‘Why Dictators Dare’

A dictatorship is a type of government in which a person or group of
people rules a country with absolute power. Dictatorships can be
established through violence and maintained through physical force and
a limitation of people's freedom of speech and behavior. They may also
employ techniques of mass propaganda in order to sustain their public
support.

But these dictators were once the favorite of the international
communities. The photos showed theirs handshakes from the events as
with EU, they hug with world' leaders or they took photos together
happily in international conferences. They all were warmly welcomed on
the stage of the world's meetings. They also had photos with world's
presidents.

Adolf Hitler(German dictator), Benito Mussolini(Dictator of Italy),
Francisco Franco(Spanish dictator), Joseph Stalin(longtime Soviet
dictator) were some examples of 19-20 Century dictators of the world.
In our modern time, Saddam Hussein, Muammar al Gaddafi were well-known
dictators.

--
'J'

Tanhsaungmone and The Medicine Night

Tanhsaungmone

Come Tanhsaungmone(Tahsaungtaing), the 8^th month of the Burmese calendar, another lights festival even more elaborate with the usual trimming of music, dances, and shows. Tanhsaungmone festival is the lights festival in the month of tanhsaungmone(November). The month is the time for offering special robes and other gifts to the monks.

In this month, 10^th of November is the full moon day of Tanhsaungmone. So there are three days of lights festival, namely the day before the full moon day, the full moon day and the day after. Colored electric bulbs and lighting candles are in the streets, houses and public buildings.

‘An outburst of energy in meritorious deeds under cloudless sky and myriad lights.’ quoted from the Burmese poem found in the Burmese calendar which was drawn by famous artist U BaKyi.

‘The Medicine Night’

The day after the full moon day of Tanhsaungtaing (11^th November of this year) is the significant day of Burmese people. We believe that it is the day all the stars are surely in the sky. No star can be hidden! It represents that what we eat in this night effect our health even the water you drink an effective medicine for us.

So, to have more effective medicine, we must eat ‘Mei Za Li buds’ (natural buds from plant) by the instruction of the astrologer for what time we will have to eat. I remembered last year of Tanhsaungtaing, on the day after the full moon day, we ate ‘Mei Za Li’ at 11:35?PM by the instruction of the astrologer. The original taste was very bitter. So we mixed with lime, onion, salt, sugar, sesame-oil and other materials to have a best taste. We believed that it would be good for our health for the coming year. We have to buy this thing as quickly as possible in the market on that day because it would be out of sold for everybody was going to have it!

There were songs and poems that honored and praised the day after full moon day. Some love-song was filled with romance; ‘I miss you especially tonight more than any other starry nights’ or ‘Why we two cannot be together tonight even all the stars can meet in the sky?’.

(photo-above-(left)- Illustration of Tahsaungtaing festival in Burma. It was from the calendar drawn by famous artist U BaKyi(1912 – 2000).

(right) – What you see ‘Mei Za Li’ buds that we must eat, good for health especially at the night of the day after the full moon day.)