Feeding Money

Ne Myo and his wife are admirable parents, doing all they can to take care of their children. Moreover, the grandparents don’t have to suffer unduly because they now have enough money to pay off the military men who come to the house to extort fees for porters and forced labour. But by feeding money into the system that has put them in this untenable position, they are inadvertently helping to prop it up. I say this not to criticize families trying their best to survive but to demonstrate how a military regime becomes self-sustaining even when most of its citizens are opposed to it.

Extracted from “Living Silence” by Christina Fink, Chapter 5-Families.