Nargis Library Recovery

I visit Myanmar annually,  more often since our Nargis Library Recovery started, usually accompanied with a few friends and interested newcomers. The tour remains very economical and the country has more regions open to learners than any time in the past half-century. A daughter of an adviser to this project  arranges details and pricing for each trip through her travel agency, which is independent of the government, a start-up she created by franchising with Exotissimo, an Italian global agency.

I am thinking to visit again in December, 2010 and invite donors and my readers to join. Cost is about $2,000 including airfare from Seattle-Yangon round-trip, as well as  travel and hotel costs inside Myanmar for a 12-13 day trip. This is very economical in comparison to visiting Burma’s neighbors. Our donated books now have been placed in 200 libraries; additionally we funded construction and/or new library space for a half-dozen libraries and filled them with our books and Burmese-language texts and reference books purchased with kyats earned at our Book Fairs, operated by our partner, Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation. Our focus has been on Bogalay Township this past year; now we are rebuilding a library in Laputta Township and distributing books in that District.

Libraries in Yangon, Insein, Mandalay, Meiktila, Taunggyi, Magwe, Mawlmayne, Pyapon, Baho, Toungoo and many villages have accepted our books. This trip will focus on visiting them, and nearby towns along the way. Our time is short, but you will see and learn much along the way. Of course if you can afford to donate additional funds for book shipping and/or rebuilding of villages libraries [$3,000 per unit], that would be most rewarding to all concerned.

Please contact me at 425-697-5414; my e-mail is  badgleyj@verizon.net  or john@nargislibrary.org  John Badgley

This opens my memoir about our project. The manuscript will be ready for the publisher by September

CHAPTER ONE

For an hour we’ve been trailed by spreading waves down the Irrawaddy. Fastest boat on the river…it’s covered a stretch that would take an entire morning for a local fishermen paddling while standing on the stern of his narrow canoe. A 40-horse Honda engine powers our speedster; six of us are scrunched against its fiberglass hull. We’re much faster than the locally-designed 10-20 ton wooden freight boats with single-stroke engines, or the 200 passenger ferry which moseys along at one-fifth our speed. Bouncing through their wakes, we overtake everyone and spray splashes a tinge of salt on my lips. The Indian Ocean tidal current is moving upriver now and I sit near the prow where the sun roasts my forehead, hands and arms an unnatural pink; what contrast to the hazelnut brown of my host and her companions! We got an early start after sunrise, but sweat already gathers down my back. April marks the end of the three month dry season, as hot as it gets in the delta; mango showers may begin any day.

In 2008 three million families in the Irrawaddy’s delta villages, towns and cities had just finished thin-gyan, Burma’s version of a water festival the 1.5 billion people in Southern Asia celebrate; each according to their national style with water throwing and statuary sprinkling. For Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and animist alike it signifies nature’s abundance, renewal of crops and the glory of our existence. Glory to the monsoon rains! Everyone along the multiple branches and kyaungs [bayous] welcomes the rainy season.

But just three weeks after Thingyan, the night of May 2, 2008 Cyclone Nargis blew ashore and changed life in the mighty river’s delta more than invading armies, insurgent wars, pandemics and poverty had ever done. 140,000 died between midnight and dawn as the storm’s eye passed directly overhead; horrific winds and torrential rain smashed houses, pagodas and schools alike, uprooting trees and sweeping hundreds of villages into the rising sea. Vast stretches of paddy fields were submerged by the wind-driven surge, as if a jealous ocean was reclaiming lost territory. Come daylight the living climbed down after clinging to palm trees. Nothing was the same. The retreating sea carried into the kyaungs bodies of cattle, buffalo, parents, children, elders and tiny babies indiscriminately battered and drowned in the awful nightmare. It took over two weeks to bury and cremate bodies tangled in branches and debris along the riverbanks, the stench became hideous. Their boats smashed, food stores destroyed, and water wells polluted, villagers survived only because of rice, bottled water, tarps and medical support rushed in by Burmese volunteers from Yangon and beyond. Established humanitarian organizations—Save the Children, World Vision, Swiss Aid, Doctors Without Borders, Metta Foundation—and dozens of local groups rushed by boat, truck and car into the delta, some appearing within a day of the harrowing storm. India, Japan, Thai, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Pakistan, China, Vietnam, and European countries airlifted tons of disaster relief, much of it flown on American C-131 cargo planes—relief that initially backed up at the airport and were rumored to have been seized by the military.

The government was sharply criticized for hesitating to accept international aid; that stigma remains alive in the minds of many foreigners and expatriate Burmese hostile to the military junta. Yet many lower ranking military and local militia helped monks and business leaders, doctors and nurses, students and volunteers as they descended from Yangon to save hundreds of thousands who would have perished from injuries, water-borne diseases and starvation. International media gave intense coverage for the first week and then moved on to China’s devastating earthquake after savaging the leadership for rejecting assistance from American and French flotillas parked south of the delta. The important story they missed: civilians and foreign relief groups stepped into the breach to correct a terrible situation; they performed a miracle beyond anyone’s imagined response. Some people still died after the storm and everyone suffered grievously as widely reported by international media; yet within weeks, recovery was underway, and within months most towns and villages were beginning to regain a semblance of normalcy.

