Transcript: Episode #324: The Ninth Circle of Hell
Below is the complete transcript for this podcast episode. This transcript was generated using an AI transcription service and has not been reviewed by a human editor. As a result, certain words in the text may not accurately reflect the speaker's actual words. This is especially noticeable when speakers have strong accents, as AI transcription may introduce more errors in interpreting and transcribing their speech. Therefore, it is advisable not to reference this transcript in any article or document without cross-referencing the timestamp to ensure the accuracy of the guest's precise words.
00:00
Rescue workers in Myanmar are digging for survivors after an earthquake caused devastation in Mandalay and other cities, more than 1000 people are known to have died so far across Myanmar, almost two and a half 1000 others have been injured, and the death toll is expected to rise significantly.
00:18
Breaking news this hour, there have been two large earthquakes in central Myanmar, the first recorded at 06, 20 GMT with a magnitude of 7.7 10 minutes later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.4 was recorded. Both were near Mandalay and trem has also been reported more than 1000 miles away in Thailand and
Host 00:45
I would like to caution listeners that the upcoming interview touches upon various topics that some may find upsetting. In an effort to tell the real story of what is now happening in Myanmar, we encourage our guests to share as they feel comfortable doing, affirming that this platform can bear the weight of their stories. As traumatic as the events have obviously been for our guests, they can affect even some of us who are listening from a distance as well. Every member of our team has shed a tear at some point or another in the process of bringing these interviews to you, and you might similarly find yourself affected by this story. So if you feel some of this content may be upsetting, maybe consider listening in stages or in whatever way that works. But please listen to bear witness to this GUEST, story.
Thiri 02:20
Joah, thank you for having me on this platform.
Host 02:39
Alright, so we are going to be covering the ground of the media response and the difficulties of media regarding the coverage of knowing exactly what's going on in Myanmar after the fallout from this horrific 7.7 on the Richter scale earthquake. What can you tell us about the difficulties of reporting and media now.
Thiri 03:03
Yeah, it's very challenging to to get on the ground. One thing, every communication and the transportation, everything is cut out since art quit, because the building falls and the in some building falls, and everything, like the phone, phone line and the Internet lines and everything was kind of cut out. And they may have a reception, but they may not be able to call it, and also the major roads are also cracked and everything, so it's very difficult physically to be there at the response, like immediately after, after the after the art quit. And that does one thing, and the other thing is, I would the other thing is these, the people are in, still in rescuing, like now already three days. We are going into three days, but then people are still trying to rescue and trying to get their family member out and everything. And lots of people got injured, lots of dead body. One of the one information that I got like talking to the people on the ground, the community charity group are burying one bearing, like every three minutes, one body so and then they have to do it like round the clock, so people do not have time to answer to to our phone. And also they are people running around. The scale is massive, and every the whole town kind of like collapse and everything. So people are people are helping each other because there's no state helping or no other outside support that is also natural way of, traditional way of our way of like community, community helping and community resilience, kind of structure that we have in place so people have this, and also people do not have in this kind of mental state to you. Recall things because their family they are still missing their family members. So it's very difficult for us to get hold of the people on the ground and and the communication is not stable, that sometimes people get the reception, sometimes people do not, and the art could also continue. So, so it's a transportation and community communication. But on top of that, like a lot of the media population, a lot of the journalists are not in the cities, not are not in Myanmar or in night, not in the Cities area where this the art would happen. A lot of them have to flee to the jungle or to the other country to avoid, to flee from the prosecution of the military junta. So that's why the population, every time one is international media, there are people, people who are called fixer, who are like local reporter. They are the one on the ground. Our massive population is not on the ground, and we have there's lots of guilt and lots of like feeling like this. We really want to go back to our country and to report about this, but it's not possible, because it's not possible for us to go back into the country in this kind of crisis and very limited human resources covering the information on the ground, so that those are the I think those overall why media cannot be really rich, and why Myanmar information is not reached to the international stage. It comes really late. Only now my friends are calling. But then it has been happened since, like, three days ago, two days ago and two days ago, and people didn't know it until now.
