A tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridezilla_(term)

Word of the day: Bridezilla.

It's such a cleverly contrived portmanteau word, from "bride" and "godzilla", and it means a difficult, unpleasant, perfectionist bride. Seems there's a serial on this idea on mio TV. Haha. I can think of a potential headline, "Bride's hate revisited".

But I want to use today's posting to highlight two things from today's papers (ST and Today).

First, I think my colleague Shefali Rekhi wrote a wonderful story of her interview with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyu, "Democracy comes first, says Suu Kyi" (ST, 2 Dec 2010, page 1).

I am in awe of everything Ms Suu Kyi stands for, and I urge everyone to read the story. Here are excerpts:

Power to the people
"I am trying to instil the idea of the power of the powerless into them... and that they can use this power in the right way to make the changes that we want. I think, first of all, we have to make them understand that their power lies in unity. That it lies in their ability to communicate with each other and to be able to make their hopes and aspirations felt by (the authorities)."

The key goals
"The first goal, the primary goal, is to create this network of people working for the process of democratisation. Within that, of course, there are social goals, humanitarian goals, political goals, and we want to coordinate all these into one big positive force. The second goal, I think I will tell you when we are halfway through the first goal."

On being President or PM
"I do not think in those terms. What I aspire to is to establish a strong and lasting democratic system in Burma. I don't think it is important who is President if the democratic institutions are genuine and strong and in place. There will be presidents and presidents after that."

Duty before family
"I am not the only one who has put duty above family, and when you consider what has happened to other families who belong to the National League for Democracy [the party she led, since forced to disband] and other democratic forces, then I don't think I want to make a big issue out of whether ot not I suffered."

The other thing I want to post here is an excerpt from Thomas Friedman's recent New York Times article (reprinted in Today, 2 Dec, page 20) on a fake -- and I must emphasise here it is all made up -- Chinese Washington-based embassy cable "obtained" by WikiLeaks. I had, in an earlier posting, discussed many Americans' belief in their country's "exceptionalism" and Friedman, using the fake Chinese voice, critiques this notion beautifully, as follows:

"[Americans] travel abroad so rarely that they don't see how far they are falling behind. Which is why we at the embassy find it funny that Americans are now fighting over how 'exceptional' they are.

"On the front page of The Washington Post on Monday there was an article noting that Repulicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are denouncing Obama for denying 'American exceptionalism'. The Americans have replaced working to be exceptional with talking about how exceptional they still are.

"They don't seem to understand that you can't declare yourself  'exceptional'; only others can bestow that adjective upon you."