Welfare system not faring well

The Japan Times Articles

Welfare system not faring well
By PHILIP BRASOR
Ten years ago, in her book "Nickel and Dimed," Barbara Ehrenreich chronicled her own experience as a subsistence-level American wage-earner during a period of relative economic vigor. She found a whole class of workers who lived — and would always live — from paycheck to paycheck. In the afterword to the recently published tenth-anniversary edition of the book, Ehrenreich says that in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, these people now have to compete for minimum-wage jobs. Ever since President Bill Clinton overhauled the welfare system, many poor Americans no longer qualify for assistance, which means they have nothing to fall back on. The "safety net" has turned into a "dragnet," since, in line with the contraction of welfare eligibility, many state and municipal governments have effectively "criminalized homelessness."






In spirit, Japan's public welfare system is closer to America's than it is to Europe's. Citizens do not have a right to be supported by the government. Some claim they do and as proof point to Article 25 of the Constitution, which states that all people have the right to "maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living." But Article 27 states that people have the right "and the obligation" to work. What this means in practice is that a person who applies for welfare must pass a rigorous screening process that can include personal disclosures, such as whether or not the applicant has access to support from a relative or even a lover. The applicant has to conform to certain notions of impoverishment. I've heard that in the 1960s and 70s, potential welfare recipients would hide "inessential" possessions like color TVs when a case worker visited.

The authorities will support you as long as you understand your place vis-a-vis someone who is "productive." In America, welfare recipients are often characterized as leeches who have learned how to scam the system. In Japan, the equivalent negative image is less harsh but, given the context, perhaps more effective. Receiving welfare is a social stigma. The idea is to shame recipients into getting back into society, where "everybody" works for a living. That's why when Japanese people get their first full-time job, they are dubbed shakaijin, or "members of society."

According to a recent documentary broadcast by NHK, this strategy may no longer work. The number of welfare recipients nationwide is over 2 million, the highest it's been since the system was launched in 1950, after which it continued to drop steadily until bottoming out in 1996. Central and local governments now give out ¥3.4 trillion in welfare benefits a year, equal to 10 percent of all tax revenues.

The local government with the heaviest burden is Osaka, where 17 percent of the city budget goes to welfare payments. NHK found that a substantial portion of the recipients are able-bodied males between the ages of 20 and 60. In the past, long-term welfare recipients belonged to one of three categories: elderly people, single mothers and the chronically ill or handicapped. The remaining recipients were people who were temporarily out of work, meaning their ranks were constantly changing. The number of unemployed in Japan hovers just under the 5 million mark, and as one case worker explained, most of the new additions to the welfare rolls are men who were employed as haken (contract workers), non-regular employees who could be laid off easily. After thousands of these workers lost their jobs in the financial meltdown of 2008, the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare issued a directive to local governments to ease up on the requirements for receiving welfare. In principle, people who can work don't qualify, but in order to provide relief to this large group of newly unemployed workers, the government said that they now did.

Many are still on welfare, a situation that has as much to do with a change in social psychology as it does with continuing economic stagnation. At one point in the documentary, NHK visits the apartment of a man in his early 50s who used to work for a real-estate company. He receives ¥126,700 a month, at the end of which he has ¥40,000 left over. Though it's much less than what he received when he was working, he says he's "comfortable," which is why he has no desire to look for a job.

With each additional example NHK presented, it became clear that these men were not merely lazy. They have no desire "to be in society." One reason is the unstable haken lifestyle. As one welfare recipient in his 20s pointed out, he doesn't go to employment offices because he's afraid of "being asked to move away" from his wife and newborn daughter. As long as he can survive on welfare, he'll stay with it. But the problem goes deeper. One Osaka caseworker says that most of the 60 men assigned to him have "lost the will to work," and that has led to self-isolation. In this regard, the strategy of keeping people off welfare by threatening them with social ostracism backfires: These men prefer to be ostracized.

An underground economy has built up around these men. Yakuza organize illegal gambling dens with free food and drink to attract welfare recipients. And since these men also receive free medical care, doctors ply them with drugs they don't necessarily need and then charge it all to the public health insurance scheme. The recipients turn around and sell the drugs on the black market.

The central government is now asking local governments to refuse welfare payments to men who can work. That's easier said than done, especially with the present job market. Employers are increasingly demanding specific skills, if not experience, even for minimum-wage jobs such as food service. Many of these unemployed welfare recipients, including those who want to work, don't qualify. According to antipoverty activist Makoto Yuasa, who was interviewed on the program, taking away welfare could be "dangerous," because the next step down for these men is "nothingness."

The Japan Times: Sunday, Sep. 25, 2011
(C) All rights reserved
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Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.

The homepage of apple.com shows the obituary of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs (ABC …
• Article: President Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Others React to Steve Jobs' Death
ABC News - 3 hours ago
Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today," read a statement by Apple's board of directors. "Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."
The homepage of Apple's website this evening switched to a full-page image of Jobs with the text, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011."




•
Clicking on the image revealed the additional text: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and, with his childhood friend Steve Wozniak, marketed what was considered the world's first personal computer, the Apple II.
Shortly after learning of Jobs' death, Wozniak told ABC News, "I'm shocked and disturbed."
Industry watchers called him a master innovator -- perhaps on a par with Thomas Edison -- changing the worlds of computing, recorded music and communications.
In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple's chief executive.
"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. "Unfortunately, that day has come."
Click Here for Pictures: Steve Jobs Through the Years
One of the world's most famous CEOs, Jobs remained stubbornly private about his personal life, refusing interviews and shielding his wife and their children from public view.
"He's never been a media person," said industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, after Jobs resigned. "He's granted interviews in the context of product launches, when it benefits Apple, but you never see him talk about himself."
The highlights of Jobs's career trajectory are well-known: a prodigy who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon and, at 21, started Apple with Wozniak in his parents' garage. He was a multimillionaire by 25, appeared on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was ousted at Apple at age 30, in 1984.
In the years that followed, he went into other businesses, founding NeXT computers and, in 1986, buying the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, Ltd., which became Pixar Animation Studios.
He was described as an exacting and sometimes fearsome leader, ordering up and rejecting multiple versions of new products until the final version was just right. He said the design and aesthetics of a device were as important as the hardware and software inside.
Click Here for Pictures: Apple's Iconic Products
In 1996, Apple, which had struggled without Jobs, brought him back by buying NeXT. He became CEO in 1997 and put the company on a remarkable upward path.
By 2001 the commercial music industry was on its knees because digital recordings, copied and shared online for free, made it unnecessary for millions of people to buy compact discs.
Jobs took advantage with the iPod -- essentially a pocket-sized computer hard drive with elegantly simple controls and a set of white earbuds so that one could listen to the hours of music one saved on it. He set up the iTunes online music store, and persuaded major recording labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. No longer did people have to go out and buy a CD if they liked one song from it. They bought a digital file and stored it in their iPod.
In 2007, he transformed the cell phone. Apple's iPhone, with its iconic touch screen, was a handheld computer, music player, messaging device, digital wallet and -- almost incidentally -- cell phone. Major competitors, such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Motorola, struggled after it appeared.
By 2010, Apple's new iPad began to cannibalize its original business, the personal computer. The iPad was a sleek tablet computer with a touch screen and almost no physical buttons. It could be used for almost anything software designers could conceive, from watching movies to taking pictures to leafing through a virtual book.
Personal Life
Jobs kept a close cadre of friends, Bajarin said, including John Lasseter of Pixar and Larry Ellison of Oracle, but beyond that, shared very little of his personal life with anyone.
But that personal life -- he was given up at birth for adoption, had an illegitimate child, was romantically linked with movie stars -- was full of intrigue for his fan base and Apple consumers.
Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell, were married in a small ceremony in Yosemite National Park in 1991, lived in Woodside, Calif., and had three children: Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.
He admitted that when he was 23, he had a child out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan. Their daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs, was born in 1978.
He had a biological sister, Mona Simpson, the author of such well-known books as "Anywhere But Here." But he did not meet Simpson until they were adults and he was seeking out his birth parents. Simpson later wrote a book based on their relationship. She called it "A Regular Guy."
Fortune magazine reported that Jobs denied paternity of Lisa for years, at one point swearing in a court document that he was infertile and could not have children. According to the report, Chris Ann Brennan collected welfare for a time to support the child until Jobs later acknowledged Lisa as his daughter.
There were other personal details that emerged over the years, as well.
At Reed, Jobs became romantically involved with the singer Joan Baez, according to Elizabeth Holmes, a friend and classmate. In "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs," Holmes tells biographer Alan Deutschman that Jobs broke up with his serious girlfriend to "begin an affair with the charismatic singer-activist." Holmes confirmed the details to ABC News.
Jobs' Health and Apple's Health
Enigmatic and charismatic, Jobs said little about himself. But then his body began to fail him.
In 2004, he was forced to say publicly he had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, it was revealed that he had quietly gone to a Memphis hospital for a liver transplant.
He took three medical leaves from Apple. He did not share details.
In 2009, sources said, members of Apple's board of directors had to persuade him to disclose more about his health as "a fiduciary issue," interwoven with the health of the company.
He was listed in March as 109th on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, with a net worth of about $8.3 billion. After selling Pixar animation studios to The Walt Disney Company in 2006, he became a Disney board member and the company's largest shareholder. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Analysts said Apple performed well during Jobs' absence, partly because he was available for big decisions and partly because his chief lieutenant, Tim Cook, was the hands-on manager even when Jobs was there.
The company has a history of bouncing back. In January 2009, after he announced his second medical leave, Apple stock dropped to $78.20 per share. But it quickly recovered and became one of the most successful stocks on Wall Street. On one day in the summer of 2011, with the stock hitting the $400 level, Apple briefly passed ExxonMobil as the world's most valuable company.
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Are women more effective lawmakers than men?

Study: Women lawmakers best men
Erika Lovley Erika Lovley
Tue Sep 15, 5:46 am ET

Are women more effective lawmakers than men?

That’s the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.

The study, which examined the performance of House members between 1984 and 2004, found that women delivered roughly 9 percent more discretionary spending for their districts than men.

For instance, during Rep. Judy Biggert’s first two-year term, Illinois’s 13th District received $382 million in federal funds, $70 million more than it received during the final term of her predecessor, Rep. Harris Fawell.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren delivered around $859 million to her district, compared with $541 million brought in by her predecessor, Rep. Don Edwards, during his final term, the researchers said.

And during then-Rep. Connie Morella’s first term, Maryland’s 8th District received $780 million, $183 million more than predecessor Rep. Michael Barnes brought in during his final term, they said.

While there are obviously variables beyond gender — seniority, party affiliation, majority/minority status and the differing priorities of a freshman and a veteran lawmaker — the researchers say they’ve accounted for those in making their male-to-female comparisons.

“You could easily make the argument that a politician who is on his way out, or someone who is sitting on a really powerful committee, is in a different position than someone just coming into office,” said Stanford researcher Sarah Anzia. “Not every example will cover every alternative explanation, but we control for all of those factors in the study.”

The researchers also found that women introduced more legislation than men who served in their same districts, often hitting the ground running in their first terms.



“We find that, on average, women sponsor about three bills more per Congress per term than their male counterparts,” said Anzia. “They co-sponsor more bills than other members, and they also obtain more co-sponsors for their own bills.”

Since 1789, women have constituted just 2 percent of the total congressional population. The ratio of female to male representatives has increased in recent years, but the pace is still fairly glacial: Nearly 17 percent of House members are women today, compared with about 3 percent in 1979.

Researchers say the small number of female members may have something to do with their effectiveness. Women who run and win are likely the most politically ambitious and talented of their pool, having potentially overcome hurdles including voter bias and self-doubt about their ability to win. Female candidates also tend to attract more challengers. Politically eligible women tend to doubt their ability to get elected and raise money more than men do, multiple studies have indicated. Large majorities of both men and women in candidate feeder pools, such as law offices and political organizations, believe there is a bias against women in elections, according to Lawless and Fox studies in 2005 and 2004.

Once women get to Capitol Hill, those hurdles may drive them to perform better, on average, than male counterparts who have faced a less contentious road.

“Research shows that even though women have similar success rates in primaries and elections as men, they are likely to face more challengers,” said Hartwick College political science department chairwoman Laurel Elder. “The results might be the same, but they might have to work harder to get those same results.”

“People ask, ‘Are you going to be strong enough? Are you going to be a fighter for us?’” said Rep. Judy Biggert, who beat five men in the initial Illinois Republican primary in 1998. “That’s always the way I’ve been treated.”

Biggert said she was told during her early days in law school at Northwestern University that she was a student by mistake — a man should have been in her seat.

“That has always given me the drive to work two, three times harder than men,” Biggert said.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a rising GOP star and female-candidate recruiter for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said it took several “taps on the shoulder” before she decided to run for office.

“Women seem to wait for someone who plants the idea and gives them confidence,” McMorris Rodgers said. “I had individuals who shared their confidence in me, and it helped erase some of the self-doubt.”

“Running for Congress is no walk in the park,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who has served in the House since 1995. “It’s a tough business, and people who do it successfully stand trial by fire.”

Lofgren entered the 1994 Democratic primary in California as the ultimate underdog against a favored male candidate, San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery. On primary night, television crews and reporters crowded her opponent’s headquarters, awaiting the presumed winner’s victory speech, while a lone photographer sat at Lofgren’s offices, waiting to snap a photo of the loser. But in an upset, Lofgren won the primary and then the election. Despite her victory, she faced additional hurdles on Capitol Hill that have continued to drive her daily work efforts. Her initial committee requests were ignored, she said, and she struggled to break through some of the old boys’ networks.

“There were some older male members who had a tough time accepting that there were women members,” said Lofgren, an immigration lawyer who now serves on the powerful House Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

However, political science professor Jyl Josephson, director of the Rutgers Women’s Studies Program, cautions not to make too much of gender differences on the Hill — particularly among members who’ve been there for a while.

“We spend a lot time measuring gender differences rather than similarities,” Josephson said. “But there are many studies that show similarities, and they don’t get discussed nearly as much.”

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Michael Jackson, the 'King of Pop,' dies at age 50

အသားအေရာင္နဲ ့လူမ်ိဳးခဲြျခားမႈကို သူ ့နည္းသူ ့ဟန္နဲ ့အသက္ဆုံးတိုင္ တိုက္ပဲြဝင္သြားတဲ့ ေပါ့ဘုရင္ကိုဦးညႊတ္ဂုဏ္ျပဳပါတယ္။
I solute you and god bless you.
ုဘုန္းလိႈင္-FWUBC

Autopsy set after Michael Jackson's sudden death

Remembering the 'King of Pop'
Slideshow:Michael Jackson dies at 50 Play Video Video:Jermaine Jackson: Want privacy in 'tough time' AP Play Video Video:Sights and Sounds: Remembering the 'King of Pop' AP AP – FILE - In this Aug. 29, 1993 file photo, pop singer Michael Jackson performs during his 'Dangerous' concert … By LYNN ELBER, Associated Press Writer Lynn Elber, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 7 mins ago
LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson, defined in equal parts as the world's greatest entertainer and perhaps its most enigmatic figure, was about to attempt one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Then his life was cut shockingly — and so far, mysteriously — short.

The 50-year-old musical superstar died Thursday, just as he was preparing for what would be a series of 50 concerts starting July 13 at London's famed 02 arena. Jackson had been spending hours and hours toiling with a team of dancers for a performance he and his fans hoped would restore his tarnished legacy to its proper place in pop.



An autopsy was planned for Friday, though results were not likely to be final until toxicology tests could be completed, a process that could take several days and sometimes weeks. However, if a cause can be determined by the autopsy, they will announce the results, said Los Angeles County Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben.

Police said they were investigating, standard procedure in high-profile cases.

Jackson died at UCLA Medical Center after being stricken at his rented home in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Holmby Hills. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him at his home for nearly three-quarters of an hour, then rushed him to the hospital, where doctors continued to work on him.

"It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death is unknown until results of the autopsy are known," his brother Jermaine said.

Cardiac arrest is an abnormal heart rhythm that stops the heart from pumping blood to the body. It can occur after a heart attack or be caused by other heart problems.

Jackson's death brought a tragic end to a long, bizarre, sometimes farcical decline from his peak in the 1980s, when he was popular music's premier all-around performer, a uniter of black and white music who shattered the race barrier on MTV, dominated the charts and dazzled even more on stage.

His 1982 album "Thriller" — which included the blockbuster hits "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" — is the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

As word of his death spread, MTV switched its programming to play videos from Jackson's heyday. Radio stations began playing marathons of his hits. Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital. In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends by cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend had sent him. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

The public first knew him as a boy in the late 1960s, when he was the precocious, spinning lead singer of the Jackson 5, the singing group he formed with his four older brothers out of Gary, Ind. Among their No. 1 hits were "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "I'll Be There."

He was perhaps the most exciting performer of his generation, known for his backward-gliding moonwalk, his feverish, crotch-grabbing dance moves and his high-pitched singing, punctuated with squeals and titters. His single sequined glove, tight, military-style jacket and aviator sunglasses were trademarks, as was his ever-changing, surgically altered appearance.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," said Quincy Jones, who produced "Thriller." "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson ranked alongside Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest pop sensations of all time. He united two of music's biggest names when he was briefly married to Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. Jackson's sudden death immediately evoked comparisons to that of Presley himself, who died at age 42 in 1977.

"I am so very sad and confused with every emotion possible," Lisa Marie Presley said in a statement. "I am heartbroken for his children who I know were everything to him and for his family. This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."

As years went by, Jackson became an increasingly freakish figure — a middle-aged man-child weirdly out of touch with grown-up life. His skin became lighter, his nose narrower, and he spoke in a breathy, girlish voice. He often wore a germ mask while traveling, kept a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles as one of his closest companions and surrounded himself with children at his Neverland ranch, a storybook playland filled with toys, rides and animals. The tabloids dubbed him "Wacko Jacko."