Host 06:47
This is you're saying three days later you're getting this information. This information is still not getting to that extent. Is not getting beyond you. So it's not that it's taking this long to get out into media, properly reported, regional, international, whatever. But it's taking this long just to get to you alone.
Thiri 07:05
Yeah, yeah. It takes so long. And also, usually, we will call our journalist friends and every day. And now people on the ground, like the journalist, they have been doing excellent job in like covering and on the ground, also outside and every individual, like a lot of people, offer to volunteer to be translator and offer to be a fixer without, you know, usually those are our pay job, but we, all of us, I jump in, and a lot of people who speak English ready to help, who speak English or other languages, like people in Korea, and they've been like, massively trying, we really trying to help, but that, the thing is, we also do not know the accents, and we may not be able to contact but so far, this coverage that you have been seeing, this is an excellent job of a lot of people, a lot of colleagues, a lot of Friend media people or citizen journalists and individual people that collaborate together. And that is really exception. I really, I would really want to highlight their effort. But even to do that, it just people. People feel like, why can't we see it? We want to see more of it. But like, here the limitation that this is extremely out of the extremely difficult position. They have done an excellent job, but we are all ready to volunteer and translate and everything. But the thing is, we don't even know what's the what's the scale and the extent of the ground situation for us to even to connect with the people on the ground.
Host 08:39
And it's really operating like the perfect storm. You know it not only has it been over four years into the resistance to the military coup and an active conflict zone and air strikes that are still ongoing, not only is there all of this, but then on top of that, you have the decision by the Trump administration to cut RFA Radio Free Asia. VOA, Voice of America. These are the journalism that that they might be providing and and would be in place to do, let alone the local media outfits that benefited from from the USAID cuts as well. So so it seems like kind of one thing after another that's made it harder and harder to get the story out.
Thiri 09:22
exactly, exactly, you know, that's why we keep saying, why media are, you know, important, and they just cut out this, like network of the funding for the media funding. A lot of journalists lost their job, and also they continue doing though, but like, the thing is, they there's, if there's no channel, no platform to voice out. It's very difficult to get the news out. So that that that is, I would say, that is also the impact of the US funding cut in this kind of massive crisis. The news cannot be out like what kinds of support and what it is like the rescue is. Only this morning, 8am Myanmar time the International Rescue could could get to the site the Aqua was 1230 known on the 20. On the 28th noun is the 30th, 8am only at 30, at 8am they can start doing this rescue mission because the news were going up late and everything got delay.
Host 10:29
I think the one element that we haven't talked about with this is the military's role in and there's a lot we could look at with the military's role, but let's stick with the frame of this conversation, which is media, information dissemination, understanding what's happening. So what role is the military playing in either preventing information from getting out or distorting information or propagandizing?
Thiri 10:49
My whole life grew up with this fake number. Whenever there's a natural disaster, they always lie. Even if it is a natural disaster, they always lie like the number would be fabricated. The number would be lower, lower and or they would hide how much the impact is in something, because they do not want to, you know, quote unquote, lose face like or, quote unquote, ugly face, you know, they say they want to show that they're capable, they're able to provide. So they always, like, try one. They usually omit the data, or in all the information. Before any crisis. There was no, like, right now, like, there's no, no early warning system. Like we, a lot of expert has been telling that, you know, we are gonna face the awkward, because we are on the guy in fault, which is one of the famous fault, and this is we are within a period of the of having the awkward, like massive awkward, but then we couldn't prepare, and we have no preparation because, mainly because there was a coup, and we are supposed to talk about these things. But then we have just running away for our life. A lot of people were running away from our life. So there's no early warning system, no preparations and everything. And even now, it happened they would delay in like, saying the number, and also, they also hide the information they now they said over as of last night, I haven't checked this morning before I go to sleep. It was over 1600 people die. But then the actual number would be double or triple. That's what we usually say the whole life. Or whenever the military say the number, if they say this number for the whole country, the number must be definitely higher than, higher than this. And as a military, there are a lot of things that they can do in a way to provide the support and the rescue mission. They have all the necessary equipment. They have all the like all the airplane to kill people, and they couldn't use it for saving people. So, you know, they they just, it's more all about photo op, and it's all about this kind of propaganda. We are doing great and all this, but like the help on the ground are people themselves. They are doing it. They're doing it themselves.
