To have only just heard of Myanmar?

[staceybeaker]

Watching the news about the coup there and I thought it must be quite a small country but now I've looked it up it's really not. Obviously I am embarrassed about my own lack of geography knowledge. Has everyone else heard of it or known much about this country before?

Yes, you have reminded me Ireland used to be commonly known as EIRE!
I think Erin in Ireland itself, wonder why it's now know as Ireland. What do the Irish call themselves? Is Irish the word given to them by the English? I'll have to look this up.

So since 1937, Ireland has two official names - Éire and Ireland. Republic of Ireland is not a name, it's a description and was added in 1948.

The issue around calling Ireland Eire when speaking English stems from the British governments refusal to use the chosen name of the country. This was contrary to the wishes of Ireland, which wanted to be known as Ireland internationally. This was the case up until the Good Friday Agreement.

It's also worth noting that Eire doesn't mean Ireland, it means burden. Éire (with fada) is Ireland. Anyway, a British person talking about Eire in English would get a 🙄 because it harks back to the past. Besides, it's just a bit weird isn't it? Or would you go around talking about how Lidl is from Deutschland or that one day you hoped to go to Nihon? If not, then why would you suddenly switch to using Irish when talking about Ireland?

^^ the above isn't an attack on you personally but just a general FYI for the thread.

@Tellmetruth4

‘There are people born in this country that don't even know how the first black people arrived i.e. slavery and why they have western names’

If you’re going to present yourself as a history scholar then please ensure you have all of your facts correct. The first black people to arrive in Britain (you say you’re British Asian so I’m assuming you weren’t talking about the America’s) did not arrive due to slavery. They came over as part of Roman armies. There were black people in a Tudor Britain who can be seen in Henry VIII tapestries.

www.history.co.uk/article/the-history-of-black-britain-roman-africans

Not all black people have western names either. Those from continental Africa have names African names. Those from the Americas have western names due to slavery.

Nobody knows everything, everyday is a school day where we have the opportunity to learn something new.

Yes. It's so depressing the narrative that the only way we could have possibly traveled was to have been enslaved. We are so much more than that, and have been in Britain much longer than people realise!

Good fucking grief.

02:26jerriblank

I corrected myself, I should have stated Caribbean rather than black.
This was my bias as in childhood I've only ever met black people with a slavery background.

Media Studies are not 'crap', as stated above. They teach students to be critical about the media. The media which leave our population so ignorant of history and current affairs. No doubt this is why Media Studies get a bad rap in, well, the media.

@Hotzenplotz

Good fucking grief.

Quite

There have been several TV documentaries about the country, where BBC journalists have tried to film there.

First let me be clear that it's undeniable that the Rohingya issue has been/is nothing less than horrific.

What I'll try to do here is give a little context as to how it came about with so little opprobrium from within the country:

• the Rohingya to the average citizen were viewed in perhaps a similar context and disdain to that sadly offered towards the travelling community in the U.K. - ie unwelcome land grabbers,

• viewed as uneducated and untrustworthy. Often referred to as "kalar" which is somewhere between Pi#ey and Ni##er as it refers to social status and skin colour. It was quite frightening to find seemingly moderate, well educated and travelled colleagues express these opinions when feelings were running high.

• They are viewed as an ethnic group rather than by religious affiliation by most. Although it did not stop right wing Buddhists (and the military government) pouncing on that as a general opportunity to vilify Muslims in the rest of the nation.

Also, it must be remembered that after fifty plus years of indoctrination by a dictatorship and their control of the media, the majority of the population are still in thrall to authority figures - to question ASSK and her motives at any level barely be seen as possible. To question the military has obvious consequences. There is simply next to no understanding of how the rest of the world would see it and the international criticism of ASSK felt like a personal attack on all of them.

The narrative presented to the population is that the Rohingya were invaders and threatening national security through connections to Daesh/ ISIS ...

That is a very, very light overview of a hugely complex story and doesn't go into the colonial & post colonial history of how this situation came about as we saw it at the time while living there.

There is also the issue of other underlying ethnic tensions (see Meiktila massacre) and conflict within the rest of the country that is ongoing and largely underreported or simply ignored these days (Shan state etc.)

Having said all that, we miss the place terribly and there was so much hope for the people who have endured so much.

Thanks for this Mingalabar and thank you to everyone for the book and documentary recommendations. I've no idea how I hadn't realised Burma had changed names, but I hope that at least a few other people have like me learned something from the thread, and have some links to learn more now.

Don’t worry OP, I’ve never heard of Burma or Myanmar and I couldn’t tell you where in the world it is either!

If you want something that truly captures the magical, beautiful and kind essence of the vast majority of the amazing country and its people in a few minutes, can I suggest that you jump on to YouTube and watch/ listen to this:

Elbow, Magnificent (she says)

Loved that, just wonderful Mingalabar

@Mingalabar The hotel was the Corus Hotel, Hyde Park. I haven't been there for a few years, but DD and I stayed there many times when she was a child - once or twice a year - because they gave child discount on a twin room. The staff from Burma were often students who were funding their studies by working there, before moving on.

