There is a famous scene in Arthur C. Clarke's classic 2001, adapted for film by the genius of the late director Stanley Kubrik, in which an ape-creature discovers that an animal bone can be used as a weapon and triumphantly hurls it into the sky where it morphs into a space vehicle.
Burma's foray into nuclear energy research somehow calls this to mind, don't ask me why. It seems only fitting that this very strange juxtaposition should be revealed in Halloween Week, for if the prospect of the current Burmese military regime playing with nuclear fire doesn't scare you, then you, my fiend, might well be Satan's executive assistant.
Burma, or as it is more formally known within ASEAN: "The Union of Myanmar", is the land where the late, little-lamented dictator, General Ne Win, was once assured that he would remain in power by his personal magician if only he remained utterly faithful to the number "9".
Ne Win must have had a crackerjack ju-ju man on call, for he dutifully re-did Burma's currency, the kyat, into multiples of 9 (in perhaps the only instance in recorded financial history) and remained in power for what seemed to many Burmese an inordinately long time.
Burma is, well, just a little bit different.
Some say Burma's fate has consistently gone downhill since the British colonialist administrators left shortly after World War Two. Under enlightened British rule, Burma was once the rice-basket of Asia and a bucolic backwater. The Burmese were happy, plump and fairly well off, as some ancient pink Brits tell the story.
Others tell it a bit differently.
To hear them tell the tale, the Burmese were ruthlessly under the boot heel of savage British military/police oppression. Inspired by the rumblings of independence generated by Gandhi and the nascent Congress Party in neighboring India, some noble Burmese native sons, under the sign of the rose, secretly began plotting Burmese independence as well.
The Japanese, those worldwide "agent-provocateurs of change", naturally provided the spark by their invasion/liberation of Southeast Asia. Now, anyone who thinks the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia to liberate their oppressed brown brother Asians has been making a few too many worship trips to Yaskakuni Shrine and drinking a mite too liberally of the Shinto/bushido Kool-Aid served there.
Nonetheless, the Japanese occupation/liberation of Burma during World War Two did provide the historical moment for Burmese Independence. General Aung San, the father of Nobel Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the elfin would-be-liberator of her prison/homeland, is normally credited with being Burma's George Washington.
Needless to say, Burma being Burma, General Aung San was gunned down by his freedom-loving coconspirators, some say led by none other than General Ne Win. If the hissing of pit-vipers is your idea of a beautiful melody, you will absolutely love Burma. It is a fabled land, an Asian Arabian Night's Tale, which literally has to be experienced to be believed.
As the splendor of the former British Empire used to attract talented second sons, soldiers of fortune, adventurers and vendors from all over the world, so does fabled Burma attract certain souls. For Burma has yellow-golden, spectacularly beautiful women (and men), wizened monks learned in the spiritual world, ancient Buddhist temples, hidden Nat places of worship, sparkling gem stones, marvelous teak, and riches galore for those lucky enough to find their fortune there.
I am inordinately fond of my beloved Burma. I once had the good fortune to pursue a personal vision quest there, and I can say, without reservation, that it changed my life completely. I went into Burma one man and emerged seven months later a vastly different one. Someday soon, I hope to return to celebrate Burma's impending good fortune as well as visit with all my close Burmese friends there.
Which is why it pains me to see that Burma's current rulers feel compelled to experiment with nuclear energy. The Russian motivation to sell them such toys is clear and understandable. The Russians are a deeply sentimental, fun-loving people whose love of science and, lately, international commerce, is well known.
The Chinese motivation for allowing such an experiment is, perhaps, a bit less clear. Like the British, the Chinese seem determined to bring the light of Chinese civilization hither and yon. And, to be quite candid, I am in fully in favor of Chinese civilization and the benefits it brings. The world at large can greatly gain from Chinese wisdom and experience.
It will be interesting to see how the Chinese handle the newfound nuclear fascination of the Burmese with atomic energy. For the Chinese now administer Burma in much the same way as the British used to, Communist Party protestations of a universal Asian proletariat brotherhood to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Chinese seem to be accumulating quite a spiritual necklace of sorts along their border regions, with Tibet being the diamond crown jewel and Burma the ruby and sapphire setting. How this too all plays out is yet to be determined in the glories of history.
I, for one, will be keeping a cocked weather eye on the (alarming?) developments in my beloved Burma. For I have a theory, alas currently in an analytical school of one, that the evil warriors of al Qa'ida will use Burma as a staging post for some further malevolent deeds, perhaps involving WMD (or as more accurately categorized by the first-rate Jamestown Foundation analysts, CBNR).
As one looks fondly on the life progress of an old flame, so shall I gaze and query in some detail why the military rulers of Burma feel compelled to locate in the hinterlands of the Shan States a nuclear research reactor. Stay tuned, for I believe there is much more to come.