Host 13:18
Right? So you're describing a couple of military tactics and that they often minimize the damage. And this is not just true of damage that they themselves are causing, obviously, but even natural disasters that are out of their control and that do happen, that even then, they want to minimize the damage and the loss of life because that then looks bad on them, that they could be seen more to do to help the people. And then, on the other hand, they do love to highlight any little thing that they're doing, and have, you know, great photo ops and great publicity for any small amount of formal declaration of aid being shown. I've seen that already. I mean, I've seen, I've seen photos of sanitized medical clinics with top generals visiting, showing an indication that, you know, look, look, help is on the way, and this is what we're setting up. And just by the look of those photos, you know, they recall, to me, photos of the past that are just clearly staged and and set up to show a kind of imaginary scene that's so far away from the real devastation that's taking place.
Thiri 14:20
Yeah, it just they it's more photo op campaign for them.
Host 14:26
But the other part of how media relates to where the military is situated is not just how are they fabricating or or inventing what they want to get out there, but how are they preventing information from others that are trying to get it out. So in other words, not only is it so hard to get information because of internet connection and the trauma people are going through and the cuts to journalists and the journalists have had to flee, all of those things notwithstanding, there's also this added thing on top that the military is not exactly encouraging a free flow of information. So. What can you tell us? What have they done traditionally, at times of natural disasters, and what have you learned that they're doing in these the early days of this one?
Thiri 15:07
Yeah, so usually they would, they would prevent the people to prevent the people to get the reporting in a crisis, we have example, in the major crisis like cyclone nuggets, and then the and the Yeah, Cyclone agate. So all other there was another cyclone in Rakhine State, and then there was a there was a case of a journalist being arrested to cover about the about the natural disaster. And also in the cyclone nuggets, which is the infamous nuggets, the the the cyclone, like country in 2008 there were a lot of dead bodies and a lot of, again, I know a lot of natural disaster people reported about this, and people, people do the rescues, Mitch, rescue of the, you know, only to pick up the body. People got arrested for doing these kind of thing. People got arrested for reporting about this kind of natural disaster. It's not isn't it's an old tale like Myanmar military always uses to block actively involved into blocking the the media or the media worker to report about media worker, or even like people who want to, who wants to share, ordinary people want to share the information out, they would target and and they, they charge them. So this is a repetitive exam that we have seen in the kinds of Crisis Reporting so far, we do not hear a solid example of them blocking the information, or maybe they are so busy. But we also started hearing about, I'm trying to verify, and we also started hearing about people were getting arrested, like when the one people come out to get help and something, a lot of people are the protestor, and so they were also they were targeted, which I'm still trying to verify.
Host 17:15
Right? And now, one of the things that may have surprised some is that soon after the earthquake happened, the military did issue a statement that they welcomed international help and relief, which in past natural disasters, they certainly did not. I wonder your take on that?
Thiri 17:32
Well, I think that might be a magical factor. So one is that the situation, especially in the capital Naipaul, must be devastating to the level the the Myanmar needs to convince his own people that he cares about them. And I think that might be the actual damage, which is could be way more than they show us. So maybe that's one way to to do the propaganda mission or condensing its own people. So that would be one thing. And two, he has been trying to get this international legitimacy with the through the elections. And wanted to show that he is a government, quote, unquote government, of the country. And he wants to welcome and he wants to show that he is government that take care of it. So that would be more for the legitimacy of his power, which is there illegitimate right? And also, three could be we are in the Civil War and having this kind of international aid in terms of food and basic supply or the other rescue technology he will that he can use, he should be able to use it for his military advancement or the military purposes, so so that we have always have an example of them misusing this kind of eight support to their military advancement or the military purposes, so that I see there might be, you know, three reasons why he would call immediately after the crisis.
