Quotes from Thant Myint-U

May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life.

The past closer, more comparable, a way to justify present action.

Independence Army (BIA) under Colonel Suzuki's enthusiastic supervision. Suzuki himself had taken the Burmese nom de guerre Bo Mogyo, meaning "the Thunderbolt," an astute choice that played on the (allegedly) old local prophecy that "the umbrella" (meaning "the British") would eventually be struck down by "the thunderbolt." Tokyo had yet to decide its Burma policy as both the

The Burmese chronicles say that after the Nanzhao invasions a new dynasty arose, founded by a semimythical warrior-king named Pyusawhti. An expert archer, he came to Pagan and defeated, in the manner of St. George, a great bird, a great boar, a great tiger, and a flying squirrel, freeing the local folk from their terror.

The Chinese sometimes arrived poor. Some started by just selling noodles on the street. But they work hard and move up. Most, though, came with many advantages, with money and contacts or easy access to loans through their own banks and networks, but the problem is not the, the problem is that we don't have a level playing field.

He had impressed Slim, who admired his boldness. When Slim said: "Don't you think you're taking considerable risks in coming here and adopting this attitude?" he had replied, "No." "Why not?" "Because you are a British officer." As Slim later wrote, Aung San scored heavily.

What had been urban and cosmopolitan in old Burma had vanished. And what was modern in the new Burma was alien. When the British quit and the Indians were forced to go, only village Burma would remain.

That the government had not thought to use the census as an opportunity to encourage a more fluid notion of identity was not surprising. That the UN did not consider this at all was inexcusable.