"It seemed to me that his internal essence was at war with the norms of the world. It's as if he was trying to defy gravity," said Michael Levine, a Hollywood publicist who represented Jackson in the early 1990s. He called Jackson a "disciple of P.T. Barnum" and said the star appeared fragile at the time but was "much more cunning and shrewd about the industry than anyone knew."

Jackson caused a furor in 2002 when he playfully dangled his infant son, Prince Michael II, over a hotel balcony in Berlin while a throng of fans watched from below.

In 2005, he was cleared of charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003. He had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him, and of engaging in strange and inappropriate behavior with other children.

The case followed years of rumors about Jackson and young boys. In a TV documentary, he acknowledged sharing his bed with children, a practice he described as sweet and not at all sexual.

Despite the acquittal, the lurid allegations that came out in court took a fearsome toll on his career and image, and he fell into serious financial trouble.

Michael Joseph Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary. He was 4 years old when he began singing with his brothers — Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and Tito — in the Jackson 5. After his early success with bubblegum soul, he struck out on his own, generating innovative, explosive, unstoppable music.

The album "Thriller" alone mixed the dark, serpentine bass and drums and synthesizer approach of "Billie Jean," the grinding Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on "Beat It," and the hiccups and falsettos on "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."

The peak may have come in 1983, when Motown celebrated its 25th anniversary with an all-star televised concert and Jackson moonwalked off with the show, joining his brothers for a medley of old hits and then leaving them behind with a pointing, crouching, high-kicking, splay-footed, crotch-grabbing run through "Billie Jean."

The audience stood and roared. Jackson raised his fist.

During production of a 1984 Pepsi commercial, Jackson's scalp sustains burns when an explosion sets his hair on fire.

He had strong follow-up albums with 1987's "Bad" and 1991's "Dangerous," but his career began to collapse in 1993 after he was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family, reported to be $20 million, and criminal charges were never filed.

Jackson's expressed anger over the allegations on the 1995 album "HIStory," which sold more than 2.4 million copies, but by then, the popularity of Jackson's music was clearly waning even as public fascination with his increasingly erratic behavior was growing.

Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, and they divorced in 1996. Later that year, Jackson married Deborah Rowe, a former nurse for his dermatologist. They had two children together: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as Prince Michael, now 12; and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, 11. Rowe filed for divorce in 1999.

Jackson also had a third child, Prince Michael II. Now 7, Jackson said the boy nicknamed Blanket as a baby was his biological child born from a surrogate mother.

Billboard magazine editorial director Bill Werde said Jackson's star power was unmatched. "The world just lost the biggest pop star in history, no matter how you cut it," Werde said. "He's literally the king of pop."

Jackson's 13 No. 1 one hits on the Billboard charts put him behind only Presley, the Beatles and Mariah Carey, Werde said.

"He was on the eve of potentially redeeming his career a little bit," he said. "People might have started to think of him again in a different light."

__

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch and AP writers Derrik J. Lang, Solvej Schou, Anthony McCartney and Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles; and Virginia Byrne, Hillel Italie, Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this report.

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“က်မ ျပစ္မႈ မက်ဴးလြန္ဘူး”

http://arzarni.blogspot.com/

Thursday, May 21, 2009



က်မသည္ ျမန္မာ..
အဖျမန္မာ..အမိျမန္မာ.
ျမန္မာမွာေမြး..
ျမန္မာ့ရဲ့ မိန္းကေလး
နူးညံ့တဲ့ ႏွလံုးသား..
အၾကင္နာတရားရွိတယ္။

မုဒိတာ စိတ္အင္အား..
ကိုယ္ခ်င္းစာတရားရွိတယ္။
ကူညီတတ္တဲ့ လက္မ်ား..
ေမတၱာတရားတို ့ရွိတယ္။
ဗုဒၶဘာသာရဲ့ ရင္ေသြး..
လူလူခ်င္း ေလးစားတယ္..
သစၥာ ကတိ..အမွန္တရားဆိုတာ တန္ဖိုးရွိတယ္။

လဲေနသူ ထူေပးပါ။
အားငယ္သူကုိိ အားေပးပါ။
ေရထဲကလူ ဆယ္ယူပါ။
ေလာက၏ နီတိတရား
သူငယ္တန္းေက်ာင္းသားေတာင္သိတယ္။
သင္ပုန္းၾကီးေက်သူတိုင္း နားလည္တယ္။

လူမွဳ၏နယ္..ရိ္ုးသားဖြယ္အက်င့္စာဂ
လက္ဆင့္ကမ္း..မိရိုးဖလာသင္ထားတယ္..
သိပါလိမ့္မယ္။
သင္သည္..မိေကာင္းဖခင္သားသမီးဆိုခဲ့ရင္

ေရက်ေနတဲ့ ပုရြက္ဆိတ္..
အစာငတ္ေနတဲ့ ေခြး.
ေလလြင့္ေနတဲ့ ေတာင္ပံက်ိဳးဌက္.
ကယ္ဆယ္တတ္တာ ျမန္မာ..
ဤသည္ အျပစ္ပါလား..

ျမန္မာမွန္ ဗုဒၶဘာသာမွန္ရင္
တံခါးမရွိ ဓါးမရွိ
ခိုကိုးမဲ့သူ အရိပ္ေပး..
ငတ္ေနသူကို အစာေၾကြး.
ပင္ပန္းေနသူ ေရတေပါက္ေပး
ဧည့္သည္ကို..နားေနရာေပး..
ဤအရာသည္..
ျမန္မာ့ရိုးရာ ဓေလ့
ျမန္မာတိုင္း မေမ့.

မ်က္စိေမွာက္မွား..
ေရာက္လာတဲ့ ခရီးသည္။
ျမန္မာျဖစ္ျဖစ္ ဘယ္သူျဖစ္ျဖစ္
က်မေနတဲ့ အရိပ္..
က်မ ပိုင္ဆိုင္တယ္..
ကယ္ဆယ္ခြင့္ရွိတယ္။

မ်က္စိလည္ ေရာက္လာခဲ့
ေရမြန္းၾကြက္စုတ္ ဧည္သည္.
အကူအညီလို လူသားသာလွ်င္ ျဖစ္တယ္
က်ားမ မခြဲ။ အသားေရာင္မခြဲ
ေစတနာမွန္..အေရာင္မကြဲတတ္ဖူး.

က်မ ရဲ့ ၀မ္းစာထဲက ေဝမ်ွ
ေႏြးေထြးတဲ့ အစာေရစာေပး.
ေခတၱနားခိုေရး..ေပးမိတဲ့ အမွဳ
ကုသိုလ္ရတဲ့ အလုပ္
ဒါ က်မ အျပစ္ မဟုတ္ဖူး။
ဒါ ရာဇ၀တ္မွုဳ မဟုတ္ဖူး

ေမတၱာမခမ္းတဲ့ အမွဳအတြက္
အျပစ္ဆင္ဖမ္းခ်င္ဘဲ ဖမ္း..
ဒုကၡေရာက္သူ လက္ပိုက္မၾကည့္နိုင္ဖူး။

ဂရုဏာနဲ ့ အမွန္တရား..
ျမန္မာ အမ်ိဳးသမီး၏တန္ဖိုးမ်ား.
သမိုင္းမွာခ်န္ ထားခဲ့တယ္..

ဟယ္.. အာဏာပါးကြက္သားယုတ္တို ့
နင္ သတ္ခ်င္ရင္ သတ္..
ေျခဖ၀ါးဘဲ ဒါးမႊန္း ျဖတ္ျဖတ္..
က်မ ရဲ့ သိကၡာတရား..
အသက္ရင္း သက္ေသျပခဲ့တယ္။
အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ဗူးျပတိုင္း..
က်မ မေၾကာက္..ဒူးမေထာက္ဖူး..
အျပစ္မဲ့တဲ့ က်မ..
ပုပ္တဲ့သိကၡာနဲ့ နအဖ
အမည္တတ္ လီဆည္ပုဒ္မ..
သမိုင္းအဆက္ဆက္ ရီစရာပံုျပင္
က်မ ကေတာ့
စင္ထက္က ပါဘဲရွင္

လုပ္ရဲရင္ လုပ္ေပါ့။ ခံရဲသူ ခံရဲသေပါ့။
အမွန္ဆိုတာ
သမိုင္းစာမ်က္ႏွာေပၚ ခ၀ါမက်ပါဖူး..
က်မ နာမည္နဲ့သိကၡာ..
ေသေတာင္က်န္ေနဆဲ..
ေအာင္ဆန္းရဲ့ ေသြးနဲ ့
အင္းစိန္ေထာင္နံရံေပၚ သမိုင္းေရးခ်င္တယ္..
က်မသည္ ေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္..
ထာ၀ရ လင္းလက္ေနဆဲ ျမန္မာ့ အာဇာနည္။.

မသဒၶါ ( ၅။ ၁၄။ ၂၀၀၉)
ခ်စ္ခင္ေလးစားရပါေသာ ျမန္မာျပည္၏မိခင္သို ့။
ေရးဆြဲ ေပးပို ့သူ mr creater အား ေက်းဇူးအထူးတင္ရွိပါသည္။

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AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/pharmawater_factories


By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD,
Associated Press Writers – Mon Apr 20, 4:45 am ET
U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them — as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

As part of its ongoing PharmaWater investigation about trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, AP identified 22 compounds that show up on two lists: the EPA monitors them as industrial chemicals that are released into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water under federal pollution laws, while the Food and Drug Administration classifies them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The data don't show precisely how much of the 271 million pounds comes from drugmakers versus other manufacturers; also, the figure is a massive undercount because of the limited federal government tracking.

To date, drugmakers have dismissed the suggestion that their manufacturing contributes significantly to what's being found in water. Federal drug and water regulators agree.

But some researchers say the lack of required testing amounts to a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy about whether drugmakers are contributing to water pollution.

"It doesn't pass the straight-face test to say pharmaceutical manufacturers are not emitting any of the compounds they're creating," said Kyla Bennett, who spent 10 years as an EPA enforcement officer before becoming an ecologist and environmental attorney.

Pilot studies in the U.S. and abroad are now confirming those doubts.

Last year, the AP reported that trace amounts of a wide range of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in American drinking water supplies. Including recent findings in Dallas, Cleveland and Maryland's Prince George's and Montgomery counties, pharmaceuticals have been detected in the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans.

Most cities and water providers still do not test. Some scientists say that wherever researchers look, they will find pharma-tainted water.

Consumers are considered the biggest contributors to the contamination. We consume drugs, then excrete what our bodies don't absorb. Other times, we flush unused drugs down toilets. The AP also found that an estimated 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are thrown away each year by hospitals and long-term care facilities.

Researchers have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs. Some scientists say they are increasingly concerned that the consumption of combinations of many drugs, even in small amounts, could harm humans over decades.

Utilities say the water is safe. Scientists, doctors and the EPA say there are no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute concentrations of drugs. But those experts also agree that dangers cannot be ruled out, especially given the emerging research.

___

Two common industrial chemicals that are also pharmaceuticals — the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen peroxide — account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds identified as coming from drugmakers and other manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered to be ubiquitous in the environment.

However, the list of 22 includes other troubling releases of chemicals that can be used to make drugs and other products: 8 million pounds of the skin bleaching cream hydroquinone, 3 million pounds of nicotine compounds that can be used in quit-smoking patches, 10,000 pounds of the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride. Others include treatments for head lice and worms.

Residues are often released into the environment when manufacturing equipment is cleaned.

A small fraction of pharmaceuticals also leach out of landfills where they are dumped. Pharmaceuticals released onto land include the chemo agent fluorouracil, the epilepsy medicine phenytoin and the sedative pentobarbital sodium. The overall amount may be considerable, given the volume of what has been buried — 572 million pounds of the 22 monitored drugs since 1988.

In one case, government data shows that in Columbus, Ohio, pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. discharged an estimated 2,285 pounds of lithium carbonate — which is considered slightly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and freshwater fish — to a local wastewater treatment plant between 1995 and 2006. Company spokeswoman Marybeth C. McGuire said the pharmaceutical plant, which uses lithium to make drugs for bipolar disorder, has violated no laws or regulations. McGuire said all the lithium discharged, an annual average of 190 pounds, was lost when residues stuck to mixing equipment were washed down the drain.

___

Pharmaceutical company officials point out that active ingredients represent profits, so there's a huge incentive not to let any escape. They also say extremely strict manufacturing regulations — albeit aimed at other chemicals — help prevent leakage, and that whatever traces may get away are handled by onsite wastewater treatment.

"Manufacturers have to be in compliance with all relevant environmental laws," said Alan Goldhammer, a scientist and vice president at the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Goldhammer conceded some drug residues could be released in wastewater, but stressed "it would not cause any environmental issues because it was not a toxic substance at the level that it was being released at."

Several big drugmakers were asked this simple question: Have you tested wastewater from your plants to find out whether any active pharmaceuticals are escaping, and if so what have you found?

No drugmaker answered directly.

"Based on research that we have reviewed from the past 20 years, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are not a significant source of pharmaceuticals that contribute to environmental risk," GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Kate Klemas said the company's manufacturing processes "are designed to avoid, or otherwise minimize the loss of product to the environment" and thus "ensure that any residual losses of pharmaceuticals to the environment that do occur are at levels that would be unlikely to pose a threat to human health or the environment."

One major manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., acknowledged that it tested some of its wastewater — but outside the United States.

The company's director of hazard communication and environmental toxicology, Frank Mastrocco, said Pfizer has sampled effluent from some of its foreign drug factories. Without disclosing details, he said the results left Pfizer "confident that the current controls and processes in place at these facilities are adequately protective of human health and the environment."

It's not just the industry that isn't testing.

FDA spokesman Christopher Kelly noted that his agency is not responsible for what comes out on the waste end of drug factories. At the EPA, acting assistant administrator for water Mike Shapiro — whose agency's Web site says pharmaceutical releases from manufacturing are "well defined and controlled" — did not mention factories as a source of pharmaceutical pollution when asked by the AP how drugs get into drinking water.

"Pharmaceuticals get into water in many ways," he said in a written statement. "It's commonly believed the majority come from human and animal excretion. A portion also comes from flushing unused drugs down the toilet or drain; a practice EPA generally discourages."

His position echoes that of a line of federal drug and water regulators as well as drugmakers, who concluded in the 1990s — before highly sensitive tests now used had been developed — that manufacturing is not a meaningful source of pharmaceuticals in the environment.

Pharmaceutical makers typically are excused from having to submit an environmental review for new products, and the FDA has never rejected a drug application based on potential environmental impact. Also at play are pressures not to delay potentially lifesaving drugs. What's more, because the EPA hasn't concluded at what level, if any, pharmaceuticals are bad for the environment or harmful to people, drugmakers almost never have to report the release of pharmaceuticals they produce.

"The government could get a national snapshot of the water if they chose to," said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, "and it seems logical that we would want to find out what's coming out of these plants."

Ajit Ghorpade, an environmental engineer who worked for several major pharmaceutical companies before his current job helping run a wastewater treatment plant, said drugmakers have no impetus to take measurements that the government doesn't require.

"Obviously nobody wants to spend the time or their dime to prove this," he said. "It's like asking me why I don't drive a hybrid car? Why should I? It's not required."

___

After contacting the nation's leading drugmakers and filing public records requests, the AP found two federal agencies that have tested.

Both the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey have studies under way comparing sewage at treatment plants that receive wastewater from drugmaking factories against sewage at treatment plants that do not.

Preliminary USGS results, slated for publication later this year, show that treated wastewater from sewage plants serving drug factories had significantly more medicine residues. Data from the EPA study show a disproportionate concentration in wastewater of an antibiotic that a major Michigan factory was producing at the time the samples were taken.

Meanwhile, other researchers recorded concentrations of codeine in the southern reaches of the Delaware River that were at least 10 times higher than the rest of the river.

The scientists from the Delaware River Basin Commission won't have to look far when they try to track down potential sources later this year. One mile from the sampling site, just off shore of Pennsville, N.J., there's a pipe that spits out treated wastewater from a municipal plant. The plant accepts sewage from a pharmaceutical factory owned by Siegfried Ltd. The factory makes codeine.

"We have implemented programs to not only reduce the volume of waste materials generated but to minimize the amount of pharmaceutical ingredients in the water," said Siegfried spokeswoman Rita van Eck.

Another codeine plant, run by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Noramco Inc., is about seven miles away. A Noramco spokesman acknowledged that the Wilmington, Del., factory had voluntarily tested its wastewater and found codeine in trace concentrations thousands of times greater than what was found in the Delaware River. "The amounts of codeine we measured in the wastewater, prior to releasing it to the City of Wilmington, are not considered to be hazardous to the environment," said a company spokesman.

In another instance, equipment-cleaning water sent down the drain of an Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc. factory in Denver consistently contains traces of warfarin, a blood thinner, according to results obtained under a public records act request. Officials at the company and the Denver Metro Wastewater Reclamation District said they believe the concentrations are safe.

Warfarin, which also is a common rat poison and pesticide, is so effective at inhibiting growth of aquatic plants and animals it's actually deliberately introduced to clean plants and tiny aquatic animals from ballast water of ships.

"With regard to wastewater management we are subject to a variety of federal, state and local regulation and oversight," said Joel Green, Upsher-Smith's vice president and general counsel. "And we work hard to maintain systems to promote compliance."

Baylor University professor Bryan Brooks, who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment, said assurances that drugmakers run clean shops are not enough.

"I have no reason to believe them or not believe them," he said. "We don't have peer-reviewed studies to support or not support their claims."

___

Associated Press Writer Don Mitchell in Denver contributed to this report.

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Migrants' journey of hope ends in tragedy

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/611581

Africans seeking new life in Europe feared dead as overloaded boat sinks

Apr 01, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (1)
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER



Hope has been abandoned for about 300 missing African men, women and children, who are feared to have drowned on a perilous voyage from Libya to Italy seeking economic survival at a time of growing global desperation.

