The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma | Thant Myint-U

The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma | Thant Myint-U | Palimpsestic History

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The River of Lost ...

	The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma Thant Myint-U Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma?s past tell us about its present and even its future? For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma?through sanctions and tourist boycotts?only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship.

Now Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, and the story of his own family, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Through his prominent family?s stories and those of others, he portrays Burma?s rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through a sixty-year civil war that continues today?the longest-running war anywhere in the world.

The River of Lost Footsteps is a work at once personal and global, a ?brisk, vivid history? (Philip Delves Broughton, The Wall Street Journal) that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.

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A brilliant eye opener

The message of this book is that there is much more to Burma(Myanmar) than one reads in the newspapers, there is more than the military dictatorship and the cause of 'human rights'. The message is that there is much we can learn about Burma from her history and that the present state of siege is one that ignores her illustrious and rich past.

The past is indeed illustrious. It is made up of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Of a number of terrifying wars against England and colonialism. It is made up of powerful kings and rebels and Mughals and Portuguese pirates and Armenian businessman. It is about an exotic kingdom long connected with the world but also partially cut off from it, one that became Buddhist early on and has fought many wars against China and Thailand.

The author is the son of a famous Burmese family whose fortunes included being head of the U.N. and he has an intimate knowledge of not only the history but also the culture, clothing, architecture, smells and whereabouts of the subject he discusses. He weaves himself into the story as well, describing visits to ruined cities and an experience as a young man going to Thailand to protest for Democracy in his homeland.

A very important account and one of the few modern histories of Burma written in the last twenty years, it adds a great deal to an understanding of current Burmese politics and why many have been wrong to judge her for her actions without learning anything about her.

Seth J. Frantzman

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Palimpsestic History

For one so young (born in 1966) Thant Myint-U is the best Myanmar writer of our time. He has created a very readable book that shows how remembrances are shaped and reshaped with time, cutting from present day to the past and back. Contrary to what some other reviewers think, his final chapter: "Palimpsest" is probably the most important argument in his entire book and, if nothing else, should be read and reread by anyone who wishes to judge or take a position on the current situation in Myanmar. A palimpsest is used to describe objects placed over one another to establish the sequence of events at an accident or crime scene. Myanmar is certainly a crime scene, but as The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma shows the criminals may not always be who we thought they were.

As you read Thant's histories of Burma you can not help but feel sorrow and pity for the people of this area of Asia, as they first try to gain freedom from their own Kings only to be attacked, captured and ruled by the British and Indians for nearly one hundred years. They are attacked by the Chinese several times and finally they became embroiled in the horrors of WWII in Asia as a buffer between the British and Japanese. Having thrown off the grip of the British Empire after the war, as did several other South East Asian countries, they were faced with civil war and invasions by communists, Muslim separatists and other ethnic groups; US backed Chinese Nationalists and drug barons. The only way to save themselves from external intervention and domestic insurgency was to accept a strong military leadership.

With great shame, several countries might wish to scrape the record of their disastrous role in Burma from the parchment. Instead, they work on solutions to change the regime they have been instrumental in creating by placing sanctions on the suffering people of Myanmar. As Thant, so well points out - 'sanctions and isolation' is not a solution, merely a new Western form of aggression. He recommends 'engagement' (as does ASEAN) as a better path to helping the people.

One can only hope that governmental policy makers in the West will read this book and think of positive ways to help the people of Myanmar, not push them further and further toward the position of a `failed' state. Thant points out: "If Thailand and Indonesia had been under US and European sanctions for the past twenty years, they would not be democracies today."

I have added an extra star to this review since Thant Myint-U, while a personal friend of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, did not add extra emphasis to the Nobel Prize she was awarded in 1991. 16 years after the fact it seems that any mention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in any media must be accompanied by the words "Nobel Peace Prize Winner."

According to Wikipedia: The Nobel Peace Prize may be awarded to persons or organizations that are in the process of resolving a conflict or creating peace. As some such processes have failed to create lasting peace, some Peace Prizes appear questionable in hindsight. Since the award to Daw Ang San Suu Gyi in 1991 there has been no improvement in the civil war in Myanmar; no resolution of the many conflicts; only greater controversy in her name. It is reminiscent of the awards given to Teddy Roosevelt, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Yassar Arafat, Le duc Tho, and Henry Kissinger. It is interesting to note that both Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - but we rarely, if ever, see mention of that next to their names. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi might wish to distance herself from this ilk and work toward greater welfare for the people of her nation and resolution of the causes of the current civil war in Myanmar. As Thant Myint-U points out: Supporting sanctions and isolation will not accomplish this.