Host 19:17
Right? And you know, it's certainly not unusual for a normal country to go through a disaster, and for the authorities to say, we welcome international aid, to take in that international aid to make sure it reaches the people in the country who need it, and the state can't provide because they're so decimated. So I think for people listening to this that don't so much know Myanmar's recent history or the playbook of the military, I think there might, there's something of common sense that might strike one will surely they, you know, what could be so wrong with just wanting to to welcome Foreign Aid and then to have those international relief workers help to distribute that aid to their people? Of course, this is where the asterisk. Comes in because we go back to the the military playbook and how they welcome that aid. And what can you tell us about past efforts where international aid has come after natural disasters, and what we might expect with this?
Thiri 20:14
Usually, they use it for their own like own military advancement and everything, and also, yeah, calling for the international health, it's not a bad thing. So of course, at the end of the day, whoever delivers success, deliver successfully and transparently to the people in need. We should welcome, you know, we shouldn't really, we should never politicize this kind of humanitarian aid and everything. But it was the military always politicized these kind of humanitarian aids. And now, as I said before, like, let me explain a bit a bit about how Myanmar system work in terms of the crisis response. So let's step back. So traditionally, we have never been in this kind of state. You know, the state has never been functioning and never really help us in any kinds of our daily life. For example, even the electricity, which is a state project, we got to use it. We people have to chip in damsel and build their own generator, install their own generator, install their own electricity line. And we, we kind of grew up with this kind of fire outbreak, because the system is not standard, because one people have to do individually, depend on how much they can afford. The cables are different voltages and everything. So we have this. We have this always having this kind of fire problems in Myanmar. But then, you know, even through this electricity, which is like a like a state project, people have to do it ourselves the road. We have to chip in ourselves to build our own road and everything. So that's how we have been living so and we have, therefore, we have this community and volunteer system in place in our our traditional way. So any kinds of crisis, these are the people who actually provide support and provide rescues, or a lot of other other things, like community to community. They do it. But what happened was this whole system was collapsed because of the coup and because of the military targeting those people, so arresting, and now with the people, the mandatory constriction, a lot of young people were constricted and out in the front line, and so they will end the warrant list. They have to lay low, and they have to hide in the they have to, they have to hide. So the whole system, they the what in the past one, this kind of support and everything. People will give it to those community group, and then they will deliver the AIDS and everything. So military using it, one they don't have any capacity to distribute those support without taking the help from the community level. But if they cannot guarantee that they are not going to arrest or they're not going to target those community volunteer and the community group at the current time of crisis, it would be very difficult to deliver the AIDS because they politicized. They politicize it. They may arrest the medical doctor that that our CDM, which is, I say, for disobedient. They walked out of the office. So if the CDM doctor come and wants to give a treatment that there's no guarantee the military will not arrest them or anything. So even though they ask for this international agent, some eight one, they don't, they don't have capacity, that they don't have the capacity to distribute this these fund, and they don't have access to many places without working along with the other stakeholders and and so it's more technical, and they do not. There's no guarantee that they're not going to politicize this aid to target their opposition. And considering they haven't really announced the seat announced the temporary pulse of the offensive, or the ceasefire amidst of the crisis they continue fighting in the middle of the art group.