"The search has stopped, and we have no more information on their fate," said Michele Bombassei, head of technical co-operation for the International Organization for Migration in Tripoli, Libya.

A boat said to be carrying 356 people – but designed to hold just 75 – capsized Sunday near an oil platform 50 kilometres off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

Libyan coast guard officials retrieved at least 23 bodies and rescued 23 survivors before halting the search.

Two other vessels lost radio contact in turbulent weather; the Geneva-based group said it was unclear whether they were local fishing boats or other shipments of migrants.

An Italian-Libyan pact to patrol the Libyan coast will be launched May 15. But it is unlikely to stem the flow of thousands of illegal migrants trying to escape starvation, war and political persecution in Africa.

A recent report by the British government says the impoverished continent faces economic decline because of the global financial downturn, driving many to seek riskier escape routes.

"Smugglers often use unseaworthy and overcrowded boats to carry migrants who have had to pay large sums for their journey," the migration group said, adding that last year nearly 36,000 people arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a beachhead for migrants seeking work in Europe. The numbers more than doubled since 2007.

In Geneva, migration group spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy told reporters that migrants heading for Italy often face appalling conditions.



"There's no safety equipment on those boats – no buoys, dinghies or anything – because the purpose is to cram (in) as many people as possible ..."

Those who make it to Lampedusa – the closest Italian point from Libya – get a hostile reception. It is home to swelling numbers of migrants who once were removed to the mainland for detention, but are placed in a full-to-bursting camp.

Italy, hard hit by the economic shock, is hoping the sea patrols will prevent a catastrophic migration crisis. More than 600 new arrivals were found along Italy's southern coast this week alone.

In a phone interview from Tripoli, Bombassei said many of the migrants who arrive in Libya stay there if they find jobs in the oil-rich country. With a small population of 6.2 million, it has labour shortages at a time when other countries are grappling with unemployment.

"Notwithstanding the (low) price of oil, Libya is in an economic boom," Bombassei said. "The government has started an important program of refurbishing cities, and news of jobs travels quickly."

Some migrants find construction work or more skilled employment. But the majority have a day-to-day struggle for survival, and the discouraged try to move on to Europe.

Early spring marks the beginning of the smuggling season in the Mediterranean Sea, said Ron Redmond, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The sea is generally warmer and calmer during this time of year, though strong storms still occur.



With files from the Star's news services

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Why aid workers put their lives on the line

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090321.waidessay21/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090321.waidessay21

The recent kidnapping of Canadian nurse Laura Archer and four colleagues serves as a stark reminder of just how dangerous this work can be. Steve Dennis of Médecins Sans Frontières sheds light on why he keeps revisiting the world's most troubled places
Article Video Comments (14) STEVE DENNIS

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

March 21, 2009 at 12:05 AM EDT

When I first applied six years ago to work overseas with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), I wrote on my application that my goal was to help the world become a better place. I didn't really know what that meant or how I would do that, but it sounded like a good answer at the time.

I hadn't even arrived at my first project location before I started seeing the dark side of my chosen line of work. A month before I left on my first mission in 2002, MSF worker Arjan Erkel was kidnapped in Dagestan, a troubled Russian republic on the Caspian Sea. For the next 20 months while he was held hostage, I met anxiously with my team members to discuss the weekly updates about either progress on his release or silence about his fate. I felt outraged and betrayed because the risk Mr. Erkel faced went beyond what I had expected when I signed up.



This feeling came back to me last week when I heard about the kidnapping of Canadian nurse Laura Archer and four other staff with MSF in the Darfur region of Sudan.

How could this happen to people bringing aid to a country in distress?


Laura Archer is seen in a July, 2007 photo.

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Canadian nurse kidnapped in Darfur

Laura Archer one of the first westerners ever kidnapped in troubled part of Sudan

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When Arjan Erkel was finally released, I breathed a sigh of relief, as did many of my fellow aid workers. Still in my early years of humanitarian work, I felt order had been restored. But that feeling was short-lived.

Just two months later, five MSF staff members were ambushed and killed in Afghanistan. My outrage turned to disbelief and cold numbness. For me, the illusion I had been living of bulletproof principles had been shattered, and order would not be restored this time.

As aid workers have increasingly fallen victim to kidnappings, sexual assaults and killings over the past decade, it's only natural to wonder how we justify taking such risks. The answer is far from simple.

THE PAYOFF

One fact that many aid workers will tell you is that being part of an organization that is in the business of saving lives and restoring dignity feels good; you are reminded that success is possible. This was reaffirmed for me in 2006, when I was in Ivory Coast working on a large hospital project.

Since the prevalence of HIV is as high as 15 per cent in some parts of the country, MSF started many HIV activities there. We established a voluntary counselling and testing centre, but in the first couple of months, fewer than a dozen people came. We worked hard to tell the community about these services, and this number quickly rose. We optimistically set the budget for an average of 300 consultations per month over the year. We reached that number in March, and by October more than 900 people were visiting the centre for counselling each month.

The demand for other activities related to HIV/AIDS rose as well.

We started a program to stop mother-to-child transmission of the virus, so HIV-positive mothers could safely deliver and care for their HIV-negative babies. And antiretroviral drugs were offered to an increasing number of patients, turning around their deteriorating conditions.

In the town, we made contact with people at school assemblies, orphanages, rebel battalions and local groups providing non-medical care for people living with HIV/AIDS. And on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, more than 600 people came out for the events, including races, speeches from local authorities, live music, dramas and game-show-style quizzes all about HIV.

I believe that our HIV/AIDS intervention in that community significantly improved the lives of thousands of people.

But after working in various projects for six years and seeing the longer-term results of what I had been part of, I realize that it isn't always apparent how our efforts make a difference. I remember one cold day on vacation when I received three e-mails with disheartening news about how my previous work had been erased. One described how a compound I had helped build in south Sudan was looted and destroyed, another how the international team of a tuberculosis project I had started had to be evacuated for their safety, and the third one reported that fighting had broken out, ending a four-year ceasefire in Sri Lanka, where I had earlier helped wrap up our mission in peaceful times. The world I had worked so hard to make a better place had taken two steps backward.

I had a similar feeling when I heard that MSF withdrew staff in Darfur after the kidnapping of the MSF staff members last week. This act will be a devastating blow to the survival of hundreds of thousands of people there.

To many people in towns, villages, refugee camps and city slums, aid organizations do more for the populations than provide food, clean water or health care. For many people defeated by the effects of a conflict, the presence of aid organizations gives hope and restores some dignity by recognizing their plight. Conversely, the evacuation of an aid organization from an area needing its service and recognition, can extinguish that light.

TOO GREAT A RISK

In my most recent posting with MSF, I took over as co-ordinator of an emergency surgical program in Kismayo, Somalia, when three MSF staff had been killed there. In the months after the incident, after the memorials and funeral services, the organization made the difficult decision to end the project. The risk was too great.

The surgical program had given women with labour complications life-saving Caesarian sections. During the eight-month duration of the project, more than 400 (principally obstetric) surgeries and 1,200 emergency consultations were performed by the MSF team of six international and 35 Somali staff.

After MSF closed the program, patients had to pay $350 U.S. for a Caesarian section. For many Somalis, this lifesaving service became financially inaccessible, so a population of 100,000 people were left without this essential service.

We feared that many women would probably die.

Imagine in your home country a collapse of all systems and structures of authority and governance. Imagine violence chasing you and your family out of your homes to walk 100 kilometres to a safer, but desolate area. Imagine carrying some clothes, some food and a cooking pot. Imagine food running out. Imagine drinking water from a dirty river. Imagine children dying from diarrhea. Imagine simple infections leading to amputations or death. Imagine women dying in childbirth. Imagine that all of this is happening while people with the power to do something hold meetings and decide not to intervene.

People shouldn't die from the lack of a 50-cent medication or vaccine. People shouldn't die from the lack of clean water or soap. People shouldn't die from the lack of a proper shelter. But they do.

Over the years, I have seen that a medical and logistics team of just five people supplied with basic medicines, and materials can save the lives of thousands of people.

I have begun to realize that our simple actions do change the world from the perspective of each individual patient who is carried into a clinic and walks out some days afterwards.

The troubles of the world will continue, and my contribution is to be engaged in bringing life-saving aid to individuals in desperate need. The reason for taking action couldn't be any clearer. I accept a degree of personal risk, because I can't accept standing aside in the face of another person's suffering.

I fear that Laura Archer and her colleagues may not be the last aid workers to be kidnapped or harmed, but fortunately their ordeal ended with their release. For most of the aid workers going overseas every year, no critical security incidents will occur and they, too, will return home safely. Though, because of the risks they take, millions of people in precarious situations will be given a better chance of surviving that year. Walking away from this kind of accomplishment would be too hard for many people to justify.

Steve Dennis is an aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières. When he is not working abroad, he lives in Toronto.

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Korea: Frenetic Clinton Hits Asia Running

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/21482?tid=37
Foreign 2009-02-20 16:37

South Koreans gather as they welcome the visit of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton near the U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, 20 Feb 2009. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, right, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, 20 Feb 2009. (Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Jo Yong-Hak, Pool)
1 of 2SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Dashing through a kaleidoscopic tour of the far East in her first outing as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is back in full campaign mode.

But instead of selling herself as presidential candidate, Clinton is pitching the still-emerging foreign policy of her former rival, President Barack Obama.

While cautiously projecting Obama's careful diplomatic stances in her official meetings with diplomats and foreign leaders, Clinton has unleashed the ebullient public persona she showed in the final giddy stages of her unsuccessful 2008 campaign.


Clinton has appeared unabashedly delighted soaking up affectionate, sometimes gushing reactions that she evoked among foreign officials and onlookers.

At the Jakarta airport in Indonesia, she beamed as she was serenaded by rows of singing, swaying schoolchildren. Later, she visited the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, waving and smiling broadly when hundreds of employees chanted "Hee-ler-ry," Hee-ler-ry" as she entered.

The bloc's secretary general, Surin Pitsuwan, appeared smitten and spoke in glowing terms about the former first lady, presenting her with an arrangement of 32 yellow flowers.

The tone of Clinton's diplomatic charm offensive was a significant departure from the traditional approach of some previous secretaries of state, who were on the road a great deal but tended to be more comfortable in private settings than out in public.

Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, an academic, was far more reserved and less effusive, while Colin Powell, a retired general and President George W. Bush's first secretary of state, was a portrait in stoic, gentile statesmanship.

But midway through her weeklong tour of Asia, it is clear Clinton has brought the urgent showmanship of an election season politician to the patient practice of diplomacy.

She has adopted a grueling public schedule with gusto.

In visits to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea _ China is still to come _ Clinton has kept busy late until night, seemingly unaffected by jet lag as she crams in official meetings, local media appearances and visits to cultural sites, such as the venerable Meiji shrine in Tokyo.

Some of her appearances have mirrored the countless town halls of her campaign days. But instead of gymnasiums crowded with American voters, Clinton showed up at college auditoriums in Tokyo and South Korea, plying audiences with anecdotes and fielding questions on topics from motherhood to politics.

"Wow, I feel more like an advice columnist than a secretary of state today," she said to loud laughter when asked about the subject of love by one of several thousand students who gathered to hear her speak at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

"We could be here for hours!" she said in response to the next questioner who asked Clinton to describe her relationship with her daughter Chelsea.

She has waded into crowds despite nervous glances from her security detail, worked rope lines and happily taken time to pose for photos with pretty much anyone who has gotten close enough to ask for one.

And the enthusiastic responses, much like those she got at rallies on the campaign trail, seem to have energized her while the grueling pace has exhausted her traveling staff and local embassy employees, not to mention the reporters accompanying her on the trip.

There have been so many news conferences and interviews that the State Department's efficient team of transcribers has been overwhelmed and unable to produce transcripts of her appearances, sometimes for days.

Yet Clinton is clearly relishing the limelight, and not even natural disasters can stop her.

On her first morning abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton was jolted awake by one of Japan's frequent minor earthquakes.

"It woke me up. It was like I was in one of those hotel vibrating beds and accidentally dropped in some quarters," she said, recalling the shaking in her 10th floor suite that roused her in Tokyo's pre-dawn hours on Tuesday after the long flight from Washington.

The early wake-up call did not, however, slow her down. That day, Clinton had at least 12 official events, beginning at the Shinto shrine at 8am and ending with a 9pm post-dinner meeting with Japan's main opposition leader.

In between, she greeted staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, met the Japanese foreign and defense ministers, signed a military agreement, held a news conference, had tea with Empress Michiko, gave interviews to three television networks and several Japanese newspapers, spoke to university students at a town hall meeting and ate dinner with the prime minister.

Arriving in Jakarta the next afternoon after a seven-and-half hour flight, Clinton crammed in what might normally be an entire day's worth of meetings in the remaining daylight and evening. Then, she had dinner with a group of civic leaders.

Early the next morning, she was at it again, appearing on Indonesia's most popular youth television program, an MTV-style show, telling the audience about her surprise when Obama asked her to become secretary of state, opining about her favorite bands and joking about her inability to sing. (By MATTHEW LEE/ AP)

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ထုိင္းနယ္စပ္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းေတြႏုိင္ငံျခားပုိ႔မည့္ ပြဲစားေျခခ်င္းလိမ္

