Thinking of Burma

I was thinking about two events in Burma that had changed many lives for ever. One was the mass demonstration in 1988 and the other was a smaller-scale student demonstration in 1996.

I was in seventh grade when Burmese people took to the streets to demonstrate against then government in 1988. I fortunately lost only one year of middle school because the government shut down all schools in the country only for one year. However, when primary through high schools were reopened in 1989, universities were not. Many university students never graduated (because they left for the Thai-Burma and Burma-India borders to fight against the government or left Burma to work abroad). Many graduated long after they started college when the military government reopened the universities a few years later. 

The second time when university students took to the streets in Rangoon (Yangon), it was December in 1996. I was a second year student in medical school in North Okkalapa. The military government shut down all universities until 1998 or 1999 (I can't remember) because I left for the US in 1998 and never finished the university.

 

I was remembering these events because many lives were forever changed because of these. Thinking of Burma, I would like to share this song about Rangoon University (University of Yangon) campus.