Host 24:32
These are such important points that you bring up, and I just want to underscore this for those that have not spent extended time in Myanmar, because things have worked differently there based on the authorities that have been in place over time. First, to just recap at this, you mentioned how normal things that a state provide, the Myanmar state has never provided. You talked about shocking examples of building a road or electricity communities have to come together to do. This, we can throw in, you know, education or health services or other other things as well, to that, that the that that the people just don't expect the state will be there for them in any way that they have to find a way to manage themselves. And that is what is built up, this resilience, this community spirit, and then how, because of the conflict that's been waging and the brutal tactics of the military, so many of the people that would be in place to to provide these services and help their community have been arrested or killed or fled the country or underground, or have been conscripted or arrested or something terrible. And so the types of people that would and could step up are so many of them are gone now, but of those that, of the few that might remain, or of those that might seek, to, want to, to be involved and to help or needed, then there's the threat, threat of arrest, and then there's the threat that that there's there's no safety that if they do take A role to help their people. As you mentioned, there were stories during Nargis and other natural disasters where simply by helping, or by by bringing supplies or food or medicine or taking care of the corpses that one could be arrested for that and so you you can get in a lot of trouble by trying to help your fellow person that you know one can't but wonder from the international community that's sending this support, from the military that is requesting it, given this sordid history and this need to as you say, the military can't work, or they can't do this work by themselves, because they never Have. They would have to rely on the community groups. And there's kind of say the understatement to say there's a complete lack of trust there and so and it's added to all of that, as if it couldn't be bad enough that that the relief supplies that are brought, if not scrutinized carefully, could certainly be used to in their military efforts to continue harming civilians and trying to crush the resistance. And so this is really complicated, to say the least. And also, you know, brings out a concern that of the international community offering help for what's an obvious disaster, if that help is loaded off of the planes, and then they walk away, fly away, feeling happy with the good effort in the hands of the military, who's then going to propagandize a small amount of it and the rest of it goes. Who knows where this is, this is this is all this is painting a very, very dangerous picture.
Thiri 27:38
Yeah, people have to be well, we're not against. Nobody is against the idea of supporting to the people. All we were saying is that Myanmar situation, you have to work with Ma tile sector and different level to make sure the eggs are getting into the hands of the people in need they need. You just can't give and leave. You have to do the critical oversight of how the aids are delivered, and also make making sure that military do not politicize, making sure that military cooperate work together with the different stakeholders in the country, and otherwise it just you. You're you, you international donor, you just lost your money, and then you may be complicit with the military campaign to kill its own people if they use these humanitarian aids into their pocket and into their warfare.
Host 28:50
Now, someone as yourself who's been involved in media for so long and knows the power of media, especially from a country like Myanmar, where the right to report is is is not always given, and it can be a dangerous task. What are you seeing, in particular, in this case, in the aftermath of the earthquake, of the extreme limited amount of information that's coming to us as to what really took place and how bad it is and what condition people are in today? What is the real risk that we run in not being able to have this accurate information.
Thiri 29:26
Now, if you don't have a real information, it would be difficult for people to do the assessments and the kind of where to deride your energy and your resources to you know, to to to help them, to help the people you know. And also we have been seeing also a lot of disinformation, misinformation, because people were scared, so they started posting on social media with this, some wrong information also been happening on the social media. So. That, see, that's also make people panic. So the role of the media in this time of the crisis is I we want to reach to the world. We want to reach to inform our family member, like a lot of a lot of Myanmar people now are outside of their country, so they, a lot of the family member were left in this country, so we do not know what is, what is going on with the people back home. And so it's really like mentally exhausting process, personally for me, let alone this right information and all this thing. It just, it just very difficult. And also, if you do not know this context of it, you will think that military with their country, with this political turmoil and this civil war, you you may not really know what people want, and misrepresent people and misrepresent this, the People's Government, you know, misrepresent this illegitimate military junta as this legitimizing the battle that we have in four years fighting For risking our life and blood and future. And then we do not want all these efforts and life to be in vain. If this humanitarian assistant, it's it's used in a way to legitimize the military, then you know, our four years it's in will be in vain.
Host 31:45
That's a heavy thing to hold.
Thiri 31:48
You know, a lot of my friends, a lot of people, a lot of young people, they sacrifice their life to fight in and a lot of people working behind the behind the scenes and making sure to make sure this this to tell to the world that this military is illegitimate and this military do not represent us. This is the, this is the the coup take away our vote. We voted and but then they just, like, wipe out our vote in light with like, sweep away. And since then, we've been trying really hard to tell the world like, this is not legitimate. This is not our government. And we've been fighting really hard in many way we have to leave home to to, you know, for this journey, for this fight and everything, and now with this humanitarian help legitimizing it, it's, it's painful thing. If we got to see this, it will be very painful.
