George Orwell wrote an unintentional trilogy on Burmese history, according to Emma Larkin, an American journalist, who was born and raised in Asia. She has written a
book called Finding George Orwell in Burma . Orwell wrote the novel Burmese Days while employed as a British Imperial Police Officer in Burma during the 1920s. <
Br> He then followed with Animal Farm, a novel based on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Stalin''s collectivization of the Soviet Union''s farmlands, which resulted in the death of millions of peasants. This is Orwell''s only book so far translated into Burmese with the title The Four-legged Revolution . It depicts a group of farm animals that decide to
overthrow their human owners and run the farm themselves, led by the
pigs. The power goes to their heads and they become cruel and greedy. The pigs bask in the luxuries that humans enjoyed and which the pigs fought to overthrow - sleeping in the farmhouse and swilling whisky - while the other animals die of overwork and finally starvation.
Orwell''s novel entitled 1984 describes a horrifying and soulless dystopia, much like Burma is today under one of the
world''s most brutal and tenacious dictatorships. In the book Big Brother watches everyone and declares that he who
controls the past, controls the future and he who controls the present, controls the past.
Emma Larkin, in her book, summarizes the political background of Burma today. She describes how the military
junta took power by a coup in 1962 when the country was in chaos, having been a key battleground for Japanese and Allied forces during the second World War; its infrastructure in shambles and a number of ethnic minorities beginning their armed struggles for independence. In addition, a Communist army was fighting to overthrow the government. The junta established a State Law & Order Revolutionary Council (SLORC) and introduced the Burmese Way to Socialism - a disastrous mix of Marxism and Buddhism. All other political parties were outlawed and opponents of the junta imprisoned. Private businesses were declared state property. The miliary took charge of industry and agriculture without prior experience. Foreign currency reserves were depleted, imports of necessities, spare parts for machinery, etc., became impossible and so shops emptied and people queued for rations of cooking oil and rice. In 1987, 25 years after the junta took over, the United Nations declared Burma one of the world''s least developed countries.
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