But I get ahead of myself, as if the force of the storm is pushing the story beyond my control. Before we enter villages recovering from Nargis and talk with their elders about how important libraries are to them, consider how villages and libraries came to exist in such an exposed place in the first place, and how I came to be visiting them. Three hundred years ago few Burmese lived in the lower delta. It was mostly a chain of mangrove swamps and islands– a swampy region created from Irrawaddy mud delivered in annual floods following torrential of rains carried by monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean north against the Himalayas and across the huge Tibetan plateau.

NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY PROJECT– NEWSLETTER #16, JUNE 2010

UPDATES

• The last of American President Line’s six donated containers loaded with our books will be hoisted aboard APL Vietnam and steam from Port Seattle on June 23^rd. Not only is this a free berth on one of their ships, they also pay the cost in Singapore of transfer and shipping on a smaller freighter to navigate up the Malay Peninsula into Yangon’s narrow Hlaing River. Their corporate contribution has been a significant feature of our project; henceforth we must scramble for cash to maintain our bi-monthly flow of 50,000 books [about $6,000 per container].

• United Nations Women’s Guild in Vienna has approved a grant for 7,000 Euros to reconstruct a library in Laputta, a truly devastated township in the delta. Daw Ah Win, UN librarian and adviser to NLR guided our proposal through the highly competitive process. We hope to open this community library to receive our books by year’s end. Sayadaw Ashin Dhammapiya will oversee fund transfer and reconstruction.

• At our quarterly board of directors’ teleconference a budget of $24,000 for operations was approved to pay cost of shipping three containers between September 2010 and February 2011, half of our fiscal year. This will also cover administrative and fund raising costs. As APL’s donated berths for our containers are exhausted, we must again depend on donors to keep our books flowing from Thrift Books warehouses.

• Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung has signed an agreement between MBAPF and World Vision which enables us to partner with them in distributing both English and Myanmar language books to libraries in Bogalay and Pyapon. This is a significant contribution of their internal staff support and freight costs from our Yangon warehouse.

Our proposals to AID and the U.S. Embassy in Yangon to seek funds to support library recovery were rejected this past month. Our request for a special appropriation in Congress to fund library reconstruction was also rejected. We continue to troll among foundations and other  governmental sources for the necessary support so essential to a better future in Irrawaddy Delta communities.

NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY– NEWSLETTER #15–MAY 2010

Cyclone Nargis hit two years ago this week. The issue came up at our quarterly board meeting, can we finally start rebuilding libraries, especially since we’ve found villages where only $3000 to $3500 will do the job? Already books are piling up in our Yangon warehouse, and many more will be shipped this year. And with the monsoon breaking this month, any book worth reading needs protection from the rains. So why hesitate, get on with the promise from the beginning of our project; get those libraries rebuilt!

Our problem is essentially financial. We find ourselves much more successful at raising and shipping books then in raising construction funds. As one board member pointedly asked during our teleconference last week, “Why not focus on what we do well and forget other activities, just keep the books flowing!” He has a point; if we dedicate ourselves to supply the entire country with English language books, we would be set to go; however our original mission is to help delta libraries recover, not just stock books [both English and Myanmar languages] countrywide.

While our two organizations—NLR and MBAPF—raised over $80,000 in 2009, we have no guarantee of that much success this year; moreover, our shipping costs will double after June as the American President Lines’ six free container berths will be exhausted in June. What to do? Our several proposals for public funding have been rejected or postponed for consideration, and no deep pockets angel has stepped forward to pick up the tab. With some envy I read of Gregg Mortensen’s early success in his school rebuilding project, Three Cups of Tea. He tapped a Seattle-area dot-com millionaire captivated by his passion for helping Pakistan’s tribal children get proper schooling. His work has gained traction and his schools are spreading like weeds in distant Pakistan and Afghanistan provinces—with no U.S. government aid.  Meanwhile, we sent books to more libraries than Mortensen has built schools, and in 2010 we should double the 150 assisted last year, but our goal is far from fulfilled.

Our success is palpable when one visits libraries where our books dominate the shelves; but our challenge is even greater when one visits villages where children and their parents only hope for books if we can get their libraries rebuilt to protect the books.

A big gain for us this past month was Myanmar World Vision’s decision to associate with MBAPF to provide staff for book distribution to their dozens of Early Child Care Development Centres in Bogalay Township. They have helped reconstruct primary schools in these villages, so our books can be sheltered there until libraries can be rebuilt. Because adults also use their libraries, they become more useful when separately housed as in community-centered Andrew Carnegie libraries.