Host 33:03
And it's really this double edged sword, right? Because it's on one hand, using the humanitarian cover as a as an excuse for this legitimization, but on the other hand, there's absolute devastation across Myanmar there, there's people in in, in just indescribable suffering and and loss and devastation. So it, it's, um, it's a loss on both sides of the ledger that can be kind of hard to comprehend. I would imagine.
Thiri 33:37
Yeah, it is. You know, it's at the end, we have to focus on the people. But then, if the military keep politicizing everything, how can we? How can we do that? And the fight against the military is also not for power, for the people like we just want to live our life. We just want freedom. We just want to live in safety, that that kind of, that kind of thing. But it didn't happen. And everything is kind of politicized. So all the international community that help individual or the states or whoever, helping making sure this humanitarian assistant, making sure the military understand and and stick to that understanding that it is not the it is not to be mistaken as the giving legitimacy to to their governance, because they are still illegitimate. So so making sure the military understand or making sure that military do not use it for their political or the military gain, do not misuse it International Aids, two making sure that all the aids are get to the people in needs not ended up in the hands of the military. So do. The critical oversight and work with different layer, different multiple international NGO and the local NGO, local charity group, local people, individual volunteer to make sure things are get to the right hand, and three the make sure the military depoliticize all the effort, make sure the military making sure that military do not target or arrest the people who are providing the support, regardless of their political belief, and regardless of their political standpoint and and stop the making sure the military stop the offensive and the air strike in the middle of the crisis. You know, if you just keep the if otherwise, you just keep giving this humanitarian assistance in one place, and then the military is continue killing people take advantage of like a lot of people are busy with their life, and military will take advantage to target for and to win the fight. That's also it's a double sword. So so we want people to understand the context and make sure you talk with every stakeholder, that includes the ethnics organization, that includes the national unity government, that includes the the different civil society organization and different layers of people like working with a different stakeholder, trying to understand, not only with the SEC, just also work together with other people.
Host 36:45
Now, you yourself, I know, speak to various members of the international community, and so you're able to gage their understanding and their misunderstanding of your country. And so I want to ask you about two things you just said in your last statement, gaging the international response and understanding one of those things is when, when we're talking about the the military, politicizing aid and doing it for legitimization and trying to cover it to play, play them for fools. Basically. First question is, do you see that as working with some members of the international community? Is that something that they is that a trap that they could legitimately fall into or want to fall into and go along with it? And two, you said that it was very important for the international community to understand all the stakeholders and to speak to all the people involved. Um,
Thiri 37:40
yeah, but I mean practically, right when I said, like, talking to the multi layers and everything in time of crisis, which is practically also could delay the process. So I'm not, I'm not saying, like, you know, people should just go around wasting their time talking to everybody, but just trying, they are already some organization in place like that. Are like, for example, like MSF, the doctor without borders. They're in the country, and they've been waiting for the access. So the thing is, you know, why don't one thing I don't understand is, you keep calling the international military, keep calling the international actor, international assistant, the right assistant. But then why blocking the organization that are already in place to go and access to those area? So if they have a will, they will have like so that that's what I mean. Like talking with the people working with the organization that are already in place in Myanmar, they understand the context, even the Ingo, they understand the context, and they understand who to work with, and like, what are the dynamics and everything. So rather than just, you just come in and like, do the yourself, but also work together with different people that that that's what I that's what I've been advising. That's what I've been like focusing on. Because a lot of the organization, a lot of the thing they they have a channel like, work with Thai Government as well. They they know where to channel, like even in Thai Government, work with Thai Government, Thai military as they know the channel. A lot of the organization that are working on Myanmar already being things are in place. So consult with them and work with them. That's what I was saying. If you cannot meet with every individual but talk with a lot of local stuff in the organization, they have a lot of information that they can share about it.
Host 39:39
And are you seeing that happen, or do you have confidence that that will happen?
Thiri 39:44
I am not sure. I do not know these people flying in, so I don't
Host 39:51
And how about the first question, this, this, this sense of the international community not falling for the cover of legitimization and Paul. Politicization of aid is that, do you think that that's something they could fall into, or do you think that some that they're going to see through it?
