring into action. Through this system, I have been involved in phone calls to a few people. The idea of them is to help lift someone's spirits. But so far, all the conversations I have had have lifted my spirits instead as I have talked to some fascinating people. Last night for example I landed up speaking to someone who had run a charity in the Balkans and been there during the war. His exploits kept the conversation going for over an hour. So for a moment in time there is a connection with a complete stranger, our paths will never cross again, but both our lives have been enriched and all through an app that just pings on my phone.
Birthday snow and flowers.
Sadly after a lovely day, I now feel very blue, both the "allotment crisis" and the possible imminent death of someone lovely. Perhaps I need to get someone to ring me up for a Chat and a Check up too.