Our Board’s decision is to operate within our budget, which can support no library construction unless one of our outstanding proposals is approved. By year’s end we will have another 200,000 books added to the 120,000 distributed in 2009, plus at least 30,000 Myanmar language texts in school libraries. But what about those desperate villages with no books, nor any promise in the future? The benefit is enormous if we can help them rebuild, the cost is small considering what is to be gained. We welcome help from any quarter.  Contact us by e-mail at john@nargislibrary.org, or telephone in the U.S. at 425-697-5414.

Nargis Library Recovery Newsletter #14, April 2010

At most she is maybe seven years old; her mother rushes after the little girl kicking up dust in her bee-line to the dozen blue tents sheltering 12’ X 8’ tables. Pyramids of books cascade right to the edges. Like a cat, she furiously sorts and selects, passing choices to her mom, who stuffs each book into a paper bag. The deal is compelling: as many as fit in the bag she can take home to read & trade with friends. Her mom donates 20,000 kyats [$20] for a large paper book bag; a smaller one is 10,000 kyats. Adults and older students arrive through the day, digging into the book piles, pulling out favorites, some filling orders from customers distant from Yangon. At another table I encounter Ma Thanegi, popular author & friend, stuffing her own bag with mystery and detective paperbacks; on a far table is a prominent economist loading his bag with biographies and social science books. What a free-for-all!

Drs. Thant Thaw Kaung and May Moe New are managers of MBAPF, the non-profit arm of Myanmar Book Centre; they stage this week-long drama after each of our containers arrives. This week we raised 15 million kyats [$15,000] to buy thousands of Burmese texts and reference books for school libraries destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. This is our fifth book fair and they have polished the process. Anticipating our shipment of 50,000 children’s books, they e-mailed & posted notices to 6,000 customers earlier this month. Kids, parents, teachers, civil servantts, college students and book dealers come by the hundreds, often returning daily to search for new titles replenished overnight by the ten MBC staff who manage the tables and cash registers. They are svelt young men and women, wearing MBC’s fashionable uniforms of purple longyis.

I’m in Yangon again to visit delta library committees, as I did with Hector Rivas, Jack and Sue Simpson last October. This time Dave Richards, NLR Treasurer, is with me on his first trip to Myanmar. He is a major player in UNITUS, a NGO that supports microfinance projects in India and other Asian countries. He and his wife, Sharon, have funded significant operating costs this past year.

Up and writing at 5 AM, I’m excited by two meetings yesterday The first was with Save the Children executive director, Andrew Kirkwood. His organization is currently financed by 47 donors—both governmental and private—in Europe, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. His resource/staff manager, Daw Mae Ohn, joined him and described their complicated operations throughout most of the country.

Halfway through our session U Aye Myint Than Htay, Education Director, joined to describe their Early Childhood Care and Development Centers [ECCDC’s]. These community centers are being created in villages and towns; already a hundred exist in Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions and some have new libraries, but few have many books or trained staff. A Center is formed by a local management committee constituted of community elders and heads of local families who guarantee a revolving fund to match Save the Children’s three year funding & finance their ECCDC after external assistance is withdrawn; 4/5ths are self-sustaining.

Save The Children commenced operations in Burma to continue humanitarian and educational aid after US and EU sanctions began. They started as three separate organizations funded by US, UK and EU governments with some private support, eventually consolidating into one organization. Now one of the largest INGO in Myanmar; their multi-million dollar operation is known for integrity and effectiveness in working with local leaders.

Later we visited World Vision Myanmar, established years earlier and operating with budget and staff even larger than Save the Children’s. Both organizations have Memorandums of Understanding [MOUs] with key Ministries which gives them access to much of the country. WV “is a Christian, humanitarian organization working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty.”We visited Director James Taumbaum the day after our session with Andrew Kirkwood. He described their substantial staff and program in Bogalay Township, our destination this trip, and offered local staff as guides to distant villages that host Early Child Care Development Centers.

Dave Richards has a long family connection with WV, a link that proved exceedingly beneficial. Our trek down the Irrawaddy and across distant channels to villages wiped out by Nargis was possible only because of WV’s help. Their staff has the largest INGO presence in Bogalay Township, for that reason, if our respective boards approve, we will partner NLR and MBAPF into their Early Child Care Development Centers. Why re-invent the wheel? They need books, we need local infrastructure to help rebuild libraries.

We also expect guidance from Ashin Dhammapiya and the Sitagu Sayadaw as each has great authority among Burmese and have strong programs among delta village leaders. Details of our delta trip will follow tomorrow, as well as my second meeting with Ashin Dhammapiya.

After returning to the States in mid-April and teleconferencing with our seven NLR board members, I will comment further about Myanmar in this momentous election year, which some assess as a stalled flat-tire, and others see as a snowball rolling slowly downhill towards more freedom.

PART II

Last October the Simpsons, Hector Rivas, Thant and I visited Pyapon and Bogalay libraries as well as the sites of two destroyed village libraries upstream from Bogalay. Some of our books had already migrated to the town libraries through the efforts of MBAPF; so this time Dave and I focused on places without restored libraries, to learn what books villagers want as they rebuild.