By sharing with the reader his memories of his own family, who were significant names in Burmese history, Thant Myint-U has created exciting and believable histories of a wonderful people facing great challenges. By this device he has given greater realism to a strange history that otherwise would be difficult to understand.

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A Comprehensive Look At Burma's Situation

We Americans tend to forget or ignore the fact that there are deep seeded historical reasons why governments in other countries take certain positions that seem to be inappropriate. Such is the case with Burma, and the xenophobic, anti-democratic actions of its military government. Fortunately, Thant Myint-U has provided a basis for understanding the situation in Burma through his wonderful book, The River of Lost Footsteps.

Thant shows that Burma's current state is mostly the result of its very long history of negative interactions with other countries. He discusses how occupations by the Chinese, British, Japanese, and others have led to a mistrust of foreigners. This mistrust has morphed into a sense of nationalistic self-reliance, in part from several examples (augmented by nostalgia) where a strong Burmese leader has successfully led the country. Thant then discusses how the radical changes that have occurred in Burma over the last 150 years have left the country without a governing class capable of managing it. Given these factors, it's no surprise that the one governmental unit with strong structure, the military, is running the country.

Considering all the care that Thant took to show how Burma came to its current state of affairs, it was a little disappointing to see that he rushed through his conclusions. Beyond saying that the existing international response of economic sanctions won't work, he provides little in the way of possible answers as to how Burma can be integrated into the international community. That response comes across as a little too vague and diplomatic for someone who clearly understands the reasons behind Burma's present circumstances. Still, The River of Lost Footsteps is an important starting point for persons interested in comprehending Burma's situation and developing a policy for addressing its position.

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Don't forget that it's a "personal" history

This is a well written book and a very informative one for the Western society to have a broader picture of Burma. However, as one other Burmese reviewer said, the book carries an elite view of history and lack grassroots dimension. I have no problem with highly educated elites that love Burma, as we need them to rebuild our country. In fact, being about the same age, I share a similar sentiment with the author about Burma's future.

The author spoke against economic sanctions and its ineffectiveness to stimulate transformation in Burma. While he made his point well and some other reviewers resonated with him, the author failed to study the drug history in Burma that played a major role in triggering the existing sanctions.

My father was imprisoned a few years back for his successful effort in drug rehabilitation in Burma. Can you imagine a government that would imprison someone for saving the lives of many young people, my age and younger, that buried their lives in drugs because the government didn't give them a hope for a future. It was then I happened to dig into the Amnesty International and U.S. State Department's reports to find out, with much surprise, that the Burmese government was heavily involved in drug production and that 70% of the heroin sold in the U.S. came from Burma; I thought it came from Columbia. To make the long story short, by doing business in Burma, the American companies were helping the junta and their associated drug producers turn their drug money into legitimate white money--the money that came from destroying American young people.

The drug history is an example of the grassroots history of Burma that is missing in the book. The history of unfortunate foreign encounters should not be used to justify the government's trampling of the grassroots using different forms of systematic torture, or to justify the removal of sanctions.

However, as a "personal" history, it is a good read, and we need more books and more authors like him to provide wider windows to look into Burma, so that the world can make informed decisions.

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class consciousness

This is a typical book about the history of Burma written by someone who belongs to (or thinks he belongs to) the upper echelons of burmese society. The book is partly autobiographical, which is the way aristocrats tend to write history in most countries. The author tends to overestimate the "grandiosity" and "antiquity" of burmese history (the present military regime likes to do that also!). The history of most countries, including Burma, is in reality often a power struggle between small (elite) groups and is a lot more mundane than what is written in the history books. Unfortunately this "trivial" fact has substantial consequences on the economic plight of average citizens, in Burma and elsewhere!

Although biased in many ways, I do think the book is well written and informative, especially for people (like Americans!) who are unfamiliar with the "complexities" of burmese history and society (because they tend to think of Burma as an isolated exotic place!). It is written by a young burmese author who grew up in the USA, but who is the grandson of former UN secretary general U Thant (he mentions that a few times in the book!). I was born in Burma, of humble parents, but I leave it up to authors like Thant Myint U, to write the modern "Maha Yazawin Gyi" (Big Royal History) of Burma. I certainly don't believe everything he says in the book.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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