The condition of Burma, especially after the military crackdown on its revered monks in 1998 and
more recently, a few
of weeks ago, is a running sore on the face of
democracy. Interestingly enough George Orwell seemed to know what was
in store for Burma's future way back in 1948 when he wrote his
dystopian novel "1984", or so Emma Larkin (a pseudonym) an American
journalist seems to theorize in her travel memoir, "Finding George
Orwell in Burma"Larkin uses Orwell's book "Burmese Days" ( a fictional story but based on his experiences in Burma as a policeman in the British colonial service). to guide her through modern Burma (1995). She visits the same places that Orwell did collecting testimony from average Burmese laboring under a totalitarian regime and finds it, well, Orwellian.In Burma there is always the feeling that you're "being watched", your conversations taped and your movements tracked. Political
dissidents disappear completely, their names and lives simply vanishing
from historical records. The State's brutal physical force includes
torture, rape,beatings, forced relocation, destruction of villages and
forced/slave labor. It also manipulates the emotional life of the
Burmese
people... its psychological power is so fierce that
fear,paranoia and self-censorship threads through every conversation
and gesture. All this makes George Orwell something of a prophet and
Larkin is convinced (as are other Burmese citizens) that Orwell did not write just one book ("Burmese Days") about Burma's
police state, but a trilogy that also includes Animal Farm and 1984.Although
Larkin uses Orwell's writing as a narrative hook, her book could easily
stand alone as a travel, social and political commentary on modern
Burma. Larkin's prose is quite wonderful and full of delicious
observations of the Burmese people... their love of books, the tea
shops where they gather to converse amid steaming cups of chai, their
love of the cinema . We are treated to wonderful images of sugarcane
juice vendors squeezing fresh cane through a mangle; people making
daily visits to the neighborhood pagoda,where colorful shrines draped
in garlands and candles dot the base of the building; market alleyways
stacked high with multicolored longyis, silks and terracotta trunks and
so much more, but the colorful images are lures as Larkin delivers a
bracing dose of reality on the police state that is Burma.This book is a must-read for people interested in Burma.