We also met monks in a Bogalay monastery teaching English from basic texts supplied by the government. They also want our books. We learned it is no longer unusual for English teachers to be wearing saffron robes; though their lives are dedicated to a strict sangha code, they recognize the need to teach English to the children of families they serve. Throughout Myanmar the quality of public education has sharply declined, thus the pressure for private tutorials to supplement public schools.

The ten villages we visited each had Early Child Care Development Centers, which mean special efforts were extended by INGOs and the government to help them recover from the cyclone’s devastation. Some had only a few deaths in those 6-7 awful hours, others lost half their population. The trauma was increased in the days following the storm surge as many dead were swept into the retreating sea and sank, never to be seen again.

Dozens of INGOs and domestic organizations have blunted the agony of their loss with funding and materials to rebuild schools, drill tube wells, construct a narrow road through each village, which invariably straggles along the river channel. Life remains hand-to-mouth as farmers struggle with saline-laden fields which gradually regain fertility as rain leaches the salt, but now an explosion of rats and tiny land-crabs scorge the sprouting paddy. Their predators—owls and snakes—were destroyed by the storm and nature has yet to regain balance. Each season will bring improvements, but each day people struggle with survival, heavily dependent on external aid as they reconstruct frail woven bamboo houses with thatch roofs.

We saw little of the lethargy one would expect from communities so decimated, instead in each village elders and children gathered around in curiosity. Our host and World Vision community aides—Daw Thandar Aye and Thet Oo Maung—were warmly welcomed. Each time we explained our purpose in visiting, then the village head consulted with elders and led us to where their library had been; they quickly answered questions about what they would prefer if we offered books and construction materials to rebuild.

Dave and I compared notes later & found that each village has comparable costs in mind as to the value of their in-kind contribution in labor and land, and the cost of materials they need. The common bamboo/wood frame [like a small house] with thatch roof would run as little as $300, while a sturdier, durable brick and mortar structure, with shelving and battery/generator electricity will cost around $3000.  500 books will suffice, most in Burmese, but simpler English texts are also welcome to help kids learn their A, B, C’s.

We visited these villages that want rebuilt libraries, my spelling is problematic:

1] Bogalay Tin Aung Library–U Tin Kha, Librarian;

2] Maesali Ywa– 178 houses and 800 people, 5 died here plus 25 in Bogalay;

3] Htet Ywa– 350 houses and 1570 people, a couple died;

4] Than Ute Ywa – 147 houses, 500 people;

5] Kyi Binsu Ywa – 580 people;

6] Ei Ywa –100 houses, 425 people;

7] Pawein Ywa Tract [5 villages] – 1^st has 151 houses with 802 people;

8] Aye Ywa – 44 houses, 330 people; several died

9] Dun Hle Ywa – 274 people left, 88 died in cyclone;

10] Thin Maung Chaung – 900 people now, 428 died in cyclone

NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY NEWSLETTER #13 MARCH 2010

My last newsletter described the global context within which our library recovery effort is sustained. This month I want to delve more deeply into our book distribution. While our project is directed to library recovery in the Irrawaddy Delta, librarians in other parts of the country have appealed for help. When feasible, we have responded. I asked Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung, director of our partner NGO, Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, to gather data on our book distribution. His file is attached to this newsletter.

Highlights of the attached MBAPF report:

1] Our books have reached 80 libraries with circulation responsibilities for many others in seven Divisions: Yangon, Irrawaddy, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Shan, and Rakhine.

2] Of the 150,000  books sorted as of January, 47,000 were sold at charity book fairs in Yangon and Mandalay, which raised 45 million kyats, over half used to buy 30,000 new Burmese language texts distributed along with 103,000 English language books. These are mainly children’s or adolescent readers. Another container of childrens books will reach Yangon around March 10th, also donated by Thrift Books from their Dallas, Texas warehouse.

3] We also contributed 15 million kyats to three private libraries, enabling them to rent more space & operate most of each week: Information Cooperation and Education [ICE]-Youth opened a second branch in Latha township of Yangon, Knowledge Bank Library opened in the heart of Yangon on the Anawratha Road, and Kanbawza Youth  Library expanded its mobile offerings to 15 village libraries in the Shan States.

4] Delta village and town libraries are mostly in Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions, where we operate through library boards still functioning after the cyclone. Many people were killed in the storm, so local leaders need to recruit new boards and committees to rebuild destroyed libraries. This is a significant challenge requiring far more funds than we currently have. Our proposals are under consideration by private and public organizations, if successful, we can move forward with this vital phase in our project.