(ေခတ္ျပိဳင္ဂ်ာနယ္မွကူးယူေဖၚျပပါသည္)
ရဲရင့္ျမင့္ေမာင္ / ၁၈ ေဖေဖာ္ဝါရီ ၂၀၀၉

တတိယႏိုင္ငံ ထြက္ခြာခြင့္ရေရးအတြက္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမ်ားသို႔ ဝင္ေရာက္လာသည့္ လူသစ္မ်ားကို အခေၾကးေငြယူၿပီး ႏိုင္ငံျခားထြက္ခြာခြင့္ရရန္ စီစဥ္ေပးသူမ်ားထဲတြင္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမွ တာဝန္ရွိသူအခ်ဳိ႕ႏွင့္ ဝန္ထမ္းအခ်ဳိ႕ ပါဝင္ပတ္သက္မႈ ရွိသျဖင့္ မၾကာခင္ ကရင္ဒုကၡသည္ေကာ္မတီ KRC မွ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ားလိုက္နာရန္ စည္းမ်ဥ္းစည္းကမ္းခ်က္မ်ား ထုတ္ၿပီး အေရးယူမႈမ်ား ျပဳလုပ္သြားမည္ဟု မယ္လဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမွ တာဝန္ရွိသူတဦးက ေခတ္ၿပိဳင္သို႔ေျပာသည္။မယ္လဒုကၡသည္စခန္း၏ ဒု-ဥကၠ႒ “ေစာထြန္းထြန္း” ဒီျပႆနာေတြကိုကိုင္တြယ္ဖို႔ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့အပတ္က KRC အစည္းအေဝးမွာ ေဆြးေႏြးခဲ့ၿပီး ဝန္ထမ္းေတြလိုက္နာဖို႔ စည္းမ်ဥ္းစည္းကမ္းေတြကို ထုတ္ျပန္ၿပီး စည္းကမ္းမလိုက္နာတဲ့သူေတြကို အေရးယူသြားမွာ ျဖစ္တယ္။ အဓိက အလြဲသံုးစားမႈနဲ႔ လာဘ္စားမႈ တိုက္ဖ်က္ေရးအတြက္ပဲ ျဖစ္တယ္။ ျပႆနာ အမ်ားဆံုးရွိတာက ႏို႔ဖိုး၊ အံုးဖ်န္နဲ႔ မယ္လစခန္းပဲဲျဖစ္တယ္" ဟုေျပာသည္။လက္ရွိ မယ္လစခန္းတြင္ တရားဝင္ဒုကၡသည္ (၂၈,၇၀၀) ခန္႔ရွိၿပီး စာရင္းမဝင္ေသးသည့္ လူသစ္ဦးေရမွာ (၂၁,၁၁၈) ဦး ရွိသည္။ ၂၀၀၆-၂၀၀၇ ခုႏွစ္အတြင္း အသစ္ဝင္ေရာက္လာသူ (၁၃,၀၀၀) ထဲမွ (၈,၀၀၀) ခန္႔ကိုသာ ရိကၡာေပးႏိုင္မည့္ အေနအထား ရွိသည့္အတြက္ ဒုကၡသည္ တာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ားမွ စခန္းအတြင္း ကြင္းဆင္း၍ ရိကၡာေပးရန္ သင့္မသင့္စီိစစ္သြားမည္ ျဖစ္သည္ဟု ေစာထြန္းထြန္းက ဆက္ေျပာသည္။တတိယႏုိင္ငံ ထြက္ခြင့္ရေရးႏွင့္ပတ္သက္ၿပီး အဂတိလုိက္စားမႈ အမ်ားဆံုးစခန္း (၃) ခုတြင္ ျပည္တြင္းမွ ေငြေၾကးတတ္ႏိုင္သူမ်ားေၾကာင့္ စခန္းတြင္း အက်င့္ပ်က္ျခစားမႈမ်ား တေန႔ထက္ တေန႔ ပိုမိုဆိုးဝါးလာၿပီး အဂတိလိုက္စားမႈႏွင့္ ျပႆနာ႐ႈပ္ေထြးမႈမ်ား ျဖစ္ေပၚလ်က္ရွိေနသည္။ သို႔ေသာ္ ထိေရာက္သည့္ အေရးယူမႈမ်ား လံုးဝမရွိေသးေၾကာင္း၊ ျပည္တြင္းမွလူမ်ား အိုးအိမ္ျခံေျမ ေရာင္းၿပီး ေငြထုပ္ပိုက္ကာ ပြဲစားမ်ားအစီအစဥ္ျဖင့္ တတိယႏိုင္ငံ ထြက္ခြာခြင့္ရ ေရး ႀကိဳးပမ္းၾကရာမွ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းသမိုင္းတြင္ မျဖစ္ေပၚဖူးသည့္ အ႐ႈပ္အရွင္းမ်ား ျဖစ္ခဲ့ရ သည္ဟု ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းတခုမွ ဘာသာေရးဆရာတဦးကေျပာသည္။ဒုကၡသည္စခန္း ဝင္ရန္အတြက္ မယ္လႏွင့္ အံုးဖ်န္ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမ်ားတြင္ လူတဦးလွ်င္ အနည္းဆံုး ဘတ္ (၁၀,၀၀၀) ေပးရသည္ဟု စုံစမ္းသိရသည္။ ေငြေပးၿပီးစာရင္းမဝင္သူ တဦးက "က်ေနာ္တို႔အဖြဲ႔ တေယာက္တေသာင္းေပးတာ စာရင္းဝင္တဲ့လူ ရွိသလို၊ စာရင္းမဝင္ဘဲ ေငြကုန္ၿပီး ဖြတ္မရ ဓားမဆံုးျဖစ္သူေတြ အမ်ားႀကီးပဲဲ။ (၁၀,၀၀၀) ဆိုတာက စာရင္းဝင္ဖို႔ပဲဲ။ စာရင္းဝင္ၿပီး ရိကၡာစေကး ရရွိဖို႔က်ေတာ့ (၂၀,၀၀၀) ကေန (၃၀,၀၀၀) အထိ ေပးရတာေတြရွိတယ္။ ကိုယ္ကလည္း ခိုးေၾကာင္ခိုးဝွက္လုပ္ထားေတာ့ ဘယ္သူ႔ကိုတိုင္လို႔ တိုင္ရမွန္းေတာင္ မသိဘူး" ဟုေခတ္ၿပိဳင္သို႔ေျပာသည္။အထူးသျဖင့္ တတိယႏုိင္ငံ ထြက္ခြင့္ရေရးႏွင့္ပတ္သက္ၿပီး အဂတိလုိက္စားမႈ အမ်ားဆုံးစခန္းမ်ားမွာ အံုးဖ်န္ႏွင့္ မယ္လစခန္းမ်ားျဖစ္သည္။ မၾကာမီ အေမရိကန္သို႔ ထြက္ခြာေတာ့မည့္ အံုးဖ်န္စခန္းတြင္ လူစားထိုး ဒုကၡသည္စာရင္းဝင္ထားသူတဦးက "ႏိုင္ငံျခားထြက္တဲ့အဆင့္ထိ ေရာက္ဖို႔ဆိုရင္ေတာ့ အနည္းဆံုး ဘတ္ေငြ (၅၀,၀၀၀) ေလာက္ရွိမယ္ဆိုရင္ လုပ္ေပးတဲ့ပြဲစားေတြ စခန္းထဲမွာ အရန္သင့္ရွိတယ္။ ေငြရွိဖို႔ပဲဲ လိုတယ္" ဟုေျပာသည္။လူစားထုိးျခင္း ဆိုသည္မွာ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းတြင္ ႏွစ္ရွည္ေနထိုင္သူအခ်ဳိ႕မွာ တတိယႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ထြက္ခြာလိုျခင္း မရွိသည့္အတြက္ ရပ္ကြက္မႉးမ်ားႏွင့္ ပြဲစားမ်ားကေငြေပးၿပီး ဒုကၡသည္အမည္ ေပါက္စာရင္းကို ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွလာေရာက္သည့္ ေငြရွင္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေနရာအစားထိုးေပးျခင္းျဖစ္ သည္။ တနည္းဆုိရလ်င္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းတြင္ အေစာပုိင္းထဲက ေရာက္ေနသည့္ ကရင္ဒုကၡ သည္ အစစ္တဦး၏ စခန္းတြင္းေနသည့္ သက္တမ္းကာလကုိ အေရာင္းအ၀ယ္လုပ္သည့္ သေဘာ ျဖစ္သည္။ႏွစ္ရွည္ဒုကၡသည္တဦးျဖစ္သူ ေစာတေကာ္က "ငါတို႔မိသားစု (၃) ဦး နာမည္ေရာင္းဖို႔ ရပ္ကြက္လူႀကီးက ဘတ္ (၁၅,၀၀၀) ေပးတယ္။ လူႀကီးေျပာတာက ေငြလည္းရမယ္၊ စခန္းကထြက္စရာမလိုဘူး၊ အရင္လို ရိကၡာလည္း ဆက္ရမယ္ဆိုလို႔ ေရာင္းလိုက္တာ။ ရပ္ကြက္လူႀကီး ကတိတည္တယ္၊ အားလံုးအဆင္ေျပတယ္။ ကိုယ္ကေတာ့ နာမည္အသစ္နဲ႔ ေနရတာေတာ့ ရွိတယ္" ဟုေျပာသည္။ထိုင္းနယ္စပ္ ဒုကၡသည္စခန္းမွတဆင့္ အေမရိကန္သို႔ ထြက္ခြာခြင့္ရရန္ ႀကိဳးပမ္းေနၾကသူမ်ား ထဲတြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ အႏွ႔ံအျပားမွလာေရာက္သူမ်ားသာမက စင္ကာပူ၊ မေလးရွား၊ ဂ်ပန္ႏိုင္ငံ တို႔တြင္ အလုပ္လုပ္ေနသည့္ ျမန္မာတိုင္းရင္းသား အခ်ဳိ႕လည္း ပါဝင္ေနၿပီး ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံကူး ပတ္စ္ပို႔ကိုင္ေဆာင္ေနသူမ်ားပါ စခန္းအတြင္းမွာ ဝင္ေရာက္လႈပ္ရွားလ်က္ရွိသည္ဟု ေခတ္ၿပိဳင္မွ စုံစမ္းသိရသည္။ကုလသမဂၢ ဒုကၡသည္မ်ားဆိုင္ရာ မဟာမင္းႀကီး႐ံုးႏွင့္ ထိုင္းအာဏာပိုင္မ်ား၏ အစီအစဥ္ျဖင့္ ျမန္မာဒုကၡသည္မ်ားကို တတိယႏိုင္ငံသို႔ ထြက္ခြာႏိုင္ေရးအတြက္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေနရာေဒသ အသီးသီးမွ လူမ်ားသည္ ေငြထုပ္ပိုက္ကာ တတိယႏိုင္ငံ ထြက္ခြာခြင့္ရေရးအတြက္ ႀကိဳးပမ္းၾက ရာမွ စခန္းတာဝန္ရွိသူမ်ားႏွင့္ ဝန္ထမ္းမ်ားၾကားတြင္ အဂတိလိုက္စားမႈမ်ား တိုးပြားလာျခင္း ျဖစ္သည္။

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Nakagawa resigns after G7 disgrace

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20090218a1.html

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009

Yosano appointed as triple-hitter to fill finance, economic posts


By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer
Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned Tuesday evening amid rapidly growing calls to quit over his sloppy and allegedly drunken appearance at a Group of Seven press briefing in Rome on Saturday.

Prime Minister Taro Aso accepted Nakagawa's resignation letter immediately and said he would appoint economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano, 70, to succeed Nakagawa in both posts, giving him a total of three portfolios and leaving the fate of Japan's deteriorating economy and finances to one man.



"It's very regrettable," Aso said of Nakagawa, one of his closest political allies.



Earlier the day, the finance minister, who was also in charge of the financial services portfolio, said he would resign after the fiscal 2009 budget and related bills cleared the Lower House. But that timetable threatened to delay the critical legislation as calls grew louder from both sides of the Diet for him to quit over the debacle. The voices included those of New Komeito, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's junior partner in the coalition government.

Nakagawa told reporters that he changed his mind after the opposition parties began boycotting Diet sessions over the issue.

"Once this budget (and) budget-related bills clear the Lower House, I am thinking of immediately submitting my resignation letter," Nakagawa, 55, said at a hastily called news conference held in the ministry in Tokyo. "I deeply apologize for immensely having troubled the prime minister, the people and other related parties due to my carelessness of health management."

At the Rome G7 news conference, Nakagawa slurred his speech, at times appeared half asleep and had trouble answering questions from reporters. His behavior sparked speculation that he may have been drunk, as it has long been rumored he is a heavy drinker.

Nakagawa, however, denied this and claimed he had taken too much cold medicine.

Even though Nakagawa said he would step down, calls from the opposition camp and even within the ruling bloc had mounted for him to do so immediately, not after the budget bills are passed.

The opposition parties had planned to grill Nakagawa in the Diet and submit a nonbinding censure motion to the Upper House, which they control.

Although nonbinding, a similar resolution in 1998 prompted Fukushiro Nukaga to step down as Defense Agency chief.

Susumu Yanase, Diet affairs chief of the DPJ's Upper House caucus, told reporters after the censure motion was submitted that Nakagawa should resign as soon as possible.

"It goes without saying that the global economy is in an emergency state and that the G-7 meeting in Rome was extremely important financially," Yanase said.

But after Nakagawa's "disgraceful behavior at a news conference, in which Japan was supposed to send the world a message, it is natural to decide that the nation cannot wait for the finance minister" to resign, he said.

During Tuesday's news conference, Nakagawa said a medical examination conducted the same day diagnosed he was suffering from back pain, a cold and exhaustion.

Although Nakagawa said he does not require emergency medical treatment, he said he may admit himself into a hospital later Tuesday.

"It is not that I need an operation or have a condition that is rapidly worsening," Nakagawa said. "Being hospitalized would instead help me maintain my physical strength so I can concentrate on this job."

Nakagawa had stressed that he would remain at his post until the budget and its related bills clear the Lower House.

"I am determined to make full efforts in my duties in the remaining days," Nakagawa said earlier Tuesday. "I will strive to help achieve an economic recovery as soon as possible."

Nakagawa's resignation came only a day after the Cabinet Office said the economy plummeted at an annualized pace of 12.7 percent in the three months through December, its worst fall in 35 years.

It also came amid plummeting public support for Aso — below 10 percent in one survey published Sunday — and in an economy that is sinking deeper into recession ahead of an election that must be held no later than October.

Nakagawa's resignation followed that of Nariaki Nakayama, who exited as transport minister in September following a series of verbal gaffes after only five days in office.

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TCG unveils three-year plan to rebuild livelihoods in delta

http://www.mmtimes.com/no458/n002.htm

By Thet Khaing
A THREE-YEAR recovery plan for cyclone-damaged areas in Ayeyarwady and Yangon divisions was launched last Monday and will focus on rebuilding the livelihoods of about 2.4 million people.

The government has welcomed the Post-Nargis Response and Preparedness Plan, which also provides for building houses and cyclone shelters before the start of the next cyclone season in May.

The plan, released in Bangkok, was compiled by the Tripartite Core Group and is based on a needs survey it conducted late last year.

The TCG was formed soon after Nargis hit last May to oversee relief and recovery work and comprises representatives of the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations.

“The close collaboration between the government and the international community over the last nine months has been vital to the relief and early recovery efforts,” the chairman of TCG, U Kyaw Thu, who also heads the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, was quoted as saying in a statement released by the group after the launch.

He said the plan, which was commissioned by the group, was a result of the collaboration on all sides.

The group had also promoted complementarities between the government’s reconstruction plan and the Post-Nargis Response and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP), said U Kyaw Thu, who attended the launch along with ASEAN Secretary General Mr Surin Pitsuwan, other TCG members, and international aid donors and members of international NGOs working on cyclone relief in Myanmar.



The recovery plan outlined by the post-Nargis plan identifies eight areas of activity, including rebuilding houses, as well as educational and healthcare infrastructure, and providing microfinance and other income-generating schemes, until the end of 2011.

The plan says at least US$691 million would be needed for rebuilding work, which will be in addition to other funding appeals by the UN and international aid organisations.

“[PONREPP] underlines the importance of cash grants and micro-credit as components of recovery assistance. It highlights the urgent need to continue the construction of improved household and community shelters, as well as disaster risk reduction initiatives before the onset of the next cyclone season in May 2009,” the statement said.

The UN resident/humanitarian coordinator, Mr Bishow Parajuli, who represents the UN on the TCG, said education and healthcare were other major areas of recovery identified by the plan.

“The recovery strategy further aims at restoring the local education and health systems, through the repair of damaged and destroyed schools and health facilities, and improving household and community facilities and access to safe water and sanitation,” Mr Parajuli was quoted as saying in the statement.
“It addresses the specific needs of children, women, elderly and the disabled, as well as issues such as psychosocial support and return, resettlement and re-integration,” he said.

In an interview with The Myanmar Times last week, Mr Parajuli said the plan signals the continued smooth cooperation between the government and the international community in helping cyclone victims.

“The strategy proposed in the PONREPP has been embraced by the national authorities, humanitarian community and the donors,” Mr Parajuli said.

“I think the launch [of PONREPP] emphasised that there has been good cooperation with the government and also that huge needs exist, so there is still need for assistance and international support is necessary,” he said.

“It is important to note that the success of this plan can only be achieved if the stakeholders remain committed to support and implement the strategy proposed,” Mr Parajuli said.

He said the level of support from international aid donors so far was better than many had anticipated.

“Myanmar received good support, and the international donor community has been very generous,” Mr Parajuli said, adding that the UN had received 65 percent of the $477 million targeted in the UN Revised appeal launched last July.

He said managing the recovery effort would require the continued effective role of the TCG, the mandate of which expires in July.

“The whole coordination of the PONREPP will depend on the TCG, so it is definitely expected that TCG should continue its work,” Mr Parajuli said.

“Its role will continue to be to facilitate the delivery of relief effort and advocate on the need and to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency,” Mr Parajuli said.

The government said it would consider on extension of the group’s mandate in June. The TCG’s continuation is also one of the conditions set by many international aid donors to provide further funding support.

The British ambassador to Myanmar, Mr Mark Canning, whose country is the largest single donor to the cyclone relief effort, has praised the role of the group.

“The TCG has demonstrated the value of a mechanism which is able to make rapid decisions and to cut through problems when they arise,” Mr Canning told The Myanmar Times last week.

“It has helped to promote understanding of how the development community works and, I hope, has also showcased to those that were perhaps unfamiliar with its excellent work what it can do,” he said.

Mr Canning said Britain was considering providing more assistance for rebuilding livelihoods, as well as for healthcare and education.

“Our role in the delta was consistent with what we have been doing in the humanitarian sector here for some time,” he said.

“We have never subscribed to the view that it is not possible to deliver humanitarian support in this country,” Mr Canning said.

He added that apart from $90 million for cyclone relief work, Britain has also contributed $40 million to the Three Diseases Fund, to combat tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria in Myanmar.

Mr Canning said he hoped the release of the post-Nargis plan would encourage more potential donors to provide funding.

“It has in effect a menu from which donors can choose, according to their resources and priorities but in the knowledge that their contribution will be in sync with what others are doing. It should therefore maximise the impact of every donor dollar,” Mr Canning said.

He said Britain would encourage other donors to increase their support to meet the growing need for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar.

“It may not always be the easiest place to operate but good work can, and is, being done,” Mr Canning said.

The plan has proposed the establishment of three bodies under the supervision of the TCG to ensure that the relief effort is efficient, accountable and effective.

They include a Recovery Forum, whose members will comprise representatives from the government, donors and the UN and other aid agencies. The RF’s role will include information sharing, minimising the duplication of tasks and fund mobilisation.

“The RF would be a deliberative, not an executive body, but its recommendations should carry considerable weight in related policy-setting bodies,” the plan said.

Another proposed body is a Recovery Coordination Centre, which will be based in Yangon and provide information to aid agencies on international funding support and areas where there are shortfalls.

The plan said the third proposed body is a Township Coordination Committee, to supervise field operations by aid agencies.

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Are You Wasting Money on Multivitamins?

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/15053/are-you-wasting-money-on-multivitamins/

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by Simeon Margolis, M.D., Ph.D. a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition
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Advertisements with tantalizing promises of improved health, prevention of cancer and heart disease, and greater energy have lured millions of Americans to spend billions of dollars on the purchase of multivitamins.

An article in the February 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine reported that multivitamin use did not protect the 161,808 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Study from common forms of cancer, heart attacks, or strokes. And the numbers of deaths during the 8 years of the study were the same in vitamin users as in non-users. Still, it is important to recognize that this was an observational study, not a more meaningful clinical trial. Although these findings apply only to women, other studies have failed to show benefits of multivitamins in older men.

These results are not at all surprising for several reasons. No large study has shown that multivitamins significantly benefit healthy men and women. In addition, for some years physicians prescribed folic acid and vitamins B12 and B6 in the hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes by lowering blood levels of homocysteine. (High blood levels of homocysteine are associated with an increased risk of coronary and other vascular diseases.) A number of recent studies, however, have shown that, while these vitamins do lower homocysteine levels, they do not prevent heart attacks or strokes.


Many doctors have also prescribed the antioxidants vitamin E and beta-carotene to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Alas, studies have now proven that these supplements are not protective--and may even be harmful.

No one denies that an adequate intake of vitamins is essential; however, vitamins can and should be obtained from eating enough healthy foods rather than from swallowing vitamin supplements.

Then what about vitamins being a great source of energy? Some multivitamin ads do indeed claim that their supplements boost energy; and some professional athletes gobble handfuls of vitamin pills to increase their energy and strength. But researchers proved long ago that energy comes from calories, not vitamins. The highly touted cholesterol-lowering effects of substances added to some multivitamin supplements? Still unproven.

