I landed in Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, a very ignorant young woman. I knew nothing about the country, so you can imagine my surprise to learn that the men wore skirts, the women have yellow powdered circles on their cheeks, and that the country has NO ATM’s at all — and that I only had $350 in my pocket to last me for three weeks. Somehow, I survived on $10 a day and, three weeks later, I left Yangon a changed person, with a bigger heart and a desire to see this country’s people rise from their currently powerless situation.

I visited Myanmar one year ago, just before the military coup… and now this: a cyclone? This beautiful country with generous (and helpless) people is suffering from one of the worst natural disasters this decade and all their government wants to do is close their borders and refuse aid? I just don’t get it. Read More »

Bonjour!

Here’s your daily dose of news with Kandy Korrespondent:

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama beat Hilary Clinton by SEVEN votes in the Guam Democratic presidential caucuses on Saturday. Each of the eight delegates from Guam gets ½ a vote at the convention. US citizens in Guam do not have the right to vote during the actual presidential election in November.

In related news, if Congressional democrats are any indicator Barack-Hilary fight won’t be over any time soon. According to Reuters, a total of 97 Democrats have endorsed Senator Obama while 98 have endorsed Senator Clinton. Eighty-six remain undecided. All members of Congress have super delegate status and as such will play a major role in the potentially painfully narrow delegate count during the DNC convention in August.

In Other News:

A pipe bomb exploded outside of a downtown federal courthouse in San Diego, California. The blast occurred just before 1:40am on Sunday morning. There are no reported injuries and so far no arrests have been made. Read More »