We have 800,000  books waiting in warehouses around the U.S. to be packed and shipped in 16 containers, one every other month by 2012. This remains our main task. But we need additional funding to insure this process continues as planned. American Presidents Lines contributed berths for six containers, for which we are deeply grateful; however the company was recently bought out by a Singapore corporation which has not yet indicated interest in extending this charitable act. We will continue landing books in the MBAPF container-warehouse at 10 cents each even if APL does not extend their donation, but we must raise $80,000 to reach our goal. Your individual contributions have made this project possible, please continue to support it.Summary of donated books

I admire Prospect Burma’s semi-annual newsletter produced through the good offices of Patricia Herbert; likewise, Derek Tonkin’s Myannar Network enhances readers’ knowledge of policies effecting all Burmese; finally, Online Burma/Myanmar Library published by Michael Carney is a fine resource for anyone interesting in current research and publications. Bookmarks for the three publications:

1] Prospect Burma provides scholarships to needy Burmese students & posts its periodic reports online as pdfs. These can be downloaded here.

2] Check the “What’s New” section of the Online Burma/Myanmar Library regularly for updates on Burma/Myanmar-related materials on the web as well as “Notice Board”
The Burma Research List is an independent e-list established in 1998 with a membership of over 500 researchers (2010) on Burma.

3] Network Myanmar was set up in the summer of 2007 to assist the process of reconciliation and rehabilitation in a country which has suffered so grievously ever since it gained its independence from Britain on 4 January 1948.

NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY NEWSLETTER #12 FEBRUARY 2010

This posting is shadowed by Haiti’s catastrophe and Afghanistan’s appalling devastation. Total collapse of civil order in Port of Prince and rebounding Taliban influence in many Afghan provinces has replaced Nargis Recovery as a priority among foreign donors. To maintain traction in assisting Delta communities we must hold to our mission and expand our efforts. New donors are essential.

Contrast the three societies—Myanmar, Haiti and Afghanistan—each suffers from decades of civil strife & dysfunctional economies; each society is torn by corruption and misappropriation of public funds, pitiful tax bases, and histories of abusive governance. However Myanmar has abundant natural resources, a long history of private [monastic] education, and a society rebounding from Cyclone Nargis. Much remains to be done, but our project is feasible in Myanmar because of its unique educational tradition associated with local libraries. In most Third World countries libraries are not players in recovery; in Myanmar their role is not only feasible, it is essential if most citizens are to access knowledge to expand freedom and productivity. Libraries, like a free press, are more than a crutch, they are escalators to modernity.

Compare what you know of the Burmese experience after the Nargis catastrophe to Afghanistan’s. Listen to Professor Zaher Wahab’s assessment this week on the American Friends Service Committee’s website:

http://www.afsc.org/middleeast/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/85980

Comparable assessments from Haiti reveal huge challenges to that struggling nation. While billions of investment dollars are needed in all three countries to sustain economic growth; Myanmar can leverage significant improvements with far less. Its expanding private sector is creating social space via family entrepreneurs seeking more productive enterprises. Burma’s libraries, with our support, can provide access to the knowledge essential to economic growth.

Professor U Myint–fellow graduate student at Cornell and Berkeley in the 1950s– retired a decade ago as ECAFE economist and now resides in Yangon. He continues to write astute critiques of Burma’s economy and recently helped organize Nobel Laureate Joseph Stieglitz’s visit and presentation to Nay Pyi Daw officials. The last four paragraphs of Myint’s critique of Stiglitz’s presentation are relevant to our project.

73.         Nargis and global crisis were mentioned as disasters that hit Myanmar which were beyond its control. When these natural and economic disasters strike, it is always the poor and livelihoods in the rural economy that are hit the hardest. However, the resilience of the rural economy can be strengthened to better withstand these misfortunes through creating non-farm employment opportunities. For example, a farm household or a village that not only grows rice but engages in other economic activities has better chance of coming to terms with these disastrous events. Non-farm activities in the countryside can take place by setting up small enterprises in processing, construction, transport, repair, catering, and other services. In China these towns and village enterprises played a vital role in the agricultural reform process, by creating jobs for millions of people and increasing rural incomes and output. With climate change brought on by global warming Myanmar like other countries will have to face more frequent and more violent natural disasters than before. Similarly, increased globalization will bring with it greater impact of economic disturbances originating outside its borders. Hence, there is a clear need to strengthen the resilience of the rural sector by promoting non-farm employment opportunities.

74.         Since we are now living in a knowledge based economy, the importance of education and technology revolution that is upon us received considerable emphasis. With young and able bodied people leaving to take up better paying jobs in neighboring countries only old people and young children are left in the villages and farmers in some parts of the country are facing a labor shortage. There may thus be a growing need to mechanize farming and to use less labor intensive methods in agricultural production.

75.         We are also said to be living in the information age. For ordinary people two things are important in this age: access to internet and mobile phone. Here again, our situation is far less favorable than in neighboring countries. For instance in terms of percentage of population that has access to the internet in the Asian region, Myanmar with (0.2 %) shares bottom place with East Timor. The percentages for neighbors are as follows: Laos (1.9%), India (7.0%), Thailand (24.4%), Vietnam (24.8%), China (26.9%), Malaysia (65.7%) and Singapore (72.4%).