All this is not to say that specific vitamins supplements are never desirable. Vitamins can be valuable in certain situations:

Folic acid supplements in women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant can help to prevent serious neural-tube defects that affect the baby's brain and spine.
Supplements that contain more vitamin D and calcium than is present in regular multivitamin pills can help older men, and especially women, avoid osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Supplements of vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper may slow the progression of vision loss in people with early macular degeneration.
And multivitamins are beneficial for some entire groups of people:

those on a very-low-calorie weight-loss diet
strict vegetarians
heavy alcohol drinkers
individuals who are not getting an adequate diet because they are too sick or too poor--or live by themselves and are unable to prepare proper meals for themselves
I also agree with a comment made by one of the coauthors of the Archives of Internal Medicine article about postmenopausal women mentioned above. An 8-year follow-up period may not be long enough to show that multivitamins protect against cancers that take many years to develop.


All the same, the results of the studies on vitamins so far point to one conclusion: Healthy people who eat enough calories from a varied diet do not benefit from multivitamin supplements.

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Angelina Jolie voices support for Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand camps

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LSGZ-7NYJ6X?OpenDocument

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Date: 05 Feb 2009


BAN MAI NAI SOI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand, February 5 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has called on the Thai government to grant Myanmar refugees in northern Thailand greater freedom of movement, after spending a day listening to refugees tell of the difficulties they have faced in two decades of living in closed camps.

"I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own child in a camp," Jolie said after her visit Wednesday to Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, home to 18,111 mainly Karenni registered refugees, just three kms from the Myanmar border, near Mae Hong Son.

"With no foreseeable chance that these refugees will soon be able to return to Burma (Myanmar), we must find some way to help them work and become self reliant," she said.



The 111,000 registered refugees who live in nine camps in northern Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border are not allowed to venture outside the camps to work or receive higher education.

In a thatched two-room house on stilts, Jolie sat down on the floor and chatted with refugee Ma Pai, a 44-year-old minority ethnic Kayan woman who has applied for resettlement to the United States.

At a boarding school for orphans and children separated from their parents, Jolie listened attentively as two teenage girls – sent across the border to the refugee camp by their parents for education – told of their fears that they might have to go back to Myanmar when they finish their schooling.

"I hope we can work with the Thai authorities to speed up the government admissions process and that you will not be forced to go back to Burma if danger remains," Jolie said.

The Thai government's Provincial Admissions Board, the only body that can grant refugee status to people fleeing fighting or persecution in Myanmar, has yet to process some 5,000 people who arrived in Mae Hong Son province in 2006 and 2007, the last time there was significant fighting in Kayah State just across the border. Throughout last year, people continued to trickle into Ban Mai Nai Soi and three other camps in the province, mostly fleeing forced labour and other human rights abuses.

One 26-year-old woman, Pan Sein, told Jolie she fled her village in Kayah State last November, and took a circuitous, hazardous journey on foot that finally brought her to the camp at the beginning of January.

"Weren't you scared to leave your parents and come on your own?" Jolie asked.

"Yes, I was scared," Pan Sein replied. "It was dangerous to flee, but even more dangerous to stay in my village."

Jolie's visit came at a time of worldwide attention to the large numbers of Rohingya migrants fleeing Myanmar's northern Rakhine state in rickety boats, and just after UNHCR gained access to 78 Rohingya boat people in detention in Ranong in southern Thailand.

"Visiting Ban Mai Nai Soi and seeing how hospitable Thailand has been to 111,000 mostly Karen and Karenni refugees over the years makes me hope that Thailand will be just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores," Jolie said.

"I also hope the Rohingya situation stabilizes and their life in Myanmar improves so the people do not feel the desperate need to flee, especially considering how dangerous their journey has become," she added. "As with all people, they deserve to have their human rights respected."

By Kitty McKinsey
In Ban Mai Nai Soi Camp

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ေကာင္းကင္စိတ္နဲ႔ ေျမလိုက်င့္တဲ့ ဧည့္သည္ႀကီး-U TIN MOE

From: "moehninaye08"

ေနျခဴး

ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၂၃၊ ၂၀၀၉



ဆရာႀကီးက အမတို႕သိပ္ခ်စ္ရတဲ႕အေဖပါ။ ဒီလိုဘဲ။ က်ေနာ္႕ရဲ႕အေဖဆိုလည္း မမွားပါဘူး။ ဆရာႀကီးဆုံးသြားလို႕ အမတို႕ညီအမေတြ ေၾကကြဲထိခိုက္ၾကရသလို က်ေနာ္လည္း ဘယ္ေလာက္ေၾကကြဲထိခိုက္ရသလဲဆိုတာ ခုက်ေနာ္ပို႕လိုက္တဲ႕စာအုပ္ကို စ … ဆုံး ဖတ္ၾကည္႕ရင္ ေတြ႕ရပါလိမ္႕မယ္။


အမွာစာ

အေဖ ကဗ်ာဆရာဦးတင္မိုး ဆုံးၿပီး လအနည္းၾကာတဲ႔ တေန႔မွာ ကိုယ္႔လက္ထဲကို စာအုပ္ေလး တအုပ္ ေရာက္လာပါတယ္။ အေဖ႔ သားအရင္းတေယာက္လို ခ်စ္ခင္တဲ႔ ေက်ာင္းသားေလး တေယာက္ရဲ႔ အေဖ႔အေၾကာင္းေရးထားတဲ႔ စာမူပါ။ မလြတ္လပ္တဲ႔ ေနရာ၊ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္ထဲကေန ႏွလုံးေသြးနဲ႔ ေရးလိုက္တဲ႔ စာမူေလးပါ။

အေဖ႔အေၾကာင္းကို လူေတြ သူတို႔ျမင္တဲ႔ေထာင္႔ကေန အမ်ိဳးမ်ိဳးေရးၾကတာ ဖတ္ဖူး မွတ္ဖူးပါတယ္။ ဒါေပမဲ႔ အမွန္တရားအတြက္ အေဖ မတရားအဖမ္းဆီးခံရစဥ္ အင္းစိန္ေထာင္ထဲမွာ ေနခဲ႔ရတဲ႔ အခ်ိန္ေတြကိုေတာ႔ မသိခဲ႔ရပါဘူး။ လြတ္လပ္မွဳကို ျမတ္ႏိုးလြန္းတဲ႔ အေဖ အက်ဥ္းေထာင္ထဲမွာ ဘယ္လိုမ်ား ေနထိုင္ခဲ႔သလဲ ကိုယ္ေတြးၾကည္႔မိဖူးတယ္။

အခု ေဖာ္ျပမဲ႔ ဒီစာေလးဟာ အဲဒီကြက္လပ္ေလးကို ျဖည္႔လိုက္တာပါပဲ။ ဒီစာထဲမွာ အက်ဥ္းစံေတြ ျဖစ္တဲ႔၊ အာဏာရွင္စနစ္ကို မရွိခိုးႏိုင္ၾကတဲ႔ ေက်ာင္းသားေလးတေယာက္နဲ႔ ေက်ာင္းဆရာ ကဗ်ာဆရာတေယာက္ရဲ႔ မျမင္ရတဲ႔ သံေယာဇဥ္ေတြကို ေတြ႔ရမွာပါ။ အက်ဥ္းက်သူေတြရဲ႔ ရင္ဆိုင္ ရုန္းကန္ေနရတဲ႔ ဘဝေတြကို နားလည္ခံစားလို႔ရမယ္၊ သူတို႔ရဲ႔ ေမွ်ာ္လင္႔ခ်က္၊ ယုံၾကည္ခ်က္၊ ခံစားခ်က္ေတြကို ဖတ္ရင္း စာနာနားလည္ႏိုင္ေစဖို႔ ေဖာ္ျပလိုက္ပါတယ္။

စာမူကို အပိုင္းခြဲၿပီး တင္သြားပါမယ္။ ဖတ္ၾကည္႔ၾကပါအုံးရွင္။

မိုးခ်ိဳသင္း



စာေရးသူရဲ႔ မိတ္ဆက္စာ

အမတို႔ခင္ဗ်ား

လူတစ္ေယာက္ ဆုံးပါးသြားတဲ႕အခါ သူ႕ကို ခ်စ္ခင္တန္ဖိုးထား ေလးစားတဲ႕သူေတြက လူကိုယ္တိုင္ စ်ာပနအခမ္းအနားကို တက္ေရာက္ၾကတယ္။ အေၾကာင္းတစ္ခုခုေၾကာင္႕ မတက္ေရာက္ႏိုင္ၾကရင္ ဝမ္းနည္းေၾကာင္းသဝဏ္လႊာ ၊ လြမ္းသူ႕ပန္းေခြ ပန္းစည္းေတြပို႕ၿပီး မိသားစုနဲ႕အတူထပ္တူ ေၾကကြဲဝမ္းနည္းရေၾကာင္း သူတို႕ရဲ႕စာနာမွဳေတြကို ျပသေလ႕ရွိၾကတယ္။ ဒါဟာယဥ္ေက်းတဲ႕သူေတြရဲ႕ ဓေလ႕ထုံးတမ္းအစဥ္အလာတစ္ခုပါဘဲ။ က်ေနာ္က လူကိုယ္တိုင္လည္းတက္လို႕မရ ပန္းေခြပန္းစည္း သဝဏ္လႊာလည္း ပို႕လို႕ မရ ဆိုေတာ႕ က်ေနာ္က မယဥ္ေက်းတဲ႕သူမ်ားျဖစ္ေနမလားပဲ။

ဆရာႀကီးက အမတို႕သိပ္ခ်စ္ရတဲ႕အေဖပါ။ ဒီလိုဘဲ။ က်ေနာ္႕ရဲ႕အေဖဆိုလည္း မမွားပါဘူး။ ဆရာႀကီးဆုံးသြားလို႕ အမတို႕ညီအမေတြ ေၾကကြဲထိခိုက္ၾကရသလို က်ေနာ္လည္း ဘယ္ေလာက္ေၾကကြဲထိခိုက္ရသလဲဆိုတာ ခုက်ေနာ္ပို႕လိုက္တဲ႕စာအုပ္ကို စ … ဆုံး ဖတ္ၾကည္႕ရင္ ေတြ႕ရပါလိမ္႕မယ္။

တိုင္းသိျပည္သိဆရာႀကီးရဲ႕ အမ်ားသိၿပီးသားအေၾကာင္းေတြကို ထည္႕မေရးေတာ႕ဘဲ တကယ္ျဖစ္ခဲ႕ၿပီး လူသိပ္မသိတဲ႕ အေၾကာင္းေတြကိုပဲ ေရးထားတာပါ။ အထူးသျဖင္႕ ဘာမွမဟုတ္တဲ႕ ခပ္ရိုင္းရိုင္း ေကာင္ေလးတစ္ေယာက္ကို ယဥ္ေက်းတဲ႕ လူသားတစ္ေယာက္ျဖစ္ေအာင္ သူ ဘယ္လို ထုဆစ္ခဲ႕တယ္ ဆိုတာ လူသိရွင္ၾကားသိေစခ်င္တာပါ။

လူသူမျမင္ႏိုင္တဲ႕ေနရာမ်ိဳးေတြမွာေတာင္ ဆရာႀကီးဟာ အရိုးခံသက္သက္ ျပဳမူေနထိိုင္ခဲ႕တာေတြ၊ ဟန္ေဆာင္မွဳကင္းၿပီး မာန္မာန မရွိတာေတြ၊ ျဖဴစင္ရိုးသားၿပီး စာနာတရား ႀကီးမားတာေတြ ကဗ်ာ၊ စာေပနဲ႕ ပညာကို ခ်စ္မက္ တန္ဖိုးထားတာေတြ သိေစခ်င္လို႕၊ အထူးသျဖင္႕ က်ေနာ္႕လို အရိုင္းကို အယဥ္ျဖစ္ေအာင္ လုပ္ႏိုင္စြမ္းတဲ႕ ေမတၲာတရား ႀကီးမားတာကို အမတို႕ သိေစခ်င္လို႕ ''ေကာင္းကင္စိတ္နဲ႕ ေျမလိုက်င့္တဲ့ ဧည့္သည္ႀကီး'' ျဖစ္လာရတာပါပဲ။

အေရးႀကီးဆုံးကေတာ့ ဆရာႀကီးရဲ႕ အရိုးျပာအိုး ျမန္မာျပည္ကို မုခ် ျပန္ေရာက္ရမယ္လို႕ လူသိရွင္ၾကား ဟစ္ေႄကြးလိုက္တာပါပဲ။

အမတို႔ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းပါေစ..
ေနျခဴး
Tue, Feb 6 , 2007

10:05 PM



ေကာင္းကင္စိတ္နဲ႔ ေျမလိုက်င့္တဲ့ ဧည့္သည္ႀကီး

ေနျခဴး

ဇန္န၀ါရီ ၂၃၊ ၂၀၀၉

၂ဝဝ၇၊ ဇန္နဝါရီ ၂၂ ၊ ညေန ၄ နာရီ၊ အေမရိကန္၊ ေလာ့အိန္ဂ်လိစ္မွာ ဆရာႀကီးဆံုးၿပီတဲ့။ က်င္စက္နဲ႔ တို႔ခံလိုက္ရသလို တကိုယ္လံုး ေတာင့္ေတာင့္ႀကီးျဖစ္သြားရတဲ့အထိ။ ကိုယ့္နားေတာင္ ကိုယ္မယံုခ်င္ဘူး။ "မဟုတ္ပါေစနဲ႔ … မဟုတ္ပါေစနဲ႔ …" လို႔ တကုိယ္တည္း နတ္ပူးသလို ေရ႐ြတ္ေနမိတယ္။ အျမင္၊ အၾကားအာ႐ံုေတြ ဆြံ႕အသြားသလို ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္တခုလံုး လင္းလိုက္ ေမွာင္လိုက္နဲ႔။ ေဆာင္း ေခါင္ေခါင္ႀကီး မိုးၿခိမ္းသံေတြ တဂ်ဳန္းဂ်ဳန္း၊ တဂ်ိမ္းဂ်ိမ္း။ ဘုရား ... ဘုရား ... အိပ္မက္ မဟုတ္ဘူးပဲ။ တကယ္ ဆရာႀကီး ဆံုးၿပီတဲ့..။

တမာနံ႕သင္းသင္း၊ ေနျပင္းျပင္း အညာေဒသမွာ ေမြးဖြားခဲ့တဲ့ အညာသားစစ္စစ္ႀကီး ဦးဘဂ်မ္း

ျမန္မာ့ ယဥ္ေက်းမႈ ေက်းလက္စ႐ိုက္ကို ႏွစ္ႏွစ္ကာကာ ခ်စ္ျမတ္ႏိုးတဲ့ မ်ိဳးခ်စ္ကဗ်ာစာဆိုႀကီး တင္မိုး

'ဖန္မီးအိမ္' 'ဧည့္သည္ႀကီး' ကဗ်ာေတြနဲ႔ ကဗ်ာတေခတ္ ေမာ္ကြန္းထိုးခဲ့တဲ့ ကဗ်ာသူရဲေကာင္းႀကီး

ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးနဲ႔ လြတ္လပ္ခြင့္ကို ခ်စ္ျမတ္ႏိုးလြန္းလို႔ ေထာင္သြင္းအက်ဥ္းက်ခံရတဲ့ ျပည္သူ႕ဘက္ေတာ္သားႀကီး

အမ်ားက ''သခင္ကိုယ္ေတာ္မိုး''လို႔ မွည့္ေခၚရေလာက္ေအာင္ ၿငိမ္းခ်မ္းေရးစိတ္ ျပင္းျပလြန္းတဲ့ တိုင္းခ်စ္ျပည္ခ်စ္ ဆရာႀကီး …

ခုေတာ့ သူသိပ္ခ်စ္တဲ့ သူ႕ေမြးရပ္တုိင္းျပည္မွာ ေခါင္းခ်ခြင့္ မရ႐ွာတာ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ေၾကကြဲ ထိခိုက္ဖို႔ ေကာင္းလိုက္သလဲလို႔ …

သူ႕ကို က်ေနာ္ စေတြ႕ခဲ့တာ … ဟိုး လြန္ခဲ့တဲ့ ၁၅ ႏွစ္ ေလာက္က ခုလို ႏွစ္တႏွစ္ရဲ႕ ႏွစ္ဦးကာလ ႏွင္းေတြေဝေနတဲ့ မနက္ခင္းေလး။ အင္းစိန္ေက်ာင္းေတာ္ႀကီးရဲ႕ အမွတ္ ၁ အိပ္ေဆာင္မွာပါ။

က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္က အမႈတြဲ၊ အေပၚ (၁ - ခ) မွာ အတူတူေန ေနရတဲ့အခ်ိန္။ ၁၉၉၁၊ ဇြန္လ ထဲက ႐ံုးထြက္ ႐ံုးျပန္နဲ႔ ဒီအေဆာင္မွာ ေန ေနရတာ။ ၁၉၉၂ ဇန္နဝါရီ လကုန္ပိုင္းေလာက္ တညေနခင္းမွာ ႐ံုးျပန္တစ္ေယာက္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ဆီေရာက္လာၿပီး ''ကဗ်ာဆရာတင္မိုး'' ဆိုတာ ဒီေန႔ အခ်ဳပ္သစ္နဲ႔ ပါလာတယ္လို႔ သတင္းလာေပးတယ္။

က်ေနာ္က ''ကဗ်ာဆရာတင္မိုး''ဆိုတာကို မသိဘူး။ မသိဆို ၾကားေတာင္ မၾကား ဖူးဘူး။ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္က လူကိုသာ မသိတာ။ သူ႕နာမည္ ၾကားဖူးတယ္။ ထင္႐ွားတဲ့ ကဗ်ာဆရာႀကီးဆိုတာ သိေနတယ္။ က်ေနာ္တို႔က အရင္ေရာက္ႏွင့္ေနတဲ့ လူေဟာင္းေတြဆိုေတာ့ လိုအပ္တာေတြကူညီဖို႔ ႏွစ္ေယာက္သား တိုင္ပင္ျဖစ္ၾကတယ္။

