Supporting the Saffron Revolution

Last week I received an email from a Thailand-based international NGO that works on human rights and environmental issues, asking me if I was available to come teach a workshop on conflict transformation. Naturally I jumped on the chance.
What is particularly exciting about this opportunity is its timeliness and potential impact on actual world events. In Burma last summer and fall, there was an upsurge in anti-government protests, known as the Saffron Revolution because of the leadership of the saffron-robed Buddhist monks. While the participation of the monks in the 2007 protests was important, the most active and historically significant part of the Burmese pro-democracy movement is the youth and student groups. Most of these pro-democracy organizations operate in exile in Thailand due to the repressive nature of the Burmese military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council. (The junta surprisingly has little to no humor regarding the obvious irony of their nomenclature.) Several other organizations have been created to support these Burmese youth activists through education and training and it is one of these organizations that invited me up to teach the workshop. They run a program for young activists from the marginalized ethnic minorities in Burma. Now in its 8th year, what started as a small experimental project has evolved into a yearlong comprehensive program that trains these young activists in subjects ranging from minority and women’s rights, to English and creative writing, to documentation and research skills, to conflict transformation—which is what I will be teaching starting tomorrow.
Indeed, I now find myself in Chiang Mai preparing for the first day of the workshop tomorrow. The invitation was given in “Asian time,” which, as I’ve been told, means ‘at the very last minute.’ They also sent along their proposed curriculum in “Asian time,” meaning I only had a couple of days to review the curriculum, alter it at my discretion, and prepare for the 3-day workshop. I felt like I was almost too prepared for the workshop I taught in Lebanon so this will be the opposite experience. But luckily for me, I actually prefer to not overly prepare and let this type of program unfold organically according to the group’s needs and interests.
While I am a little concerned about having to fill 3 days all by myself, the curriculum they suggested is quite comprehensive and I can complement it with some of the Insight tools and exercises. More than anything though, I’m just excited to be heading back into the classroom and to have to opportunity to work with this special group.