A few years ago, I memorized my friends were hard to access education in rural area for their mist future as they were so deprived. The life what the people have they don’t recognize, their life are just exerted in hard working for their surviving. I remembered one of my numerous friends told me that his future would never appear in educated vicinity.

He expressed that he had an ambition in his inner mind, but he couldn’t challenge the life to tell what he wanted to be in this world because he couldn’t compete with other rich friends. I realized myself that education for the rural people is very solid to access for their generation.

The more they try to access education, the result they become poor because the system of education in the country cost them huge amount of money. Many parents in rural vicinity, they couldn’t afford their children to access the University because it cost so much Burmese currency, Kyat.

And also the graduates are unwilling to work in public services as the governments furnish less salary for them. Many graduates seeks private occupation outside the government residence, they arrive at hardworking in many places such as paddy field, poppy field, sugarcane field, tea field, illegal faction and for women, they become sex workers in neighboring countries. Even though they’ve got the degree, they just hang it on the wall and work in their way for their surviving.

They don’t have futures; they just think what to do today and what to eat tomorrow for their families. For the young generation, is very difficult for them to know what the future and expectation are, because they foresee what the older people do that they abandon the education and exert their life in hard working place. I feel very sympathy for them for the future of young generation because they don’t know the reality of life.

During the learning process, they don’t have enough money to buy stationary for their class and government don’t care about them who are the poor. The government doesn’t furnish the compulsory for primary school for the children. There is not compulsory for the students.

Even not that they also increase the price of stationary that would delivery for the students; they don’t provide the school uniform as well. Children just grab their slight bag and go to the school on time; they don’t know the difficulty of their parents. Their parents compassionate for them but they also don’t know what to do for the better life and to afford their children to be educated. Some children as well ask money from their parents for shopping at the school. If their parents deny giving, they are annoyed and they don’t go to the school for that day.

Many students couldn’t be passed the middle class because their parent couldn’t afford them to finish. They have to help their parents to struggle for their surviving day by day. It is a stunt of education for the young people for their burgeoning life. Could you believe it is the really happening the rural vicinity for the uneducated people? And where are the balance and justice rights of the human being for these people? Where are the responsibilities of the government to solve these problems? Who is going to take care of these people?

The Philippines is one of the Christian countries in the world. I have visited to several Christian churches with some of my Filipino friends. The first time when I visited to the church I felt very happy and at the same time I felt very sad. I felt very happy because I have seen that Filipino people have free religion. They can go to the Church anytime that they wanted to go. They pray very peacefully and very silent.

There is no disturb and no one is dear to destroy the people and the churches. Even though I am a Buddhist, I really like to go the Christian Churches because it makes me feel happy and enjoyable. I like to see the people stay peacefully without any conflict. But at the same time I felt very sad and very bad for Burmese people. In Burma, every religion has destroyed by the military regime. In the past, the military regime wants every Burmese to become a Buddhist, which they would like to create a Buddhist country in Burma. The Christian communities are always being discriminated against by the military regime. The Burma’s Army usually burned down their churches.

And also for the Muslim communities, the Burma’s Army fired and burned down the mosque and their villages. Most of them cannot practice their own religion. The military government always creates the problems or conflict between the Muslim and the Buddhist.

In November 2003, the Military regime has created the conflict between the Muslim and the Buddhist monks. In fact, there are two reasons why the regime creates the problem. The first important reason is, the regime doesn’t want to talk to the opposition groups, which means they don’t care about the national reconciliation in Burma. They just want to show to the international community that they are busy dealing with the internal problems. The second reason is, the regime itself has problem with Buddhist monks. Many of the Buddhist monks in Burma are against the military government because the monks realize that because of the military has ruled the country over 50 years but it is going backward and the people have been suffering a lot from the military government.

Unluckily, even though the military regime is practice the Buddhist, they do put those monks who against the regime in jail because the regime is very afraid of the monk power will organize the people and against them. The military regime is still oppressed every religion in Burma. There is no freedom of practiced any religion and there is no change and no real national reconciliation.

Lway Cherry is a member of Palaung Women Organization (PWO).

Those who cultivate the opium are poor people working to provide their family because the Chinese people are growing very much in the region. The Palaung villagers can’t afford for tax to the government. Later, they came and cut all the poppy plants what they see in their eyes even though it is burgeon of opium.

The Chinese owners confer lots of money to the government every year. That’s why they don’t dare to abolish the poppy in Chinese area. They will never eradicate the drug in the region they just rely on the opium Chinese bosses. It like they will be starved without profits from the opium tax. It is just a small amount of tax paying for the Chinese bosses because the opium that they grow in one year, they can exist for 10 years.

The year that government’s soldiers came and cut the field, the villagers were very poor. Some households were only relied on the cultivation. After the soldiers have cut all the plants, most people become hunger and poor. The people have one choice to be slaves in the Chinese field because they have changed their plot into opium field.

The government gave 5 years for growing and so many villagers cut down all the tea plants and grow the poppy instead of the tea in their field. They started to grow the opium and later the government came and cut the poppy they have grown. That was the bad year for the Palaung people. The situation become worst and worst.

The region is still on the opium growing as the government allowed. As the international blame them, they don’t care what the world pressures are. As they abolish the drug they just blame the villages that couldn’t afford the tax fee. They don’t say anything to the Chinese bosses who provide them annually. They are very calm for the Chinese bosses.