Thiri 40:12
I am not sure as well. But in every conflict there's a conflict sensitivities, right? That's what they have been training us for for many years. Like conflict sensitivities and something they should be aware. They should know it, yes, for now. You know, it's immediate rescue and, like, let's just jump into it. But then this is not have, this will not finish within a week or so, you know, it will be a long term process. So just trying to, you know, let's trying to, it's something that you can do it over time, but right now, immediate thing, what they can do is, before they really jump in with all this, you know, to the it's the thing called like, you know, to help with good intention. Before doing that, at least trying to talk to military to make sure that they de politicize this humanitarian crisis, so that is the immediate need, and that's something that they can do it without needing to consult with all other stakeholders, and they can really convince the military to stop The to pass the offensive during this humanitarian crisis. So like to start, and also three, is I not to make sure the military do not target or arrest the the local support people and the look and the journalists and the people who want to help in this crisis, those people from different that, from the different political standpoint, that's something you don't need. You don't need this complicated multi stakeholder, multi stakeholder consultation. This is the basic thing that these emergency response can do.
Host 42:06
Right? You talk about the difficulty of getting accurate information, how long it's taken even you to begin to learn things, and I think that that often that information goes to Burmese, social media and online sources local media as well, and then eventually finds his way to in English and international. And so I think you're probably aware more of what has been going on the ground beyond what has gotten to the English language world. So can you just take a moment and tell us what you've been learning, any whether it's a bird's eye view, or whether they're anecdotal stories of things you've been hearing just about the level of devastation and hardship that has been going on the last few days.
Thiri 42:52
Yeah, the level of devastation it's I can't even comprehend. Do you know this is not just one crisis for us. We've been like one crisis on top of another since the in the pandemic. You know, we Myanmar, people have never get any, any rest since, you know, since the since 2020, the one thing is, we've been relying so much on the social media to get the information. So the devastation, the level of devastation, I can't even comprehend, because it was, you know, it's not just for Myanmar people and for us. It's not just just one, crisis. We've been facing one crisis over another since the pandemic. We never get a rest. We just feel like we've been tested by by whatever the superpower is. And so the level of devastation, it's really bad. And individual people posting like, Hey, can you please, you know, help my family that is stuck in this place, in that place. Can you please send the rescue theme or like, Oh, we don't have food. And, you know, can you, can you help us and all this and this, this person is missing. A lot of people just posted the whole family, like, this whole family is missing. My my children, my mom is missing. And the video of the people being stuck, they saw their family member stuck in this pile of brick, but they can't really take them out. And kind of and lots of dead bodies on the on the streets. And the fire in Mendeley in they will also fire after they after the the acquit, and also the moss, you know, with this is also for the Mosley. This is the remedian period. And this is a less for. Friday. It's a during the Friday prayer. So a lot of people was a lot of people were killed while doing in during the prayer. And a lot of Buddhist monk also got killed because they were in the middle of religious the Buddhist exam. A lot I can't even comprehend. And the thing my social media news feed is filled with all those things, all the picture, video of the destroying town fallen, like the buildings and everything, and yeah, individual people like asking for Hell, like some family member outside of the outside of the country, and then they were like, can you please go check my family here and there? I love contact with them, and I do not know where they are. And sometimes that there's a fear, like, sorry, yeah. I just learned that my my mom, my children, they die. We got their body. It's, it's devastating. And it's also not only inside Myanmar, you know, the in Bangkok, there was this, the building collapse, and that were also a lot of people who got killed. Were also Burmese migrant worker in in Thailand. So, you know, we we had a country with dog jokes. And so we even say, in a way that, you know, in Buddhism, we believe the hell have eight floor. And then we said we are on the ninth floor. Myanmar is on the ninth floor of the of the hell. So, so, yeah, I don't know this is a situation. And on top of that, people posted about the asteroid, like one person posted that, you know, they've been because of the awkward they're running out in the field, and then once they were out in the field, that's the time of the airstrike. They are out in the field, open field, and the airstrike. So they have no way to rent, right? They have, there's a quit with breaking ground on your feet while they're you know, fighting airstrike on your head. So I don't know if we were saying, like, yeah, we got the extra hell here that is called Myanmar. And we say that this is, like, you know, the dead people stop the breathing while the the live one, the forget the feeling of like help helplessness, that we can't help each other, but myself, I really want to go in. A lot of people wanted to go back in. We can't. So know,
Host 48:06
I can't even talk right now.
