oops - had this in draft.
For a good background on the ethnic divide and how it changed shape in Post-Independence Myanmar, I want to give a shout out for a terrific book, “Miss Burma” by Charmaine Craig, daughter of the late Karen leader Naw Louisa Benson Craig who had carried that title at the age of 15, was falsely rumored to date the dictator Than Shwe and escaped a raid in which her husband, a Karen battalion commander, was assassinated - going on to lead his troops in the jungle before being persuaded by the late Glenn Craig to move with him to the US.
A one time actress herself and now a uni professor, Charmaine has a terrific voice in writing and in the audiobook which I’ve found on a library app (Hoopla I think). Louisa brought me into all of this and I was amazed at how Charmaine captured the mannerisms and expressiveness that were exclusively her mother’s.
When Louisa was testifying against Unocal, the sleazy defense tried to malign her by saying “so you are to blame for [Karen attacks, threats and general sentiment against Unocal / the Burmese regime].” Louisa (paraphrasing): “If this accusation was appropriate I wouldn’t use the term ‘blame’ but rather ‘credit.’ However, the credit is not all mine.”
