2008 Woodie Awards
Photojournalists reveal mystery of life in sealed-off Burma
IUPUI's connection to global conflict
Grant Smith
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: College News
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Emily, who asked that her name be withheld, doesn't fit the stereotype of a world traveler or an activist working to bring democracy to Burma. At 24, she dresses like a hipster, with skinny-leg jeans and shoulder-length hair that occasionally blows over her pink sunglasses.
She is an Indianapolis native, attended high school at Lawrence Central, and studied photojournalism at American University in Washington D.C. She recently returned from Thailand, where she toured refugee camps, filled with people fleeing the oppressive junta dictatorship.
One of the last camps she toured was Umphium Mai, set in undulating landscape equality, yet some animals are still more equal than others. The utopia deteriorates into a society just as oppressive as Burma's military regime.
Emily said the Burmese people suffered under British colonialism. Initially, when they achieved independence, the future looked promising. But the military took over and installed a dictatorship in 1962. Then-dictator Ne Win claimed it was the "Burmese Way to Socialism," just like the animals that tried to install a Communist regime. In the case of Burma, it put one group - the military - above everyone else, particularly ethnic minority groups, she says.
Emily's goal is to create a multilingual Web site that helps connect Burmese refugees with people inside Burma by passing information and giving food, clothing, and human contact. She is seeking help with this project at IUPUI, where professors have expertise in communication technology.
She believes information is one of the most valuable resources of the 21st century.
"We are very information rich, especially those of us with access to the Internet. Really, the world is at our fingertips. So by educating ourselves about what is going on in both our own communities and globally, I think is incredibly important," says Emily, who is heading back to the Burmese border this month.
Emily explained the complexity of Burma's crisis in an anecdote. While at the refugee center on the Burmese border, she asked four women where each one thought the conflict started. Three gave similar answers, saying it started in the late 1930s when Burma gained independence from Britain. There has been a steady stream of military dictators ever since, with brief periods of peace. One of the women, however, said the conflict began about 700 B.C. when ethnic groups began fighting.
The military government violently cracked down on peaceful protests by Buddhist monks in late September 2007. The junta government admits to killing at least 13 people in the capitol city of Rangoon, and has jailed well over 3,000. Western media organizations place the death toll at more than 100.
The number of Burmese refugees finding safety in Indiana continues to climb. According to Ft. Wayne's News-Sentinel, 100 more arrive each month. The city already has one of the largest populations of Burmese in the U.S., with more than 3,500.
According to Naw Phaw, a caseworker at Exodus Refugee Immigration in Indianapolis, an organization that partners with local faith-based organizations to help provide employment services and financial assistance to Burmese refugees, Indiana has played a major role, with around 1,400 refugees in Indianapolis plus the large group in Fort Wayne.
Steve Linsenmayer, a photojournalist for the News-Sentinel, spent two weeks in Burma in 2006.
Linsenmayer had been active in the Fort Wayne-Burmese community, doing three private photography shows since 1998, depicting the lives of refugees stateside. It was natural that he should travel to Burma to document the native land for a large chunk of Fort Wayne's population.
"I really had no trouble," Linsenmayer said. "But, I also went over there prepared not to make any waves.
"As an American, you stand out anytime," Linsenmayer said. "I was at least a foot taller than the rest of the crowd, and I expected to completely cut a wake when I walked the streets."
He went disguised as a tourist, but looked like a photojournalist. He had multiple expensive cameras slung around his neck, a laptop, an iPod for back up storage, a broken digital recorder, and a fanny pack.
One day he followed a group of Buddhist Monks collecting alms.
"We walked past this house that was about the size of a Hummer," Linsenmayer said. "For a car that's big, but for a house, not so much. And this lady is cooking and looks up, and I look up, and we make eye contact. She takes her hand and just waves and points to the food. I was welcome; I could have gone and ate. I'm still not sure that I shouldn't have done it, but I didn't. I gave her a real deep bow, thanking her.
"In America when you walk the streets, you get at least one or two people that give you the stink eye. Not once over there, not once two weeks did anybody fade from me. They had every reason not to deal with me, I could only bring them trouble."
He said there were military personnel on the streets, but not the strong presence that is there now.
"I was in danger of taking a lot of post card pictures, which would be wrong, completely missing the point," he said.
"I had to go in there knowing what was going on and taking it in context. So, when I took a picture of a guy rolling cigars, and [he] only makes $10 a month, that's significant. When I took a picture of a beggar with no toes, standing on a bridge, that's important, because there is no health care; no safety net."
Contact Grant Smith at smithgp@iupui.edu.
Editor's Note: In this special report, JagBytes examines crises happening around the globe, including the genocide in Darfur, the government oppression in Burma, and the war in Iraq. Reporters talked with people on campus and in Indiana who are involved or affected by these conflicts and also looked at what people at IUPUI are doing to raise awareness about these situations and to bring about positive change.
In this report, The Sagamore decided to use the traditional names of Burma for the Southeast Asian nation, and Rangoon for the capital city. The ruling military junta changed the names in 1989, after the suppression of a popular uprising. Burma became Myanmar, and the capital was renamed Yangon. The change was recognized by the United Nations and other countries, but not by the U.S. and Great Britain. News organizations differ in what they call the country.
Click here to go to forum
Click here for a commentary on Darfur
Click here for Iraqi refugee crises
Click here for the story of a Burmese refugee
Click here to learn about a Burmese professor at IUPUI
Click here to learn what Hoosiers are doing to stop the Darfur genocide
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