Saigon Scenes

the first of a few photos from around the city...The Vietnamese lady with Kate is Miss Hieu, a talented massage therapist who can work painful wonders on tired bodies. As you can see, I need a little more work...

This is Nelson Mandela

This is Nelson Mandela. Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi and she has just celebrated her 63rd birthday alone. She has been under house arrest which sounds like some cosy alternative to being in prison. Her husband has died while she has been in this prison; her sons have grown up and a nation she had democratic aspirations for has been drowned by nature and tortured by generals.She is now in her 13th year of detention. She isn't allowed to see family or friends as all visitors are banned. Scant reports say that her health is deteriorating.

Blogs coming from here tend to encounter problems if there are problematic key words ( think China) but there is little need to be circumspect about Burma. It's like it doesn't exist. When the monks bravely rose up last year not a word was mentioned in the media here. There are few good neighbours to this destitute country. When there are so many vested interests in a country's abundant resources it is not surprising that governments pay only lip-service to protest and the UN dispatches a toothless envoy. Rather than blogging about life here I thought I would post a couple of links that give an idea of life there.

Thanks Harold

A writer's life is a highly vulnerable, almost naked activity. We don't have to weep about that. The writer makes his or her choice and is stuck with it. But it is true to say that you are open to all the winds, some of them icy indeed. You are out on your own, out on a limb. You find no shelter, no protection - unless you lie - in which case you have constructed your own protection and, it could be argued, become a politician.

Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize Winner