သူက ဒီေန႔မွ စေရာက္တာဆိုေတာ့ ပံုစံခန္းဝင္ရဦးမယ္။ ပံုစံခန္းဆိုတာ က်ေနာ္တို႔ေနတဲ့ အခန္းရဲ႕ ေအာက္တည့္တည့္ အခန္းနံပါတ္ (၁-က)။ ေရာက္လာခဲ့သူမွန္သမွ် ဒီအခန္းကိုဝင္ၾကရတာ ထံုးစံပဲ။

ပံုစံခန္း ဆိုတဲ့အတိုင္း ေရာက္လာတဲ့အခ်ဳပ္သစ္ေတြကို သံမံတလင္းမွာ ဖင္ခ်ထိုင္ခိုင္းထားၿပီး ပံုစံျပ တစ္ေယာက္က ေ႐ွ႕မွာ ပံုစံျပမယ္။ ''စည္းကမ္းထိန္း'' ဆိုတဲ့သူေတြက တုတ္ေတြ၊ သားေရပတ္ေတြကိုင္ထားၿပီး ေတြ႕ကရာလူကို ေလွ်ာက္႐ိုက္မယ္။ "ပံုစံ" လို႔ ေအာ္လိုက္ရင္ လက္မကို လက္ဖဝါးထဲ ထည့္ဆုတ္ၿပီး တင္ပလႅင္ခ်ိတ္ ထိုင္ထားတဲ့ ဒူးႏွစ္ဖက္ေပၚ တင္တား၊ ခါးဆန္႔ၿပီး ေခါင္းငံု႔ထားရတယ္။ ''ေအးေစ'' လို႔ ေအာ္မွ ေခါင္းေမာ့ရတယ္။ ''ပံုစံရပ္''နဲ႔ ''အေရးေပၚပံုစံ''ဆိုတာ ႐ွိေသးတယ္။ ကိုလိုနီစ႐ိုက္နဲ႔ အာဏာ႐ွင္ဝါဒ သားစပ္က်ထားတဲ့ "ေမာ္ဖူးေစ" ပံုစံ တခုပါပဲ။

ပံုစံ ျပေနတုန္း အေယာင္ေယာင္အမွားမွားျဖစ္တဲ့သူကို စည္းကမ္းထိန္းေတြက တအံုးအံုး၊ တဒိုင္းဒိုင္းနဲ႔ ႐ိုက္ႏွက္ ကန္ေက်ာက္ၾကေတာ့တာပဲ။ ပံုစံခန္း ဆိုတာ ငရဲခန္း အေသးစားေလးဆိုရင္ မမွားဘူး။ အခ်ဳပ္သစ္နဲ႔ ေရာက္လာသူမွန္သမွ် ဒီအခန္းထဲကို ဝင္ရတယ္။ ၂ ရက္ေလာက္ေနၿပီးမွ တျခားအခန္းကို ခြဲပို႔တယ္။

က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္လည္း ဒီအခန္းမွာ ၂ ရက္ေလာက္ေနၿပီးမွ အခုေနတဲ့ ( အခန္း ၁-ခ ) ကို ေရာက္ေနၾကရတာ။

ညေနဖက္ သူ ေရာက္တယ္ၾကားၿပီး ေနာက္တေန႔မနက္ တန္း ဖြင့္ေတာ့ က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္တို႔ ပံုစံ ခန္းသြားၿပီး သူ႕ကို႐ွာၾကတယ္။ အခုမွ ေရာက္တာဆိုေတာ့ သူမွာ ဘာမွ ပါမွာ မဟုတ္ဘူးဆိုတာ အေတြ႕အႀကံဳအရ သိႏွင့္ၿပီးသား။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ သြားတိုက္တံအသစ္ တစ္ေခ်ာင္း႐ွာၿပီး သြားတိုက္ေဆးပါ ယူသြားၾကတယ္။ သူ႔ကို လူမျမင္ဖူးေတာ့ ''ဦးတင္မိုး'' ဘယ္သူလဲဆိုတာ လိုက္ေမးၾကရတာ။ အခန္းဝရပ္ေနတဲ့ လူ တစ္ေယာက္က လက္ၫႇိဳးထိုးျပလို႔ ၾကည့္လိုက္ေတာ့ - အသက္ႀကီးႀကီး ဝဝဖိုင့္ဖိုင့္ အဖိုးႀကီးတစ္ေယာက္ကို ေတြ႕လိုက္ရတယ္။ ေခါင္းရင္းဘက္ျပတင္းေပါက္ သံတိုင္ေတြကိုကိုင္ၿပီး အျပင္ကို ေငးၾကည့္ေနတယ္။

က်ေနာ္တို႔ႏွစ္ေယာက္ သူ႕ဆီသြားၿပီး

''အဘက ဦးတင္မိုးလား''

လို႔ ေမးလိုက္ေတာ့ သူက ေက်ာခိုင္းလ်က္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ဘက္ လွည့္ၿပီး

''ဟုတ္ပါတယ္။ က်ေနာ္တင္မိုးပါ''

လို႔ ျပန္ေျဖတယ္။

မ်က္လံုးကဝိုင္းဝိုင္း၊ ပါးက ေဖာင္းေဖာင္းႀကီးနဲ႔ အံ့ၾသတဲ့ အမူအရာနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ႏွစ္ေယာက္ကို တစ္လွည့္စီ ၾကည့္ေနတယ္။

က်ေနာ္တို႔ ေက်ာင္းသားေတြပါ။ နာမည္ ဘယ္သူ ဘယ္ဝါပါ ဆိုၿပီး က်ေနာ္တို႔အေၾကာင္း အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳံး မိတ္ဆက္လိုက္ေတာ့ သူ႕မ်က္ႏွာဝင္းသြားၿပီး ဖက္လွဲတကင္း ျပန္ႏႈတ္ဆက္ပါတယ္။ သူ႕ျဖစ္စဥ္အေၾကာင္းလည္း အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳံး ေျပာျပပါတယ္။

က်ေနာ္တို႔က

"အဘ … မ်က္ႏွာမသစ္ရေသးဘူး မဟုတ္လား။ လာ..ေရကန္သြားမယ္"

ဆိုၿပီး ေခၚသြားပါတယ္။ ေရကန္ေရာက္ေတာ့ သြားတိုက္တံေပၚ သြားတိုက္ေဆးၫႇစ္ထည့္ၿပီး သူ႔ကိုေပးလိုက္ေတာ့ သူက သြားတိုက္တံေပၚက သြားတိုက္ေဆးကို လက္ၫႇိဳးေလးနဲ႔ေကာ္ၿပီး သြားတိုက္တံကို ျပန္ေပးတယ္။

က်ေနာ္က

''အဘ ႐ြံတတ္လို႔လား။ ဒါ သြားတိုက္တံအသစ္ပါ …"

လို႔ ေျပာလိုက္ေတာ့ သူက

''ဟာ … မဟုတ္ဘူး။ မဟုတ္ဘူး။ ကိုယ္ မ႐ြံတတ္ပါဘူး။ သြားတိုက္တံနဲ႔ တိုက္လို႔ မရလို႔ပါ''

လို႔ ပ်ာပ်ာသလဲ ျပန္ေျဖၿပီး သူ႕ပါးစပ္ကို ''ဟ'' ျပပါတယ္။ ၾကည့္လိုက္ေတာ့ ပါးစပ္ကေဟာင္းေလာင္းႀကီး၊ သြားေတြ တေခ်ာင္းမွ မ႐ွိဘူး။ ဟုတ္တာေပါ့။ သြားဖံုးခ်ည္း သက္သက္ကို သြားတိုက္တံနဲ႔ တိုက္လို႔ ဘယ္ရပါ့မလဲ။

က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္ တစ္ေယာက္ မ်က္ႏွာ တစ္ေယာက္ၾကည့္ၿပီး ၿပံဳးစိစိေလးျဖစ္သြားေတာ့ သူက အားရပါးရ ရယ္ေမာလိုက္ပါေတာ့တယ္။

အဲဒါ သူနဲ႔က်ေနာ္ ပထမဆံုး စေတြ႔ေတြ႔ခ်င္း အမွတ္ရစရာ ေလးပါ။

၁၉၉၂ ႏွစ္ဦးပိုင္း ႏွင္းေတြေဝေနတဲ့ ေဆာင္းနံနက္ခင္းေလးက အစျပဳလို႔ ေအးျမတဲ့ ေႏြးေထြးတဲ့ ေမတၱာရိပ္ေတြ က်ေနာ့္ႏွလံုးသားကို သိုင္းၿခံဳ ရစ္ပတ္ေတာ့မယ္ဆုိတာ က်ေနာ္မသိခဲ့ဘူးေလ။

သူ ပံုစံခန္းက ထြက္ေတာ့ က်ေနာ္ေနတဲ့ အေပၚ (၁-ခ) မွာ လာေနရတယ္။ က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ ေဘးခ်င္းယွဥ္ အိပ္ရတာပါ။ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္က ကပ္လ်က္အခန္းက အေပၚ (၁-က) မွာ။

အဲဒီတုန္းက က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္က အသက္ ၁၉ ႏွစ္အ႐ြယ္၊ ၉ တန္း ေက်ာင္းသားေလးေတြ၊ သူက ေက်ာင္းဆရာ၊ ကဗ်ာဆရာ ၊ ပညာနဲ႔ ေမြ႕ေလ်ာ္သူဆိုေတာ့ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ၂ ေယာက္ကို ၉ တန္း ျပန္ေျဖၿပီး ဘြဲ႕ရေအာင္ယူဖို႔ တိုက္တြန္းတယ္။ ကတိလည္း ေတာင္းတယ္။ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္က ျပန္ေျဖဖို႔ ကတိေပးလိုက္ေပမဲ့ က်ေနာ္က မေပးဘူး။ မေသခ်ာဘဲနဲ႔ ဘာ ကတိမွ မေပးခ်င္ဘူး လို႔ ျပန္ေျပာလိုက္ေတာ့ သူ က်ေနာ့္ကို စိုက္ၾကည့္ေနတယ္။ ဘာမွေတာ့ မေျပာဘူး။ ဒါေပမဲ့ သူ႕မ်က္ႏွာမွာ ခပ္မႈိင္းမႈိင္း အရိပ္ေလးေတြ ေတြ႕လိုက္ရတယ္။

အဲဒီတုန္းက က်ေနာ္က ခပ္ထန္ထန္၊ ခပ္႐ိုင္း႐ိုင္း။ ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ ေတာေတာင္ေတြထဲ ၂ ႏွစ္ခြဲေလာက္ လက္နက္ကိုင္ တိုက္ခိုက္ေနရာကေန၊ ေလာေလာလတ္လတ္ အခ်ဳပ္က်ေနတဲ့ ကာလ။ ေျပာရရင္ အ႐ွင္လတ္လတ္ ေလွာင္ခ်ိဳင့္ထဲ ထည့္ပိတ္ခံထားရလို႔ ႐ွဴး႐ွဴး႐ွား႐ွားျဖစ္ေနတဲ့ ေတာ႐ိုင္းတိရိစၧာန္ တေကာင္လိုမ်ိဳး။ အစြယ္ တျပျပ၊ လက္သည္း တျပင္ျပင္နဲ႔။ ပိုဆိုးတာက ဘာ ဘာသာေရးမွ မ႐ွိတာ။ အ႐ိုင္းတံုးႀကီး။ အေဖက ဗုဒၶဘာသာ ျမန္မာလူမ်ိဳး၊ အေမက ခရစ္ယာန္ ကရင္လူမ်ိဳးဆိုေတာ့ ဘာသာက ဖက္စပ္၊ လူမ်ိဳးက ကျပား။ ၾသကာသ မသိ၊ သခင္ေယ႐ႈ မသိ၊ ကိုယ္ထင္ရာ ကိုယ္ စိုင္းေနတဲ့ စိတ္အခံမ်ိဳး။

အဲဒီလို ဘာသာမဲ့၊ ေတာျပန္၊ အခ်ဳပ္က်၊ ႐ိုင္းခ်င္တိုင္း ႐ိုင္းေနတဲ့ က်ေနာ့္ကို သူက က်ေနာ္ႀကံဳရေလ့႐ွိတဲ့ တျခားလူႀကီးေတြလိုမ်ိဳး ေ႐ွာင္ဖယ္ဖယ္ ေနတာမ်ိဳး မလုပ္ဘူး။ ေဖးေဖးမမနဲ႔ တရင္းတႏွီး ဆက္ဆံတယ္။ က်ေနာ့္ေနာက္ခံ ဘဝဇာတ္ေၾကာင္းကို ခေရေစ့တြင္းက် ေမးတယ္။ အေဖအေၾကာင္း၊ အေမအေၾကာင္း၊ မိသားစုေနထိုင္မႈပံုေတြ အေၾကာင္း၊ က်ေနာ္တက္ခဲ့တဲ့ ေက်ာင္းက အစ၊ ေတာထဲ ေနခဲ့ရတဲ့ တိုက္ပြဲေတြအဆံုး အကုန္ေမးတယ္။ တိုက္ဆိုင္ခ်င္ေတာ့ က်ေနာ္ရဲ႕အတန္းေဖာ္ ခိုင္ဝတ္မႈန္ဆိုတာ သူ႕ရဲ႕ ရဲေဘာ္ႀကီး ဦးတင္ေမာင္ဝင္းရဲ႕ သမီး၊ သူ႕တပည့္မ ျဖစ္ေနတယ္။ အဲဒီလိုေလွ်ာက္ေမးေနေတာ့ က်ေနာ္က ေျပာျပရတယ္။

အံ့ၾသဖို႔ေကာင္းတာက က်ေနာ္ေျပာသမွ်ကို သူက ေသေသခ်ာခ်ာကို အာ႐ံုစိုက္ၿပီး နားေထာင္တာ။ တစ္ခါတစ္ခါေတာ့ သူေမးတာကို က်ေနာ္က ''ဘု'' ျပန္ေတာမိတာလည္း ႐ွိတယ္။ အဲဒီလုိအခါမ်ိဳးမွာ ဘယ္ေတာ့မွ စိတ္ဆိုးဟန္ မျပဘူး။

''ေအး … ေအး … ခု မေျပာခ်င္လည္း ေန၊ ေနာက္မွ ေျပာေပါ့။ လာ … အခု လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ၾကရေအာင္''

ဆိုၿပီး က်ေနာ္႔လက္ကို ဆြဲၿပီး ထ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ေတာ့တာပဲ။

ဒီအေၾကာင္း အခု ျပန္ေတြးေတာ့ သူ႕မ်က္ႏွာ ျမင္ေယာင္ၿပီး ရင္ထဲ ဆစ္ကနဲ နာက်င္မိတာ အမွန္ပဲ။

အဲဒီလို တရင္းတႏွီးေနၾကရင္း က်ေနာ္ သူ႔ကို ''အဘ'' လို႔ ေခၚရာကေန ''ဆရာႀကီး''လို႔ ေျပာင္းေခၚမိတယ္။ ဘယ္လို ဘယ္လို အဲဒီလို ေခၚမိတယ္မသိဘူး။ စာသင္တဲ့ ဆရာ၊ အသက္ႀကီးလို႔ ေခၚမိတာလား၊ ကဗ်ာဆရာႀကီးမို႔လို႔ ေခၚမိတာလားလည္း မသိဘူး။ ေနာက္ပိုင္း က်ေနာ္ေရာ၊ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္ေရာ ဆရာႀကီးလို႔ ေခၚျဖစ္ၾကေတာ့တယ္။

သူက ပထမ သူ႕ကိုယ္သူ 'က်ေနာ္' လို႔ ေျပာတယ္။ ေနာက္ေတာ့ 'ကိုယ္' 'ေမာင္ရင္' လို႔ ေျပာရာကေန 'မင္း' 'ငါ' ဆိုၿပီး တရင္းတႏွီး ျဖစ္လာတယ္။ တခါတေလ

"ေဟ့ေကာင္၊ ေခြးေကာင္ ... ေခြးမသား ... လာ ..."