76.         As for mobile phone let me give you my personal experience. The supplier is a government monopoly and I had to fill an application form to buy a phone. I applied for one some time ago. My application was approved after 3 years. Then I paid 1.5 million kyats to purchase the SIM card. That is equivalent to 6 months pay of the highest government official. Now under a new rule announced recently my monthly phone bill is estimated and I have to pay in three times that amount as advance payment for use of the phone. In poor neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Laos, fierce competition among local manufacturers and sellers has brought down mobile phones prices to hit rock bottom and you can buy one for a few dollars. And everyone seems to be carrying one.

But not in Myanmar…not yet…Nargis Library Recovery will hasten that process.

Happy New Year!!  We wish you all the best for this 2010.

Let me give you  good news.  I am now attaching photos of a new library which we all should be proud of.  This is a newly opened private library located in central Yangon (on Fraser Road near Sule Pagoda).   95% of  books  in these photos are donated by us.  Most are from Thrift Books, some are donated by the  University of Washington Library.  Since this library concentrate on English language, it is very suitable for our books.  It is run by a brother and sister about 25 years old.

Another private Yangon library we supported in 2009 with a donation of 5000 books, ICE-Youth, will lease more rooms for a new extension with our funding within the next month.

Thanks so much for your support again.

With best regards,

Thant

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NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY NEWSLETTER #11  January

As I write this newsletter NLR’s fourth 40 foot, high cube container of books is being transferred into MBAPF’s Yangon warehouse, while our fifth container is loaded at Thrift Books’ Dallas, Texas warehouse. It will travel by rail to Port Seattle and ship mid-month: just routine actions; yet 50,000 books are in each container. Our project has attained a level of performance inconceivable at the outset, in September 2008, now we can reasonably project delivery of 300,000 books this year and again in 2011.

Goals for 2010

In Myanmar

1] Continue distributing books to the 150 libraries we supported in 2009 and as many more as feasible;

2] Rebuild, repair or expand at least five libraries to serve as demonstration projects, selected on the basis of local communities’ capacity to sustain library operations– salaries, maintenance and future book acquisitions—and encourage recovery by 2013 of at least a 100 of the 800  libraries destroyed by Cyclone Nargis;

3] Expand training programs for local librarians & volunteers organized by MBAPF directors at Yangon University and the American Center;

Elsewhere

4] Launch fundraising presentations by our Directors & advocates to civic, business and educational groups, tapping into as many networks of potential supporters as possible;

5] Mount our website with links to slide and video narratives of libraries and individuals already helped;

6] Submit major funding proposals to government agencies, foundations and corporate charitable groups interested in disaster relief and development programs.

Activities

Yesterday Chris Hughes appeared on C-Span. He’s Bill Gates at half-the-age, a preppie/Harvard alum and cutout of his model as a multi-millionaire with major stock options in the company he co-founded Facebook. His social networking method & technique is a lesson for Nargis Library Recovery–make friends by networking, Facebook style. On January 1 my son-in-law Sasha [Aleksander Babic] launched Nargis on Facebook. Visit it and comment.

Earlier in December, after our directors Delta tour, sessions with U.S. and Singapore mission chiefs, roundtable with MBAPF directors, and meeting with Ashin Dhammapiya in his monastery, I returned inspired to visit Washington D.C. Conversations there included AID’s Southern Asia administrator Cheryl Jennings, State Department’s Southeast Asia desk officers Steve Blake & Laura Scheibe; Seattle’s Congressman Jim McDermott, physician with enduring interests in South Asia, at early morning coffee [he is ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee under Chairman Charlie Rangel]. I had extended conversation over lunch with two veteran Senate staffers now working with the US-ASEAN Business Council–Laura Hudson and Frances Zwenig. Matt Daley, retired Assistant Secretary of State for Far East helped set up these meetings, as he did our U.S. Embassy sessions in Yangon.

On December 16 NLR directors held a teleconference with participants from Myanmar, Thailand, Texas, Missouri, Montana and Washington State! Thanks to our Treasurer’s considerable knowledge of The Network, we tapped into FreeConference.com and used 798 free minutes to set our 2010 goals!

Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung e-mailed us last week that MBAPF has committed $10,000 to assist ICE-Youth Library move to larger space and gain a three year lease to expand service to its 2,000 members. See prior postings for description of this remarkable student group. These funds came through a charity book fair in Mandalay where 10% of Thrift’s donated books sold for $23,000. After deducting $2000 for the cost of transport from Yangon, advertising and staff-time, $21,000 remained which enabled this commitment

NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY NEWSLETTER #10

David Leuthold is our board chairman, proposed this timeline of NLR accomplishments in 2009, which I have redrafted with more details. Our board will teleconference Tuesday, December 15th [16th in Myanmar/Thailand] to lay out 2010 goals and plans to attain them. Donors and interested observers are welcome to email ideas to help rebuild libraries.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

May 2-3, 2008–Nargis Cyclone hits Myanmar, killing 140,000, leaving one million homeless. Myanmar Government initially unable to provide aid and resisted foreign aid, creating negative press; but within days monks & business leaders helped finance indigenous Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) medical volunteers. Within three weeks established international NGOs with health and community programs entered the devastated region. Large amounts of aid contributed by UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, Doctors Without Borders, and a coalition of international agencies known as the Tripartite Core Group.

