When I was in Myanmar (Burma) I have never thought that media like radio, television and internet could be the powerful tool to reach out the people in ministry because we only use the printed materials to inform people and use as a tool for the teaching. Radio, TV and internet are like more of a luxury things which only a few people have out of 48 million people in Myanmar. There are many places in Myanmar where electricity is not available. Moreover, 40% of the population is illiterate and they are farmers who are viciously exploited by the government and elite people. Therefore, many of our people are just trying to pay off the debts but they keep sinking in the debt, moreover, they have no one to help that out. They have spent most of time in life in the field struggling with cows, buffaloes so that they cannot have time for pleasure. It is more important for them to survive than to be educated or to be well informed. That was the situation which I grew up but now things have changed in the urban areas like Yangon, Mandalay. They now have internet, email and computers which most of the young people in such big cities spend most of their time. This particular group of people knows that they cannot rely on the TV and radio (which are controlled by the government) to have the genuine information, therefore, internet is the only source they could attain the true information. Before I came to EDS, there was only one thing in my mind to help and educate the people in rural areas (maybe the Church of the Province Myanmar’s main concern) and tend to forget about the urban ministry. By taking this course, it reminds me there is still other group people who are to be taken care of in the ministry. To be able to create a holistic mission orientated Church, it must have mission or help program for both rural and urban churches.
The growth of the Church and the media are interdependent or interrelating throughout the history of Christianity. For example, when they created printing press there was a reformation which leaded the grass-root people could have the chance to read the bible in their languages. When TV and radio were invented, the churches involved in the broadcasted media and they used these as the tools for the reaching out the people. Same thing can be applied to the internet too. In this 21st century, the media, which the churches are using, is far more sophisticated and advanced than the former media and they allow the members to exchange the information and part of this ministry. This is the very time of ‘the ministry of all believers’. There is one more thing that I have learned from that class that the online religion is possible (?). This I have not had the very clear insight and am still figuring out what the ‘online religion’ really meant to me.
It is very exciting to create an online community for the youths in Myanmar and I have decided to invest my time and energy on it, yet, I am reminding myself that there are people who really need my help in real life. For the people in rural area, I would go to them, live with them (for a certain amount of time) and encourage them. For the people of the cities, especially for the young people, I would create a online community like forum where they could share their feelings, thoughts about the Church and the country, where they could find information about the church and the faith and so on. Following are the sites and discussion groups I have started but still have to advertise to have more members and to have people more actively involved.
http://groups.google.com/group/aypa-myanmar
http://sharingoursouls.ning.com/
1 comment:
Wai Moo,
Thank you so much for your post and for all of your wonderful insights during the course! Working together with you in our group project, as well as your more general comments, have both enriched my life exponentially! Thank you!
I like how you reflect on the rapidly changing situation in Myanmar. You note that when you left for the States almost the entire country (save for the government and their cronies) were involved in agricultural subsistence. Furthermore, they were economically and politically conscripted to the government. But, even in the past few years there are signs of minute, but expanding, change afoot. Now a handful of people have access to the internet. They are able to tap into a wealth of information that was previously unavailable. This is so incredible! It reminds us that the old aphorism: knowledge is power, still has credence. And yet, you also notate the pervasive irony. Knowledge may lay the groundwork to obtain power, but in order to realize it, structural obstacles must also be removed. So the power is circumscribed (and here I'm not talking about existential power, more tangible political rights -> eg: freedom of speech and press...).
I would like to throw out a philosophical tool which might be of little or no help (?). I wonder if some philosophic insights from pragmatism may help us frame some (or any?) of the issues your country is facing. While pragmatism is a distinctly American movement, it's resources (I believe) are vast and deep. In a very oversimplified nutshell, pragmatism tells us that knowledge or reflection always orients us to action. So...in the situation you relayed, given the farmers circumstances (being fiscally and politically enslaved), they must learn certain skills in order to survive. This all seems very intuitive, no? But the rub is that once we realize the inevitable harmony between what we learn and what we do, we also acknowledge that when we learn different things, our actions need to be different. Let me give an example: if I learn that blacks are really two-thirds of a person, I only have a knowledge base to treat them badly. In fact, according to my education, I am justified in doing so. But when I learn otherwise, my behavior changes (or to be more realistic, my behavior should change). The principle behind this very rudimentary and no doubt bald illustration is thoroughly pragmatic.
I like how you differentiate your future ministry between the urban and rural areas of Myanmar. Perhaps with a professedly pragmatic explication of religion, you can unpack their divergent needs (which it seems you have already instinctively done) and address them as best as you can. I want to advocate a more substantial accountability for online groups. I can only imagine that in a country where there is absolutely no accountability the tendency will be to rail and rage against such monstrous and indiscriminate injustices. Still, I wonder if modeling an accountability will be most meaningful in the long run. Democracy is predicated on conversation, dialogue really. And in order to have any genuine dialogue there must be accountability. That does not mean things should devolve into petty shouting matches (which academic dialogue sometimes promotes), or that people cannot change their minds...but it must mean that folks author their work and give reasons for why they believe what they do. Somehow this must be built-in to online communication for it to work effectively.
Wai Moo, I honor your courage and your mission and will think of you often in my prayers.
Best,
Sam
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