Photo by Jane Kirsch
By Aye Akara Aung
In many ways, New Orleans is similar to my hometown of Yangon in Burma. Both New Orleans and Yangon are very popular with tourists because both cities are rich in culture, have great food, and what seems like a fun atmosphere.
But in reality, it’s nothing but fool’s gold.
Don’t get me wrong–I loved Yangon, but I would not really call it a “perfect city” for a range of reasons from its very high crime rates and excessive traffic to the risk of being a victim of illegal activity. Poverty was high. So what was the upside? All this was overshadowed by the festivals, music, and other tourist bait. Yangon, just like New Orleans, was full of tourist-driven businesses like restaurants and hotels–from big corporate ones to privately owned ones.
Granted, Burma was never the richest country in southeast Asia, nor was it as well developed as others in the region like Thailand and Singapore, but in recent decades, it was getting relatively better–which is why it was such a surprise that all that hard work the country has put into its development fell apart all because of the military.
It was February 1, 2021. It was supposed to be a normal day–until my mother told me the Junta (the Burmese military) announced that they launched a coup.
This isn’t the first time the Burmese military have done this sort of thing, as they were infamous for the first coup in Burma on March 2, 1962. Add in the Rohingya genocide in 2017 on August 24.
Now, this is why I’m raising the alarm bell.
The cause for this coup was because the Junta were upset that they lost the election where the rival party NLD, led by Daw aung san Suu Kyi, won by a landslide. The junta accused Daw aung san Suu Kyi of “election fraud” even though they had no evidence to back up their claim. They even said things like,“She was illegally having possession of a Walkie Talkie.”
When the coup started in February, it was no surprise that many Burmans were upset at this. The ones who voted for the NLD party went out to the streets to protest against the Junta to show that no one wanted them to govern the country, despite knowing there was a chance that they could have gotten hurt protesting. They still went out to show that they would never vote for the ones who only cared about power.
And that chance came to fruition. The protesters were brutally attacked by the Junta.
Keep in mind that Yangon is the largest city in Burma, and it’s the county’s main center of trade.When the coup happened in Burma, many private businesses lost their money because they were forced to shut down due to the Junta threats. When many of the larger corporations from Burma closed, it affected the entire country’s economy, causing Burma (already one of the poorest countries in the region) to be even poorer.
If a similar coup happened in America, I am sure a city like New Orleans would suffer the same fate as Yangon. Crime rates would increase even more, prices would increase even more, and businesses would close, causing joblessness and homelessness to spiral even higher.
There is no way to be prepared for something like this, but the alarm needs to be sounded when it seems with each passing election, there is more and more talk of election fraud. It seems to be almost expected these days, and we cannot forget what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
America is not Burma, but nations rise and fall with history. The only thing we can do is keep our eyes open to how it’s unfolding around us every day.