ဆိုၿပီး အာလုတ္သံႀကီးနဲ႔ တလံုးတခဲ ေျပာၿပီး က်ေနာ္ေခါင္းကို သူ႔ရင္ဘတ္မွာ ဖိထားတာမ်ိဳး လုပ္တတ္တယ္။ ပထမေတာ့ အဲဒီလိုေခၚတာကို က်ေနာ္မႀကိဳက္ဘူး။ စိတ္ဆိုးမိတယ္။

"ဆရာႀကီး က်ေနာ့္ကို ဘာျဖစ္လို႔ ေခြးေကာင္လို႔ ေခၚတာလဲ"

လို႔ ျပန္ေမးေတာ့ သူ စိတ္မေကာင္း ျဖစ္သြားပံုရတယ္။

''မဟုတ္ပါဘူးကြာ၊ ငါ ဘယ္သူ႔ ျဖစ္ျဖစ္၊ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ငယ္ငယ္ 'မင္း' 'ငါ' ဆိုတာမ်ိဳးေတာင္ မသံုးပါဘူး။ မင္းကိုေတာ့ ငါ ခ်စ္လို႔ ဒီလို ရင္းရင္းႏွီးႏွီး ေျပာတာပါ။ စိတ္မဆိုးပါနဲ႔ကြာ။ ဆရာႀကီး သခင္ကိုယ္ေတာ္မႈိင္းဆိုရင္လည္း သခင္ႏုတို႔၊ သခင္ေအာင္ဆန္းတို႔ကို အဲဒီလို ရင္းရင္းႏီွးႏွီး ေျပာဆိုတာပဲ''

လို႔ ျပန္ေျပာတယ္။

အဲဒီက စလို႔ သူနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္ၾကား ဘယ္အခါ ေတြ႕ေတြ႕

''ေဟ့ေကာင္ ... ေခြးေကာင္ ... ေခြးမသား ... လာ''

ဆိုၿပီး က်ေနာ့္ ေခါင္းကို အတင္းဆြဲ သူ႕ရင္ဘက္နဲ႔ အတင္း ဖိကပ္ထားေတာ့တာပဲ။ အဲဒီ သူ က်ေနာ္႔ကို ႏႈတ္ဆက္ေနက် ပံုရိပ္ေလး တခုအျဖစ္ က်ေနာ့္ရင္ထဲ စြဲက်န္ေနမိတယ္။

အဲဒီလို သူနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ၄ လေလာက္ အတူေနရာကေန တေန႔ သူ႕ကို စစ္ခံု႐ံုးကေနေခၚၿပီး အမိန္႔ခ်မွတ္လိုက္တယ္။ ၄ ႏွစ္ တဲ့။

စစ္ခံု႐ံုး အမိန္႔ခ်ၿပီးတာနဲ႔ "အက်"ေဆာင္ ၅ ကို တန္း ပို႔လိုက္ေတာ့ က်ေနာ္တို႔ခ်င္း မေတြ႕ၾကရေတာ့ဘူး။ ေနာင္ သူနဲ႔ အက်ေဆာင္မွာ ျပန္ေတြ႕ေတာ့မွ စစ္ခံု႐ံုးအေတြ႕အႀကံဳကို ဖလွယ္ရင္း သူ႕ကို ဘယ္လို စီရင္ခ်က္ စြဲတယ္ဆိုတာ သူ ျပန္ေျပာလို႔သိရတယ္။

စစ္ခံု႐ံုးက သူ႕ကဗ်ာေလး ဖတ္ျပၿပီး စီရင္ခ်က္ခ်လိုက္တာ … တဲ့။

ခုံ႐ံုး တရားသူႀကီးက သူ႔ ကဗ်ာကို ဖတ္ေတာ့ ယူနီေဖာင္းအျပည့္အစံုနဲ႔တဲ့။

''လမ္းေဘး ေသြးအိုင္ထဲ လဲေနတဲ့ ေက်ာင္းသားေလး ... သား ျပန္အလာကို ေမွ်ာ္ေနတဲ့ အေမ တေယာက္ရဲ႕ အျဖစ္ ...'' စတဲ့ ကဗ်ာေလးပါ။

''ဒီ တခုနဲ႔တင္ တန္ သြားၿပီကြာ'' တဲ့။

ဆရာႀကီး အမိန္႔ခ်ခံရၿပီး တလေလာက္ ထပ္ေနၿပီးေတာ့ သက္ဝင္းေအာင္ အခ်ဳပ္ဘဝကေန လြတ္ေျမာက္ သြားတယ္။ ေနာက္ထပ္ တစ္လေလာက္ ထပ္ေနၿပီးေတာ့ က်ေနာ့္ကို စစ္ခံု႐ံုးက ၇ ႏွစ္ အမိန္႔ခ်လိုက္တယ္။ ဒီေတာ့ ဆရာႀကီး ႐ွိတဲ့ ၅ ေဆာင္ကို ေရာက္ၿပီး သူနဲ႔ ျပန္ဆံုရတယ္။

က်ေနာ့္ကို စစ္ခုံ႐ံုး အမိန္႔ခ်လုိက္တာ မွတ္မွတ္ရရ ၁၉၉၂၊ ဇူလိုင္ ၂၃ ရက္ေန႔။

ထံုးစံအတိုင္း အက်ေဆာင္ေရာက္ေတာ့ အခ်ဳပ္ေဆာင္တုန္းကလိုပဲ ပံုစံခန္းဆိုတာ ဝင္ရေသးတယ္။ က်ေနာ္ အမိန္႔က်ၿပီး ၅ ေဆာင္ ေရာက္တယ္ ဆိုတာ ညတြင္းခ်င္း ဆရာႀကီး သိတယ္။ ေနာက္တစ္ေန႔ တန္းဖြင့္ဖြင့္ခ်င္း သူ က်ေနာ့္ဆီ ေရာက္လာတယ္။

မ်က္ႏွာသုတ္ပုဝါ ပုခံုးေပၚ တင္၊ ဆပ္ျပာခြက္၊ သြားတိုက္ေဆး၊ သြားတိုက္တံ လက္ထဲ ကိုင္လို႔။ က်ေနာ့္ဆီ လာေတြ႕မယ္ဆိုတာ သိေနရက္နဲ႔ ျဗဳန္းကနဲ အျဖဴေရာင္ ထက္ေအာက္ 'ေထာင္ဝတ္စံု'နဲ႔ ေတြ႕လိုက္ရေတာ့ ရင္ထဲ တစ္မ်ိဳးႀကီး ျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ အခ်ဳပ္ေဆာင္တုန္းက အရပ္ဝတ္ အရပ္စားနဲ႔ ေတြ႕ေနၾကေလ။ ခုေတာ့ ေထာင္ဝတ္စံုႀကီးနဲ႔ ေခါင္းကလည္း ေဖြးေဖြးျဖဴလို႔။ ေတြ႕ရတာ တစ္မ်ိဳးႀကီးပဲ။

ေတြ႕ေတြ႕ခ်င္း သူကေတာ့ ထံုးစံအတိုင္း

''ေဟ့ … ေခြးေကာင္ ... လာ''

ဆိုၿပီး က်ေနာ့္ ေခါင္းကိုဆြဲၿပီး သူ႔ရင္ဘတ္နဲ႔ ထိထားတယ္။ ၿပီးမွ မ်က္ႏွာ သြားသစ္ရေအာင္လို႔ ေျပာတယ္။ က်ေနာ္က သူ႕လက္ထဲက သြားတိုက္ေဆး၊ သြားတိုက္တံကို တလွည့္၊ သူ႕ကို တလွည့္ ၾကည့္ေနေတာ့၊ သူက …

"ဘာလဲ၊ မင္း ႐ြံ႕တတ္လို႔လား။ သြားတိုက္တံက အသစ္ပါ ကြ။ သြားတိုက္ေဆးကို လက္ၫႇိဳးနဲ႔ေကာ္ၿပီး တိုက္စရာ မလိုပါဘူး။ မင္းသြားေတြက အေကာင္းေတြခ်ည္းပဲ'' တဲ့။

က်ေနာ္တို႔ အခ်ဳပ္ေဆာင္မွာ ပထမဆံုးေတြ႕ခဲ့ၾကတဲ့ ျမင္ကြင္းေလးကို အမွတ္ရလို႔ ျပန္ေျပာတာနဲ႔ တူပါရဲ႕။

က်ေနာ္လည္း စေတြ႕ၾကတုန္းက သူေျပာခဲ့တဲ့ပံုကို ျပန္ေျပာၿပီး ႏွစ္ေယာက္သား အားပါးတရ ရယ္ေမာမိၾကတယ္။ အခ်ဳပ္ေဆာင္မွာတုန္းက က်ေနာ္က သြားတိုက္ေဆး လာေပးသူ၊ ဒီအက်ေဆာင္မွာေတာ့ သူက လာေပးရတဲ့သူ။ ဟိုမွာတုန္းက သူက လူသစ္၊ က်ေနာ္က လူေဟာင္း။ ဒီက်ေတာ့ သူက လူေဟာင္း၊ က်ေနာ္က လူသစ္။ အဲဒီတုန္းက ဇန္နဝါရ နံနက္ခင္း၊ ႏွင္းေတြ ေဝလို႔။ ခုေတာ့ ဇူလိုင္ နံနက္ခင္း မိုးေတြ ႐ြာ လို႔။

ဒီလိုနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ၅ ေဆာင္မွာ အတူ ေနၾကရျပန္တယ္။ အခန္းကေတာ့ မတူဘူး။ သူက ၃၊ က်ေနာ္က ၄။ မနက္ခင္းေတြမွာ က်ေနာ္က ေတာင္ယာထဲ ဆင္း၊ သူက လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ေပါ့။ ညေနခင္းေတြဆို က်ေနာ္တို႔ႏွစ္ေယာက္ အတူတူ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ၾက၊ စကားေတြ ေျပာၾကနဲ႔။ ေန႔ခင္းေတြဆို သူက ထံုးစံ အတိုင္း ေမးခြန္းေတြ ေမး၊ က်ေနာ္က ေျဖေပါ့ေလ။ သူက စာေတြ၊ ကဗ်ာေတြအေၾကာင္း ေျပာျပတယ္။ ႀကံဳရင္ ႀကံဳသလို ကဗ်ာေလးေတြ ၫႇပ္ၿပီး ႐ြတ္ျပေသးတယ္။ ထူးဆန္းတာက သူ႐ြတ္တဲ့ကဗ်ာေတြထဲ သူ႕ ကဗ်ာတစ္ပုဒ္မွ မပါတာဘဲ။

''ဧည့္သည္ႀကီး'' ကဗ်ာအေၾကာင္းေတာ့ တခုတ္တရ ေျပာျပတယ္။ မႏၲေလးမွာ သူနဲ႔ ေမာင္စြမ္းရည္၊ ေမာင္ၾကည္ေအာင္တို႔ ကဗ်ာေတြ စုေရးၾကပံုေတြလည္း ပါတယ္။ မ်ားေသာအားျဖင့္ သူ ႐ြတ္ျပတဲ့ကဗ်ာေတြဟာ ဆရာႀကီးမင္းသုဝဏ္နဲ႕ ဆရာႀကီးေဇာ္ဂ်ီ ကဗ်ာေတြပါပဲ။

သူ ေျပာျပတဲ့အထဲမွာ ဆရာႀကီးေဖေမာင္တင္အေၾကာင္း ၊ ဆရာႀကီးဒဂုန္တာရာ၊ ေဒါက္တာသန္းထြန္း၊ လူထုဦးလွ နဲ႔ အေမမာအေၾကာင္း၊ ေမာင္သာႏိုး၊ ေမာင္စြမ္းရည္၊ ေမာင္ၾကည္ေအာင္စတဲ့ သူနဲ႔ ေခတ္ၿပိဳင္ ကဗ်ာဆရာႀကီးေတြအေၾကာင္း ... အစံုပါပဲ။

ခက္တာက သူ ေျပာတဲ့ လူေတြအေၾကာင္း တေယာက္မွ က်ေနာ္ မသိတာပဲ။ နာမည္ေတာင္ ၾကားဖူးတာ မဟုတ္ဘူး။ ကဗ်ာဆိုတာ ဘာမွန္းလည္း မသိ။ ခံစားရေကာင္းမွန္း၊ ဖတ္ရေကာင္းမွန္းေတာင္ သိတာမဟုတ္ဘူး။ အားနာလို႔သာ နားေထာင္ေနရတာ၊ ပ်င္းလည္းပ်င္း၊ စိတ္ကလည္းညစ္ေပါ့။ ဒါကို သူ ရိပ္မိတယ္နဲ႔ တူပါတယ္။ တေန႔ က်ေနာ့္ကို ကဗ်ာနဲ႔ ပတ္သတ္ၿပီး ဘယ္လို သေဘာထားလဲ ဆိုၿပီး ေမးခြန္း ေမးလာတယ္။

က်ေနာ္ကလည္း သိတဲ့အတိုင္း ဘုဆတ္ဆတ္၊ ဂ်စ္ကန္ကန္နဲ႔ ဆိုေတာ့

''ဟာ ... ကဗ်ာဆိုတာ လူေဘာ္ေၾကာ့ေတြ၊ အလုပ္အကိုင္မ႐ွိ၊ လူပ်င္းေတြ လုပ္တဲ့ အလုပ္ပါ။ ဘာမွန္းလည္း မသိဘူး။ ခံစားလို႔လည္း မရဘူး …"

လို႔ ျပန္ေျပာလိုက္ေတာ့ သူ ခဏ ေတြသြားတယ္။ ၿပီးမွ က်ေနာ့္ပခံုးေပၚ လက္တင္ၿပီး

"အဲလို မဟုတ္ပါဘူးကြာ။ ကဗ်ာဆိုတာ အင္မတန္ သိမ္ေမြ႕ႏူးညံ့တဲ့ ပစၥည္းပါ။ လူ႔ႏွလံုးသား ႏူးညံ့ေပ်ာ့ေပ်ာင္းဖို႔ ကဗ်ာဖတ္ဖို႔ လိုတယ္။ ႏွလံုးသားၾကမ္းတမ္းတဲ့သူေတြဟာ ေလာကကို အပ်က္ ျမင္တတ္ၾကတယ္ …"

ဆိုၿပီး ကဗ်ာနဲ႔ပတ္သတ္တဲ့ သေဘာ သဘာဝေတြ တသီတတန္းႀကီး ေျပာေနပါေတာ့တယ္။

ဥပမာေတြလည္း အမ်ားႀကီးပဲ။ က်ေနာ္ အေသးစိတ္ မမွတ္မိေတာ့ဘူး။ အဲဒီတုန္းက က်ေနာ္ ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့စကားေတြအတြက္ အခု ဆရာႀကီးကို လက္အုပ္ခ်ီေတာင္းပန္မိတယ္။

တကယ္ေတာ့ ဆရာႀကီးဟာ စိတ္ႏွလံုး ႏူးညံ့ေပ်ာ့ေျပာင္းသူပါ။ မေတာင္းပန္ခင္က ခြင့္လႊတ္ၿပီးသား ဆိုတာ က်ေနာ္ အေသအခ်ာ ယံုတယ္။ ကဗ်ာကို ႐ႈတ္႐ႈတ္ခ်ခ်ေျပာခဲ့တဲ့ က်ေနာ္၊ ခုေတာ့ ကဗ်ာကို ခံစား ဖတ္႐ႈႏိုင္႐ံုမက ကိုယ္တိုင္ ကဗ်ာဖန္တီးသူတစ္ေယာက္ ျဖစ္ခဲ့ရၿပီ ။ ဒီအေၾကာင္းေတြ ဆရာႀကီး သိမွသိသြားပါေလစ။

က်ေနာ့္စိတ္ကူးထဲ ေထာင္ကလြတ္လို႔ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ျပန္ဆံုရင္ ေျပာမယ့္စကားေတြ ရင္ထဲအျပည့္။ ရင္ဘတ္ႀကီးထဲ အကန္႔လိုက္ ခြဲခြဲ သိမ္းထားခဲ့ရတာေတြ။ ခုေတာ့ ဆရာႀကီး ဆံုးၿပီတဲ့။

ဆရာပြင့္ကို က်ေနာ္ တခါက ဒီလို ေျပာဖူးတယ္။

"ဆရာပြင့္ထက္ အရင္ က်ေနာ္ ေစာလြတ္ရင္ ဘာလုပ္ေပးရမလဲ" လို႔။

ဆရာပြင့္ကလည္း က်ေနာ့္ကို ဒီလို ျပန္ေမးတယ္။

''ခင္ဗ်ားထက္ က်ေနာ္ ေစာလြတ္ရင္ေကာ'' တဲ့။

ဒီေတာ့ က်ေနာ္က

"ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ထိေတြ႔ခဲ့ၿပီးတဲ့ေနာက္ က်ေနာ့္ႏွလံုးသားထဲ ဆိုက္ဆိုက္ၿမိဳက္ၿမိဳက္ ဝင္လာသူဟာ ဆရာပြင့္ပါပဲ လို႔။ အခု က်ေနာ္ အထဲမွာ ဘာေတြ လုပ္ေနတယ္၊ ဘယ္လို က်င့္ႀကံေနတယ္ ဆိုတာေတြ ဆရာပြင့္ အသိဆံုးပါပဲ။ က်ေနာ့္စိတ္ကူး၊ က်ေနာ့္အိပ္မက္ေတြ၊ ခံစားမႈေတြကို ေကာင္းေကာင္း သိတဲ့သူဟာလည္း ဆရာပြင့္ပါပဲ။ က်ေနာ္ ဆရာႀကီးအေပၚ ဘယ္လို သေဘာထားတယ္ ဆိုတာလည္း အသိဆံုးပါ။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ဆရာပြင့္ က်ေနာ့္ထက္ ေစာလြတ္ရင္ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ဆက္သြယ္ၿပီး အဲဒါေတြ ေျပာျပေပးပါ"

လို႔ ဆရာပြင့္ကို က်ေနာ္ ေသေသခ်ာခ်ာ မွာခဲ့ဖူးတယ္။

ဒါေတြသာ သိရင္ ဆရာႀကီး ဘယ္ေလာက္မ်ား ဝမ္းသာပီတိ ျဖစ္ေနလိုက္မလဲ ဆိုတာ စိတ္ကူးနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္ ျမင္ေယာင္မိပါေသးေတာ့တယ္။

အခုေတာ့ ဆရာႀကီးမ႐ွိေတာ့ပါဘူး။ က်ေနာ္ သိေစခ်င္တဲ့ က်ေနာ့္ရင္ထဲက စကားေတြ သိမွ သိသြားပါ့မလား။ ဆရာႀကီး မဆံုးခင္ တႏွစ္ခြဲေလာက္ ႀကိဳ ၿပီး ဆရာပြင့္ လြတ္သြားပါရဲ႕။

ဒါေပမယ့္ သူ ေျပာမွ ေျပာျဖစ္ပါ့မလား...။ ေျပာခ်င္အံုးေတာ့ ေျပာခြင့္မွ သာရဲ႕လား။ က်ေနာ့္ ရင္ဘတ္ထဲ တဆစ္ဆစ္ ကိုက္ေနလိုက္တာ။

ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္ ၅ ေဆာင္မွာ ၅ လေလာက္ပဲ အတူေနရေသးတယ္။ ၁၉၉၂၊ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၇ ရက္ ညမွာ ေထာင္ဝန္ထမ္းေတြ အံုလိုက္က်င္းလိုက္ဝင္လာၿပီး က်ေနာ္အပါအဝင္ ၁၅ ေယာက္ေလာက္ကို နာမည္ေခၚ၊ ေခါင္းစြပ္ စြပ္ၿပီး သီးသန္႔ေထာင္ကို ပို႔လိုက္တယ္။ မၾကာခင္ က်င္းပေတာ့မယ့္ အမ်ိဳးသားညီလာခံနဲ႔ ပတ္သက္ၿပီး အထဲမွာ လႈပ္လႈပ္႐ြ႐ြျဖစ္ေနတယ္လို႔ ယူဆတယ္နဲ႔ တူပါရဲ႕။ က်ေနာ္တို႔ကို လူစု ခြဲလိုက္တဲ့သေဘာပါ။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ တခါ ထပ္ခြဲရျပန္တယ္။ သူက ၅ ေဆာင္မွာပဲ က်န္ခဲ့တာ။

