The taxi driver showed me a picture of what he called a “lady” out of his shirt pocket—just a peek of her face—then he smiled. He was a brave soul for he knew that in the past at any moment he could be taken away for helping us meet the lady, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He also showed me a picture of his children—children he would love to see grow up with good education and more opportunities.
I visited Burma a couple of months after Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest. Thanks to a mutual friend, we had a full one-hour-and-a-half visit in the living room in her house.
Since we had no agenda or list of questions, our conversation flowed from one topic to another—her recent visit with her younger son, Kim, and the dog he picked up from the pound; her deep desire to give education to the generation deprived of an opportunity to learn; a need for more books; environmental concern over the dam construction on the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River; increasing the influence of China and the necessity for the young Burmese to get to know China through people they meet; about marriage of two different cultures (West and East), and the children born under such marriage—then in great length about how she regards “kindness” to be the most important virtue.
