There’s a young woman at the Korean bodega in my nabe, who is very friendly and helpful. The bodega is owned by Koreans, first one family who appears to have sold out and retired, and for the past two years or so, a new family of husband and wife, teenage daughter, and grandmother. The young woman was clearly not family, so it wasn’t clear how she fit in.
In November, I learned she is Burmese, aka from Myanmar, as that country held elections. She was happy for democracy, in a way that most Americans could take for granted while at the same time being concerned, with our own Presidential election just weeks away at that point in time. Myanmar is a troubling country, having been a military dictatorship for about half a century until 2011.
At that point, a new constitutional government was created, but one that retained power for the military and limited political opposition. It was not until 2015 that open elections were held, and in the November 2020 election the main opposition party took the majority.
The tanks rolled in the beginning of February.
Very often, when viewing news of political uprisings far from America, the distance is emotional as well as geographic. This is especially true when the country is not one the United States has strong ties to, or that an individual might not have ties to.
As an adolescent living in the American military community when the Berlin Wall fell, I felt close to the demands for freedom in former Soviet-dominated countries. Even before then, the Chinese crackdown at Tianimen Square held my interest. The struggle is real, as they say. I am not one to look at uprisings and shrug them off as just another poor country that can’t govern itself.
Yet, here is this young woman who, if you ask, will share her concerns. Does she have family there? Yes. Are they safe? There’s really no sense of “safe” there at the moment.
It’s easy to criticize a military coup superseding a lawful election in another country, yet events in America paint a picture not entirely dissimilar. The differences are, we don’t have a history of long-term military rule, and the military did not partake in the insurrection. However, the claims of a rigged election, and a losing side that contemplated every option to stay in power, are exactly on point.
I can’t go to the store now without thinking of this woman in my neighborhood, and whether I will see her, and if so, inquire about her family’s safety. To see news of Myanmar makes me think of people hiding in their homes, unable or afraid to use the internet, to communicate, to share what is happening.
We are after all only six degrees apart from anyone else in the world. Sometimes, not even that many.