Dr. Thein Lwin

Teacher Training for Burmese Teachers, 2003. 80pp.

According to Dr. Thein Lwin,

"This paper embodies a documentary analysis of the Burmese education system within the historical context. It provides an overview of the Burmese historical background, education before independence (1945 - 1948), after independence (1948 - 1962), under the military rule (1962 - 1988) and on the wave of democratisation (1988 - 2000). The study significantly found that Burmese schools have predominantly performed teacher-centred and subject-oriented teaching and learning with a lack of teacher training and a weak curriculum. Furthermore, indigenous people have little chance to promote their language and culture given the supremacy of the Burmese language. Although Burma has been on the wave of democratisation since 1988, the education system does not appear to be leading to a democracy."

Elizabeth Dell ed

Merrell Publishers in association with the Green Centre for Non-Western Art, 2000. £29.95

Reproduces a selection of Green's 1600 photographs and explores ways of interpreting these images. Green was a brilliant photographer and a keen anthropologist and his photographs document the minority peoples of Burma and much that has now disappeared.

Elizabeth Dell and Sandra Dudley eds

Philip Wilson Publishers in association with the Green Centre for Non-Western Art, 2003. £29.95

Documents examples of textiles, costumes, dress accessories and weapons collected by Green. Though strongest in Kachin materials, it also gives balanced coverage to other textile traditions of Burma, with contributions on court textiles, woven manuscript ribbon texts, Karenni refugee textiles and Akha clothing and courtship.

James Mawdsley

Century, 2001. £17.99. 396pp.

James Mawdsley hit the headlines two summers ago when he was released after over a year in prison in Burma following his third pro-democracy protest there. Interviewers on programmes such as the Big Breakfast could not fathom his mixture of idealism, Christianity and what appeared to be self-advertisement, and he cut a confusing and controversial figure.

His book gives a much better impression of a young man who knew what he was about. He first became interested in Burma in 1995, and the following  taught in a Karen school which later was burnt down by Burmese troops; he raised over £20,000 to rebuild it. He then decided to attract publicity by a mounting a protest in Rangoon, calling for release of political prisoners and re-opening of the universities. He was quickly expelled.

Pascal Khoo Thwe

HarperCollins, 2002. £17.99. 304pp.

This book has received glowing reviews in the British press and done much to draw attention to the ongoing plight of Burma and its people, denied freedom of speech and the transfer of power from military to civilian rule that over 80% of the population voted for in 1990. A fresh voice from Burma is much to be welcomed, especially one that comes from a member of a remote hill-tribe, the Padaung, most famed for its 'giraffe-necked' women. The young author, whose love of English literature was first nurtured by listening to the BBC World Service, could surely never have foreseen the twists of fate and politics that would lead to the publication to such critical acclaim of his extraordinary odyssey.

Christina Fink

Zed Books, 2001. £16.95. 286pp.

Anyone who has friends planning to visit Burma should make them read Living Silence, to find out what is really going on beneath the still vibrant and lively surface of Burmese life. Drawing on over 150 interviews with Burmese inside and outside the country, Christina Fink describes in detail the means by which the regime exercises its total control.