July 26—John Badgley, founder of Institute of the Rockies [IR] and Allen Bjergo, Vice President, IR, meet with original IR Associates David/Carolyn Leuthold to discuss IR sponsorship of private educational program in Myanmar.

August 17—Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung ,owner of Myanmar Book Centre [MBC] emails Badgley proposing emergency assistance to local libraries in delta through Myanmar Book Aid Foundation [MBAF]. In 2001 Thant’s father, university librarian U Thaw Kaung and Badgley formed MFAF to continue manuscript and book preservation projects they started in 1988. Thant is executive secretary of MBAF boar of leading librarians,  publishers and business people.

June-September–$8,750 donated by four American families through the Institute of the Rockies, a charitable foundation created by Badgley in 1974 for human resource development. .

September-October—Corey Urbach, Manager, Lynnwood Half -Price Books and Carolyn Aamot, University of Washington [UW] Gifts Librarian, contribute 8,000 English-language books, English is required 2nd language in schools. Shipment in 20 foot container, Seattle to Yangon costs $5,500, or 75 cents per book.

December–Container clears Yangon port & trucked to Myanmar Book Centre compound for $800; volunteers from MBAPF & MBC  unpack, sort and prepare to distribute books in January.

December 16—Hector Rivas, CEO of Thrift Books, reaches Carolyn Aamot, UW Gifts librarian, after investigating 150 organizations, offers to donate large number of books to one charity. Thrift Books, has six book warehouses around the United States. If books do not sell within a few months, Thrift Books donates or pulps them. The value of the book at this point is its labor and storage cost. Rivas offers  one million books to Myanmar, conditional on shipments beginning ASAP. Value of this donation within Myanmar will be $3 million.

2009

January 26—In Washington D.C., U. S. Treasury OFAC grants Badgley license of exception to broad sanctions against Burma, permitting financial aid to help libraries recover and to ship books.

February 2 – Seattle Trust donates $2500 to NLR

Feb 22–Books from 1st container sold at Yangon charity fair raise $5300 + $1300 in donations. $5000 will be used to buy Burmese language texts for delta libraries. Academic & unsold trade books go to college and university libraries. $300 paid to MBC staff who worked 4 days from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. MBC also contributed $700 & spent a month preparing the charity bazaar. Sold about 2,000 books @ Kyat 2,500 [$2.80]each. $500 contributed to NLR from Daw Ah Win, Vienna, Austria

April—After several false starts, 2nd container shipped from Seattle to Yangon, containing 50,000 books–@ $7500, including port clearances. From Yangon, our first container of books is distributed to delta libraries: 9,000 Burmese  textbooks, 1,000 children books  in English & 8,200 exercise books (3 exercise books for each student) to 2,700 students. Subjects of textbooks are Burmese & English language, math, science, geography and history.
May 13 – Fidelty Trust donates $1000.
May 25–Seattle Trust donates $2500
May–American President Lines donates shipping for six containers in coming year. Value of shipping each container is $4000, total in-kind value is $24,000. Badgley files application for Nargis Library Recovery as non-profit Corporation in State of Washington. Articles of Incorporation and by-laws are adopted via email by directors.

12 June—58 libraries receive our English books, 130 school libraries take our Myanmar language books; our 2nd container arrives.

13 July 18–Directors of Nargis Library Recovery formally organize via teleconference, hosted by Allen/Jackie Bjergo in Corvallis, MT Present are Bjergo, Jack/Sue Simpson, David/Carolyn Leuthold and Badgley. Dave Richards and Thant Thaw Kaung participate by phone. Officers elected are Leuthold, Chair, Bjergo, Secretary; Richards, Treasurer, and Badgley, Executive Director;  Jack Simpson, Thant Thaw Kaung and Hector Rivas elected directors. Directors pledge $12,000 to finance operations through remainder of 2009.

July –Yangon–Thant purchases 40 ft. container for $2000 with $1000 improvements to store books.. most of month to sort  into books to sell & generate funds for Myanmar language books, those to donate directly…and a very small portion to destroy as not suitable for donation or sale. Very difficult work because of heavy rain, decides to buy an air conditione for the container.

July 31–Badgley mails application to US Dept. of Treasury, IRS, for Nargis Library Recovery’s 501 (c) (3) status so contributions will be direct to NLR, we will end IR sponsorship.

August 10—Third container of 20,000 books shipped from Seattle port to Yangon, to arrive early October.

