Internet and Myanmar

In 2001 we did not have internet in Myanmar. Whenever I travelled outside Myanmar I envied the kids of my neighboring countries enjoying internet in their own languages.

" I will ask for internet in my country," I said.

" No way , your government will not give you internet," one of my expat friend told me.

" Why not, we need it for business and education , I think the world does not know how much we are deprived, " I said.

At a small business symposia in Yangon, I put up a presentation about the need and usage of internet for business and sent the whole presentation to Myanmar Times which they wrote an article in their publication. " Business community of Myanmar asks for internet ," was the title.

I left Yangon for a long holiday vowing that I would not stay in my country if there was no internet and no access to the world.

When I came back from my six months holiday I was pleasantly surprised to see Bagan Cybertech and internet services available.

There were internet cafes sprung up later but we found that the kids were doing games instead of learning anything on internet. They are still weak in English and all the sites are in English. I always wanted to write educational articles in Burmese but I am weak in Burmese typing. Now I can use burmese fonts to type in Burmese and I am still practicing it.

I am surprised to see many Myanmar bloggers on the internet today and there is a community now enjoyed by Burmese all over the world and all of us can feel connected to our main land.

I am sad to see that there are now censorships and slow connections because of political blogs and the events that happened lately. May be we are not ready for the open society, I do not know.

There are also Myanmar women and model girls promotional videos and pictures , even a phuket tourism site advertising them and some Burmese in California are promoting them.

It is all up to the user whether they want to use it for educational , business , politics or they use it for gambling , pleasure or for instigating riots and instability ,wasting our precious privilege to use internet.

I have done my duty to demand but I cannot be responsible for the results.

Internet is booming in China as well but they have hopes and they have employments.

They even are patriotic and nationalistic about their Tibet affairs and Olympics.

Is it the difference between us and China?