I think this thread has moved on a bit from the OP. However, have all those people who are shocked that the OP hadn't heard of Myanmar heard of every country in the world? Places like Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Nauru, Mauritania, Solomon Islands. Because I only learned about them from doing that Jetpunk list all the countries in the world quiz in the first lockdown (www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/how-many-countries-can-you-name).

This is an interesting article from Al Jazeera, it really does fill in the gaps.
It, however, shows how corrupt and worrying this military coup is.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/1/who-is-min-aung-hlaing

Burma. we owned it, ran it (rubies, rubber etc), it got overrun by the Japanese in WW2 and became a deadly battleground. Got independence and has had various coups. Money there - lots. Rubies, rubber, drugs (opium), logging, trafficking.

[quote CruCru]I think this thread has moved on a bit from the OP. However, have all those people who are shocked that the OP hadn't heard of Myanmar heard of every country in the world? Places like Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Nauru, Mauritania, Solomon Islands. Because I only learned about them from doing that Jetpunk list all the countries in the world quiz in the first lockdown (www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/how-many-countries-can-you-name).[/quote]
Love jetpunk
Can name all the countries in the world from doing that.
Trying to learn all the capital cities at the moment, then on to country flags

Whilst wishing that the coup had not taken place and therefore the OP had not heard of Myanmar for the first time, I think it highlights how UK (and to an extent EU and US based) our news reporting is. My knowledge of the country other than its location would be almost nil had it not been for the military government of many years and the treatment of the Rohingya minority more recently.

@Pedallleur yes indeed, Jade, fisheries, oil, gas... the list goes on. It's essentially a continuation of colonial practices in many respects but Some of the stories around the cronyism and disregard for the general population to fuel the generals greed are astonishing.

Then you can get on to the superstitions and sacrifices when previous dictators were in thrall to their astrologists... although that hasn't stopped, be in no doubt that the first of February will have been deemed auspicious beyond simply trying to scupper the opening of parliament.

@SionnachRua

*Yes, you have reminded me Ireland used to be commonly known as EIRE! I think Erin in Ireland itself, wonder why it's now know as Ireland. What do the Irish call themselves? Is Irish the word given to them by the English? I'll have to look this up.*

So since 1937, Ireland has two official names - Éire and Ireland. Republic of Ireland is not a name, it's a description and was added in 1948.

The issue around calling Ireland Eire when speaking English stems from the British governments refusal to use the chosen name of the country. This was contrary to the wishes of Ireland, which wanted to be known as Ireland internationally. This was the case up until the Good Friday Agreement.

It's also worth noting that Eire doesn't mean Ireland, it means burden. Éire (with fada) is Ireland. Anyway, a British person talking about Eire in English would get a 🙄 because it harks back to the past. Besides, it's just a bit weird isn't it? Or would you go around talking about how Lidl is from Deutschland or that one day you hoped to go to Nihon? If not, then why would you suddenly switch to using Irish when talking about Ireland?

^^ the above isn't an attack on you personally but just a general FYI for the thread.

Thank you SonnachRua, for your information. I grew up (1970s) knowing the name as Eire and a learned little of the history but hearing more about Northern Ireland due to the Troubles. But I had noticed that on news reports about Eire as I knew it , Ireland was being used. I wondered why but was frankly too lazy to find out so I thank you for the explanation of the change and about the Irish origin of the word. It seems a bit odd as a name for a country.

Although I did not comment on the OP, I was feeling a bit smug that she never heard the name on the News etc. or had any interest in the Nature, culture and geographical programmes shown about that country. My unawareness about Ireland shows it is easy to limit our knowledge and I am sure the OP has a much much busier life than I have ever had and at least she had the curiousity to ask.

You really should watch the Simon Reeve documentary.

It tells you a lot about Myanmar, but mostly it's Simon Reeve and he's so very very pleased with every new experience he has, it's quite lovely. And also sometimes he gets quite sweaty and takes his top off...

I knew it as Burma, think it's only fairly recently it's changed to Myanmar
1989is hardly recent!

So since 1937, Ireland has two official names - Éire and Ireland. Republic of Ireland is not a name, it's a description and was added in 1948

Yes. And on the whole, it really annoys Irish people when English people (and I do mean English people, not British) call it Eire. It's so rude to not use the correct name of a country. If you say so you usually get an answer like "oh don't be silly, I've always called it that, it doesn't matter" which is another level rude.
If a person from a country tells you that you are getting the name of their country wrong, it's best to listen!

@SurvivalIsInsufficient

I knew it as Burma, think it's only fairly recently it's changed to Myanmar 1989is hardly recent!

Yes, somebody's already commented and corrected me upthread and I accept I stand corrected, thought it was later than that.