August 16 Yangon–second charity book fair raises $6550,  buys $3500 worth of Burmese texts for delta libraries.

September 15– 30,000 English books from 1st & 2nd containers distributed to 73 delta libraries, 10,000 Burmese texts distributed to 13 of these same libraries

October 7– Third container of 20,000 books arrives in Yangon. Fourth container with 50,000 books shipped from Seattle to arrive early December

October 27-31 –Directors John Badgley, Hector Rivas, Jack & Sue Simpson, plus Hector Rivas and Thant Thaw Kaung tour delta. Return for roundtable on 31st with MBAF directors; hold separate meetings with Larry Dinger, Chief of Mission, and Marc Porter, US Commercial Attaché; attend dinner meeting hosted by Burmese donor, Bernard Pe Win, including Ambassador Dinger, French and Philippine Ambassadors, and Nicolas Terraz, Total’s Myanmar representative.

November 1-4 Mandalay charity book fair raises $23,000 for MBAF from sale of Thrift Books donated to NLR

November 4–Badgley, Thant and U Thaw Kaung meet Singapore Ambassador Robert Chua, head of Tripartite Core Group to discuss donation to fund five libraries in 2010.
November 5–Ashin Dhammapiya invites Badgley and Yangon University Librarian, Daw Khin Hnin Oo to his monastery, proposes collaboration to select and develop library boards and reconstruct libraries in the delta.

Dec. 5–website www.Nargislibrary.org incorporated with blog, 10th newsletter posted.
Dec. 8–Leuthold chairs teleconference with NLR directors to discuss 2010 plans;
Dec 10-1–Badgley to Washington D.C. for meetings with U.S. officials and representatives on the US-ASEAN Business Council to seeking funding for library reconstruction
Dec. 20-24th–Fifth container of 50,000 books shipped from Seattle port to Yangon, arriving mid-February, 2010

Funds raised from start of project: $40 K by NLR, $41 K by MBAF plus more than one million books

Daw Nyo Nyo Win is a major donor to Ashin Dhammapiya and his monastary, Nyar Kyan Pyan Yeiktha, she is also a terrific driver and wheeled us 20 kilometers in dense Yangon traffic with Nascar skill. We met last year on my first brief visit to the Yeiktha, but we never conversed as the Sayadaw was absent; this time Daw Khin Hnin Oo, Yangon University Librarian, was our interpreter. She had firmly cornered me at our Roundtable to arrange a meeting will Ashin Dhammapiya, who was interested in our project. Her passion for the monk overwhelmed my trepidation about visiting yet another monastery or library; her patter of background information filled the car as we drove.

As a young monk, the Sayadaw had mastered the tripitika, passing all five ordination exams before most monks have passed two. Given his intelligence and skill in recitation, his sponsoring Sayadaw invited him to serve Burmese in Malaysia and create a monastary there in the 1980s, a task he fulfilled. Then he was directed to assist Burmese in California and create a pongyi kyaung in the Bay area. For 18 years he served Burmese in that region, first in San Jose, then Fremont, and created monastaries that continue to flourish. At San Jose State he also completed a BA in religions studies and an MA in philosophy, then entered the Buddhist Institute near UC Berkeley where he completed his doctorate.

While other Burmese monks have successfully conducted evangelical Buddhist missions, what distinguishes Ashin Dhammapiya is his mastery of the scripture and continued study of comparative religions, combined with extraordinary skill in serving the needs of his donors. He still responds to his monastaries in Malaysia and California, but has moved back to Yangon to build capacity in his Yeiktha to help orphans and needy youth in the Yangon area. His response to Cyclone Nargis was urge his donor communities to help people in the Delta. His prestige as a senior member of the Sangha [Order of Burmese Buddhist Monks] gives him entre with the military and civil authorities to bring medical and supply teams into towns and villages. His teams of doctors & nurses with emergency food from donors saved many lives, which further elevated his status among Burmese. Social service on this magnitude is not characteristic of the Sangha, it reminds me of the radical Social Gospel promoted by Walter Rauschenbusch late in the 19th Century, which compelled many Protestant pastors to turn from preaching to serving the emergency needs in their local congregations and regions. What do you think?

Ashin Dhammapiya is not alone among Burmese monks in turning from teaching Three Baskets of the Vinaya, to acting with Mettha [compassion]. Last January the Sitagu Sayadaw endorsed our Library recovery project; however my meeting with Ashin Dhammapiya ended with a compact between us to work closely in selecting local library committees to assist in rebuilding libraries and restocking shelves with appropriate books. We found common cause in the integrity of our work. I feel considerable relief that our cash infusion in the local communities will be carefully monitored by donors to Ashin Dhammapiya. The link from U Thaw Kaung to his replacement at Yangon University, Daw Khin Hnin Oo, to the monk she most admires, to villages and towns throughout the delta helped through initial recovery by teams associated with Ashin Dhammapiya: this all give legitimacy to Nargis Library Recovery and Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, it establishes trust that comes from our common cause.