သီးသန္႔ေရာက္လို႔ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ေဝးရေတာ့မွ က်ေနာ္ ဆရာႀကီးကို သတိရ ရေကာင္းမွန္း သိလာတယ္။ ညေနခင္း လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ခဲ့ပံုေတြ၊ က်ေနာ့္ကို ေမးခြန္းေတြ ေမးခဲ့ပံုေတြ၊ ... အစံုပါပဲ။ ဆရာႀကီးကို က်ေနာ္ လြမ္းေနၿပီေလ။

၅ ေဆာင္ကေန က်ေနာ္နဲ႔အတူ ေျပာင္းေ႐ႊ႕ခဲရတဲ့ သူေတြထဲမွာ ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းလည္း ပါတယ္။ သူက ပညာကို ခ်စ္ျမတ္ႏိုးသူ။ ေအးေအးေဆးေဆး ေနတတ္ၿပီး ကဗ်ာဖြဲ႕ဖို႔ ႀကိဳးစား အားထုတ္ေနတဲ့သူ။ သီးသန္႔မွာ ေနၾကတုန္း သူဖြဲ႕ျဖစ္တဲ့ ကဗ်ာေလးေတြ လမ္းေလွ်ာက္ရင္း က်ေနာ့္ကို ႐ြတ္ျပေလ့႐ွိ တယ္။ ဘယ္လုိ သေဘာလဲ မသိပါဘူး။ အဲဒီ ကဗ်ာဆိုတာႀကီးနဲ႔ က်ေနာ့္ကို လာ လာ ပတ္သတ္ေနတာ ေျပာပါတယ္။ ကဗ်ာဆရာႀကီးရဲ႕ ကဗ်ာေဗဒ ကြန္ယက္ကေန လြတ္ၿပီ၊ ကြၽတ္ၿပီ မွတ္တယ္။ ခု ကဗ်ာဆရာ ေလးရဲ႕ေထာင္ေခ်ာက္မွာ ယက္ကန္၊ ယက္ကန္နဲ႔ လာၿငိေနျပန္ေရာ။

ဒီလိုနဲ႔ေနၾကရင္း တေန႔မွာ က်ေနာ္နဲ႔ ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္း လမး္ေလွ်ာက္ေနၾကတုန္း ေလအေဝွ႕မွာ လြင့္လာတဲ့ စာ႐ြက္တ႐ြက္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ေ႐ွ႕တည့္တည့္ လာက်တယ္။ ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းက လွမ္းေကာက္ၿပီး ဖတ္ၾကည့္ကာ ဖတ္ရင္း သူ အံ့ၾသသြားပံုက ပါးစပ္ကေတာင္ အသံထြက္လာတယ္။

"ေဟ့လူ၊ ဒီမွာ ၾကည့္စမ္း။ ဆရာႀကီးရဲ႕ ကဗ်ာေလးဗ်" တဲ့။

က်ေနာ္လည္း ဆြဲယူ ဖတ္ၾကည့္ေတာ့ … အဟုတ္ပဲ ကဗ်ာေခါင္းစဥ္ အပိုင္းေတာ့ စုတ္ၿပဲေနလို႔ မပါေတာ့ဘူး။ ကဗ်ာေအာက္ေျခမွာေတာ့ 'တင္မိုး' ဆိုၿပီး ထင္ထင္႐ွား႐ွား ပါေနေသးတယ္။

'ဆရာႀကီးမႈိင္းကို ဖြဲ႕ထားတဲ့ ျပ႒ာန္းစာအုပ္မွာပါတဲ့ ကဗ်ာေလးပါ။ 'ကြမ္းအစ္ တလံုး၊ ေယာင္တထံုးနဲ႔ အစခ်ီၿပီး ... ေသာင္းျမန္ျပည္တန္ခိုး ေဒါင္းအလံ လႊင့္ထိုး' … ဆိုၿပီး အဆံုးသတ္ထားတဲ့ ကဗ်ာေလး။

ဘာေျပာေျပာ က်ေနာ္ေရာ၊ ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းပါ ဝမ္းသာသြားၾကတယ္။

"ဒါ ဆရာႀကီး က်ေနာ္တို႔ကို ပို႔လိုက္တဲ့ ေမတၱာလက္ေဆာင္ေလးပဲ။ က်ေနာ္တို႔ မၾကာခင္ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ျပန္ဆုံရမယ့္သေဘာပဲ"

လုိ႔ ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းက ေျပာတယ္။

က်ေနာ္လည္း ဒီအတိုင္းခံစားရတယ္ေလ။

ဒါေၾကာင့္ က်ေနာ္တို႔ ႏွစ္ေယာက္ ဒီကဗ်ာေလးကို အလြတ္က်က္ထားၿပီး ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ျပန္ဆံုရင္ ႐ြတ္ျပရေအာင္လို႔ သေဘာတူၿပီး က်က္ထားလိုက္ၾကတယ္။

ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းကေတာ့ အထဲမွာ ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ျပန္မဆံုျဖစ္ေတာ့ပါဘူး။ ဘာေၾကာင့္ဆို အဲဒီစာ႐ြက္ရၿပီး မၾကာခင္မွာပဲ လြတ္ရက္ေစ့လို႔ သူ လြတ္ေျမာက္သြားတယ္ေလ။

သူ႔ကို လႊတ္ဖို႔ လာေခၚတဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ က်ေနာ့္အခန္းေ႐ွ႕ ေျပးလာၿပီး

"ခင္ဗ်ား ဆရာႀကီးနဲ႔ ျပန္ဆံုရင္ ဒီကဗ်ာေလးရပံု ေျပာၿပီး အလြတ္ ႐ြတ္ျပလိုက္ဗ်ာ။ က်ေနာ့္ကိုယ္စားပါ ၂ ေခါက္ ႐ြက္ျပလိုက္''

လို႔ အမွတ္တရ လာ ေျပာသြားပါေသးတယ္။

သီးသန္႔မွာ ၈ လ ေလာက္ ေနရၿပီး က်ေနာ္တို႔ကို ေထာင္မႀကီးထဲ ျပန္ေျပာင္းလိုက္ပါတယ္။

ေထာင္မႀကီး ေရာက္လို႔ မိန္းေဂ်လ္းမွာ ထိုင္ခိုင္းထားၿပီး အေဆာင္ခြဲပို႔ဖို႔ လူစစ္ၾကတယ္။ ထံုးစံအရ ကိုယ္ ထြက္သြားတဲ့ အေဆာင္ကို ျပန္ပို႔ေလ့မ႐ွိဘူး။ က်ေနာ္က ၅ ေဆာင္က ထြက္သြားရတာဆိုေတာ့ ၃ နဲ႔ ၄ ေဆာင္ တခုခုေရာက္ရမယ္။ ျဖစ္ခ်င္ေတာ့ ဘယ္က ဘယ္လိုခြဲလိုက္တယ္မသိဘူး။ က်ေနာ္က ၅ ေဆာင္ ျပန္ေရာက္မယ့္ စာရင္းထဲပါေနတယ္။ ေနာင္မွ ျပန္သိရတာက က်ေနာ္ ထြက္သြားခဲ့တဲ့ အေဆာင္စာရင္းမွာ ၅ ေဆာင္အစား ၃ ေဆာင္လို႔ ေရးထားတယ္လို႔ဆိုတယ္။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ၃ ေဆာင္ကို မေရာက္ေတာ့ဘဲ ဆရာႀကီး ႐ွိရာ ၅ ေဆာင္ကို ဆိုက္ဆိုက္ၿမိဳက္ၿမိဳက္ ျပန္ေရာက္ပါေလေရာ။

က်ေနာ္တို႔အေဆာင္ထဲကို ဝင္တဲ့အခ်ိန္က ေန႔ခင္းႀကီး ဆိုေတာ့ က်န္တဲ့ ရဲေဘာ္ေတြက ထြက္ၿပီး ႀကိဳေနၾကတယ္။ က်ေနာ္လည္း အိပ္ယာလိပ္က တစ္ဖက္၊ က်န္တဲ့ပစၥည္းေတြက တစ္ဖက္နဲ႔ ၅ ေဆာင္ထဲ ဝင္႐ံု႐ွိ ေသးတယ္။ လူအုပ္ၾကားထဲက ဆရာႀကီး ထြက္လာၿပီး

''ေဟ့ေကာင္ ... ေခြးေကာင္ ... လာ''

ဆိုၿပီး က်ေနာ့္ေခါင္းကို ဆြဲ၊ သူ႕ရင္ဘတ္ထဲ ဖိထားေတာ့တာပဲ။

က်ေနာ္လည္း အိပ္ယာလိပ္နဲ႔ ပစၥည္းေတြ ပစ္ခ်လိုက္ၿပီး ဆရာႀကီးကို ဖက္ထားလိုက္တယ္။

တေအာင့္ေနလို႔ လူခ်င္းခြာၿပီး ဆရာႀကီးမ်က္ႏွာ ေမာ့ၾကည့္လိုက္ေတာ့ သူ႕မ်က္ဝန္းမွာ မ်က္ရည္ၾကည္ေတြ ရစ္ဝိုင္းေနတာ ေတြ႕လိုက္ရတယ္။ ႐ုတ္တရက္ က်ေနာ္ ေၾကာင္အမ္းအမ္းျဖစ္သြားတယ္။ ဟုတ္မွာပါ။ ဆရာႀကီးက ''ေဟ့ … ေခြးေကာင္ … လာ'' ဆိုၿပီး ရင္ခြင္ထဲ အတင္းဖိကပ္ထားတဲ့အခ်ိန္တိုင္း က်ေနာ္ သူ႕ကို ျပန္ဖက္ေလ့ မ႐ွိခဲ့ဘူးေလ။ သူ က်ေနာ့္ေခါင္းကို အတင္း ဖိကပ္ထားလို႔1သာ ဒီအတိုင္း ေန ေနရတာပဲ ႐ွိတယ္။ ခုမွ က်ေနာ္က ပထမဆံုးအႀကိမ္ ျပန္ ဖက္ထားလိုက္မိတာကိုး။ ဖက္ထားတာမွ တအားကို ဖက္ထားတာ။ နဲနဲလည္း ၾကာသြားတယ္ထင္ပါရဲ႕။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ ဆရာႀကီး မ်က္ရည္ဝဲ သြားတာျဖစ္မွာ။

ဒါနဲ႔ က်ေနာ္က

"ဆရာႀကီး … ခဏေလး။ ဒီ အိပ္ရာလိပ္ေတြ သြား ထားလိုက္ဦးမယ္။ ၿပီးရင္ ခ်က္ျခင္း ျပန္လာခဲ့မယ္။ ေျပာစရာ ႐ွိတယ္ …"

လို႔ ေျပာၿပီး ပစၥည္းေတြ သြားထားလိုက္တယ္။ ၿပီးတာနဲ႔ ခ်က္ျခင္း ျပန္လာၿပီး ဆရာႀကီးေနတဲ့ ၃ ခန္းမွာ ႏွစ္ေယာက္သား ထိုင္လိုက္ၾကတယ္။ က်ေနာ္လည္း လႈပ္လႈပ္ ႐ွား႐ွားသြားလာခဲ့ရေတာ့ နဲနဲ ေမာေနတာနဲ႔ အေမာေျဖ ထိုင္ေနတုန္း ဆရာႀကီးက

"ကဲ၊ ေျပာစရာ႐ွိတယ္ဆို ... ေျပာ ... ဘာေျပာမွာလဲ''

ဆိုတဲ့သေဘာနဲ႔ က်ေနာ့္ကို ၿပံဳးၿပီး ၾကည့္ေနတယ္။

က်ေနာ္က …

''တျခားမဟုတ္ဘူး ဆရာႀကီး။ ကဗ်ာ တပုဒ္ ႐ြတ္ျပမလို႔"

လို႔ ေျပာၿပီး ''ကြမ္းအစ္တလံုး ေယာင္တထံုးနဲ႔ …" အစခ်ီၿပီး ေတာက္ေလွ်ာက္ ႐ြတ္ျပလိုက္တယ္။ ႐ြတ္ရင္း သူ႕မ်က္ႏွာကို ၾကည့္ေနေတာ့ သူ အေတာ္ အံ့ၾသ သြားပံုရတယ္။ ကဗ်ာအေၾကာင္းေျပာရင္ အၿမဲဲ ညစ္ေနတတ္တဲ့ က်ေနာ္က အခု သူ႕ကဗ်ာကို အလြတ္္႐ြတ္ ျပေနေတာ့ သူ မအ့ံၾသဘဲ ဘယ္ေနပါ့မလဲ။

" မင္း … ဒီ ကဗ်ာ ဘယ္လို ရေနတာလဲ။ အရင္က မရပါဘူး …"

လို႔ တအံ့တၾသ ေမးပါတယ္။

က်ေနာ္က

"ဆရာႀကီးပဲ က်ေနာ္တို႔ကို ေမတၱာလက္ေဆာင္ ပို႔ေပးလိုက္တာေလ။ အဲဒီက ရတာေပါ့ …"

လို႔ အတည္ေပါက္ ဟဲ လိုက္ေတာ့ သူ မ်က္ေမွာက္ၾကဳတ္သြားတယ္။ သူလည္း မေပးရပါလား၊ ဘယ္လိုပါလိမ့္ ဆိုတဲ့ သေဘာေပါ့။ အဲဒီေတာ့မွ က်ေနာ္က ကဗ်ာ ရပံု ထူးထူးဆန္းဆန္းအေၾကာင္းေလး ေျပာၿပီး ကိုေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္းမွာတဲ့အတုိင္း ေနာက္တႀကိမ္ေတာင္ ႐ြတ္ျပလိုက္ပါေသးတယ္။

ဆရာႀကီး အဲဒီအခ်ိန္တုန္းက က်ေနာ့္ကို ၾကည့္တဲ့ အၾကည့္က တမ်ိဳးေလးပဲ။ က်ေနာ္ပါးစပ္က ကဗ်ာ ႐ြတ္ေနတာကို သူ အေတာ္ ပီတိ ျဖစ္ေနတဲ့ပံုပါ။

ၿပီးေတာ့မွ က်ေနာ့္ကို သူ႔ထံုးစံအတိုုင္း ျဖည္းျဖည္း တိုးတိုးေလး ေျပာပါေတာ့တယ္။

''မင္းတို႔ ကဗ်ာရပံုေလး ဆန္းတယ္။ ေက်ာ္ေက်ာ္ဝင္း လြတ္သြားတာ ဝမ္းသာတယ္။ မင္း ကဗ်ာ႐ြတ္တာ ပိုလို႔ေတာင္ ဝမ္းသာေသးတယ္။ ငါလည္း မင္းကို သတိရေနတာ။ ကဗ်ာ ဆိုတာ ႏွလံုးသားနဲ႔ ထိေတြ႕ရတဲ့ အရာပါ။ မင္း ႏွလံုးသားက ခက္ထန္ မာေၾကာလြန္းတယ္ကြာ။ မင္းမွာ ေျဖာင့္မတ္မႈ၊ သစၥာ႐ွိမႈေတြ ႐ွိတယ္။ သတၱိလည္း အရမ္းေကာင္းတဲ့ ေကာင္။ ဒါေပမဲ့ မင္း ႏွလံုးသား ေပ်ာ့ေျပာင္းဖို႔ လိုေနတယ္။ အဲဒီလို ေပ်ာ့ေျပာင္းလာတာနဲ႔ မင္းဟာ အရမ္းကို ျပည့္စံုသြားမယ့္သူပဲ။ တိုင္းျပည္အတြက္ အားကိုးရမယ္။ ငါတို႔က အသက္ႀကီးလာၿပီ ဆိုေတာ့ ေနာင္အနာဂတ္အတြက္ မင္းတို႔လို လူငယ္ေတြကိုပဲ အားကိုးရမွာ။ ဒါေၾကာင့္ မင္းကဗ်ာဖတ္ဖို႔ လိုတယ္။ စာေတြ အမ်ားႀကီး ဖတ္ဖို႔ လိုတယ္။ ငါက ေက်ာင္းဆရာဆိုေတာ့ ေက်ာင္းသူ၊ ေက်ာင္းသားေပါင္း မ်ားစြာကို စာသင္ေပးခဲ့ရတယ္။ မင္းက ထူးဆန္းတယ္။ ၿပီးေတာ့ မင္းကို သားတစ္ေယာက္လို ခ်စ္တာပါကြာ..''

လို႔ တသီတတန္းႀကီး ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။

က်ေနာ္ သူ႕စကားနားေထာင္းရင္း ၾကက္သီးေမႊးညင္း ထ သြားတယ္။ ေဖာ္ျပလို႔မရတဲ့ ထူးဆန္းတဲ့ ခံစားမႈေလး ခံစားလိုက္ရတာ။ ဘာမွ မေျပာမိဘဲ သူ႕ေ႐ွ႕ ဒီအတိုင္း ငူငူႀကီး ထိုင္ေနမိတယ္။ က်ေနာ့္ရင္ထဲ အသည္းထဲကေန သိလိုက္ပါၿပီ။ က်ေနာ့္ကို ခ်ည္ေႏွာင္ထားတဲ့ သူရဲ႕ေမတၱာႀကိဳးဟာ ဘယ္ေလာက္ခိုင္မာ သလဲဆိုတာေလ..။



(ဆက္ပါအုံးမည္..)

(မိုးခ်ဳိသင္း ဘေလာ့က ယူပါတယ္)

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