so today I went to a literary festival which had a lot of burmese and foreign writers participating. The main thing was that Daw Aung san suu kyi was there! and I shook her hand, it was amazing. there where really cool writers such as Vikram Seth and William Dalrymple there. It first started off with a photojournalism talk with Nick Danziger and Thierry Falise and how they got into the business and what they did to get to the place they are now. The british man (Danziger) was definitely one of the best people I saw that day because his presentation was engaging. For example, he was talking about his journey through the silk trade route and the russian fires that planes would give off when he was in the soviet territory.
Some of his stories were really gruesome and really touching, such as the one about this girl who had lost her arms and how she wished to be married but can't see that future anymore because of those men who ripped her hands from her. That and the story about a girl who sold herself for 1 dollar to get a notepad for school and then finding out she's HIV positive almost brought me to tears. The way he phrased the stories just really shook me because we live such a sheltered life and we think of 1 dollar as nothing but when a girl sells her own body just for that, you have to think: surely we as people are worth more. In the sense that we're human beings and to see that our society still hasn't changed and may have even deteriorated to a certain extent is horrible. What kind of men buy a girl for 1 dollar and refuse to wear a condom. Why doesn't humanity scream at them to just help the girl instead? these stories always confuse me because I always think humanity is taking 1 step forward on one side and a step back on the other. Why bother when we just stay in the same place all the time?
Another person I really liked was this lady who wrote a travel book about travelling on the Indian railway system for 40,000 Km...that's pretty cool and for anyone to do it they must have guts because I would be terrified to do that, especially by myself. So I thought that was cool, also how she spoke because she was talking about how verbs brought her back and how she could experience the atmosphere etc. by using the correct verbs and diction.
The Orwell talk was very interesting because they were talking about politics and fascism, imperialism and socialism and speaking about how Myanmar can move forward. Now, I'm not very into politics but I did like how Mr Timothy Garton-Ash was talking about how we view the word Burma and the word Myanmar and how we (most of us) connotes good feelings with the word Burma so that's why a lot of people use it. Overall, I just thought his passion about Orwell was fascinating.
Then of course Daw Aung san suu kyi with William Dalrymple, Vikram Seth, Fergal Keane and Jung Chang were really interesting. They had a panel at the very end where they were talking about which book or more likely poems they would keep if they were stranded on a desert island. I especially like Mr Seth when he was analysing some poems because I could truly see that he was passionate about it. In general it was really funny and Ms Jung Chang was so funny when she spoke about sneaking into a pub and feeling underwhelmed because she expected it to be an inapropriate place (she was under Mao's rule through China at the time) and for an IB history student I was able to connect a lot more. Daw Aung san suu kyi had spoken earlier and she even came outside to greet the excess amount of people and I was right there! but going back to topic I just really liked the way she spoke and how beautiful her spirit is. She was just funny and just really inspiring and I loved how even after all she had gone through she was making jokes and stating how Harry Potter must have had a harder life. I still remember her saying she got let out too early from house arrest because she couldn't finish her book! trust me, she was funny.
There were so many amazing authors writing about them would take forever and I'm going again tomorrow but I just thought I would give you the highlights. I also really enjoyed Rory Maclean, Akash Kapur and this burmese author called Pasal (sorry I can't remember his whole name because it's not written on the schedule). Not to mention when Daw Aung san suu kyi was leaving and got in to her car she shook my hand! <-- highlight of my life and in that moment I realised that it was probably going to be one of the biggest things that ever happened to me so for that this day has been definitely one of the best.
make sure to check out my other blog about beauty and my life with that at: http://mymakeuplife.blogspot.com/
Some of his stories were really gruesome and really touching, such as the one about this girl who had lost her arms and how she wished to be married but can't see that future anymore because of those men who ripped her hands from her. That and the story about a girl who sold herself for 1 dollar to get a notepad for school and then finding out she's HIV positive almost brought me to tears. The way he phrased the stories just really shook me because we live such a sheltered life and we think of 1 dollar as nothing but when a girl sells her own body just for that, you have to think: surely we as people are worth more. In the sense that we're human beings and to see that our society still hasn't changed and may have even deteriorated to a certain extent is horrible. What kind of men buy a girl for 1 dollar and refuse to wear a condom. Why doesn't humanity scream at them to just help the girl instead? these stories always confuse me because I always think humanity is taking 1 step forward on one side and a step back on the other. Why bother when we just stay in the same place all the time?
Another person I really liked was this lady who wrote a travel book about travelling on the Indian railway system for 40,000 Km...that's pretty cool and for anyone to do it they must have guts because I would be terrified to do that, especially by myself. So I thought that was cool, also how she spoke because she was talking about how verbs brought her back and how she could experience the atmosphere etc. by using the correct verbs and diction.
The Orwell talk was very interesting because they were talking about politics and fascism, imperialism and socialism and speaking about how Myanmar can move forward. Now, I'm not very into politics but I did like how Mr Timothy Garton-Ash was talking about how we view the word Burma and the word Myanmar and how we (most of us) connotes good feelings with the word Burma so that's why a lot of people use it. Overall, I just thought his passion about Orwell was fascinating.
Then of course Daw Aung san suu kyi with William Dalrymple, Vikram Seth, Fergal Keane and Jung Chang were really interesting. They had a panel at the very end where they were talking about which book or more likely poems they would keep if they were stranded on a desert island. I especially like Mr Seth when he was analysing some poems because I could truly see that he was passionate about it. In general it was really funny and Ms Jung Chang was so funny when she spoke about sneaking into a pub and feeling underwhelmed because she expected it to be an inapropriate place (she was under Mao's rule through China at the time) and for an IB history student I was able to connect a lot more. Daw Aung san suu kyi had spoken earlier and she even came outside to greet the excess amount of people and I was right there! but going back to topic I just really liked the way she spoke and how beautiful her spirit is. She was just funny and just really inspiring and I loved how even after all she had gone through she was making jokes and stating how Harry Potter must have had a harder life. I still remember her saying she got let out too early from house arrest because she couldn't finish her book! trust me, she was funny.
There were so many amazing authors writing about them would take forever and I'm going again tomorrow but I just thought I would give you the highlights. I also really enjoyed Rory Maclean, Akash Kapur and this burmese author called Pasal (sorry I can't remember his whole name because it's not written on the schedule). Not to mention when Daw Aung san suu kyi was leaving and got in to her car she shook my hand! <-- highlight of my life and in that moment I realised that it was probably going to be one of the biggest things that ever happened to me so for that this day has been definitely one of the best.
make sure to check out my other blog about beauty and my life with that at: http://mymakeuplife.blogspot.com/
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