Thiri 48:10
It's all because of the coup. It's more than the natural disaster. If there was no coup, things may have been different, and the emergency response may have been different. If it was a legitimate government, they will have prepared for the kind of this kind of emergency response. We wouldn't natural disaster you cannot stop, but it's all about preparations and all about how you respond now, you know people are, people are, you know, picking bodies and the people who are stuck with their bare hands, with their body, like people crawl into the damage building and pick the people out with the Hand, kind of home tools, like the gardening tools and everything to take the people out of the pile. And in some video images like I saw on social media, we can hear people screaming from the building. The Rescuers also know, but then they don't know how to get them, get to them. One person that I saw on social media, she was stuck for like seven hours. Luckily, she came up alive. So that's something that we also know. And we've been told like, you know the body, the cremation happen every three minutes per body. So, yeah, I don't know if see it's a pocket and and we've been seeing everything. We've seen the pandemic. IT people die the coup, and we will be insane, like we have the most we may be the most resilient people. This is testing us, and, yeah, I don't know.
Host 50:17
It's hard for me to even respond to that. I've just been I'm just crying. Just cried Hearing you say that it's um, I just don't have any words. I guess the only if I collect myself, the the only thing I want to say is, we're obviously speaking in English, and this is going out to a wide number of of English speaking listeners, and presumably many of those listening are. They're listening because they care about what's going on and and they're they're standing in solidarity. And I think that I speak for a lot of listeners when they're hearing this and just thinking, What can I do? What can I do to be an ally of these people going through this at this time? What can I do? So what would you say to them?
Thiri 51:19
Support the group they have lot we have individual donation day that we can post. I believe inside Myanmar also can share these channel and and also reach out to your family's friends. If you have any Burmese friend, I believe they know how to contact and check in with check in with them. Also, you know, it's very emotionally difficult time for all of us, so at least check in with them. And then, if you want to financially support or all other kinds of support, do it through those network. At least talk to any Burmese group in your town. For the people in the US, like in counties, they have other Burmese community group in the US, some organization like better ba MA or mutual aid, Myanmar for the US. They they are 501. Is a five 1c organization, so their registered organization, you can donate through them, or you can just, yeah, I think the Insight Myanmar, you can reach out to them, and then, and Insight Myanmar can reach out to me, and I can direct you to other local group as well. Like, have it will be good. Like, Insight Myanmar can share this kind of thing on your on your platform with different verifying health support. So these support, I bet this definitely gonna get to the ground, rather than with this photo up. And also, please do not ask us photo. So that's something, you know, we are in crisis, and we are in, we are in, like, crisis situation. A lot of people do not have time, like medical doctor also do not have time this thing. We will be transparent the massive level, the level of the skill and the damage is really bad. And maybe people can do the budget, budget line later. But please do not ask us for photo op like we do not have that main bandwidth to be like receiving people do not have bandwidth to like photo of receiving eight and smiling at the camera. This is not the time, so the middle group needs to manage this logistical thing, but please do not burden people on the ground by this kind of taking photo and video and say thank you, message and everything.
Host 53:59
All right, those are important points to keep in mind. And I just invite you as we close, is there any other message that you would like to express? You would like the international community of listeners, along with the Burmese diaspora out there, who we know show up in large numbers too, to listen to this that that that you would like them to hear?
Thiri 54:22
What we gonna go through it as a society, and we just need support? And work with the local look, work with the diaspora group. Works with the with your Burmese friends around your home, and they will, they are the one who should be able to direct you to the right approach and also where to where to get the money and. I just wish everybody to be safe, physically and emotionally. I wish nobody have get had nobody get the experience of us the Tian Han people are having so yeah, please keep us in your thoughts and prayer and be safe.
Host 55:41
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