And a Present-Day Theme and Variation of Life
Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. Dicken’s Weltanschauung related to what was happening in both London and Paris.
The first page of A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Dickens saw the rich autocratic aristocrats in Paris essentially causing the poor to revolt and storm the Bastille. The poor had had enough at the hands of the rich.
There were problems in both London and Paris. Amidst the problems and death, Dickens saw hope and new life. Revolution preceded resurrection from Dickens’ mindset. That being said, I live in two different countries: America and Myanmar. This essay is a Dickens-esque tale of two countries.
In 2013 during winter break from teaching, I traveled to Myanmar. Talk about a life-changing trip. I have been back twice to visit my family. On my last trip during my winter break from teaching just over a year ago, it was my most exciting of any of my trips overseas in the past half-century. My family and I toured parts of Myanmar that I had seen before and places that I had no idea even existed.
I returned to the States excited about future trips and seeing Ti Ti graduate from college. It was long before my dreams of our bright futures were changed due to the coronavirus. As my family in Myanmar and I began to deal with the pandemic, we settled down to a new reality.
It seemed that the new reality was workable. Nevertheless, Trump attempted his coup d'état on January 6, 2021. He lost the presidential election, on November 3, 2020, by seven million votes. Trump claimed that it was a rigged election and asserted that he won a landslide election over Biden.
Trump and his inane followers appealed to around sixty to state and federal courts claiming that votes were stolen from him or that Biden couldn’t have gotten all the votes that the Electoral College said that he had. Trump even appealed twice to the Supreme Court, which included a third of the justices he appointed. None of his efforts were successful. All the courts ruled against his claim of a rigged election.
On the other side of the world, there was also an election in Myanmar. Their election was on November 8, 2020…less than a week after ours. The Union Solidarity and Development Party, USDP, which is the military party, lost overwhelmingly to the National League for Democracy, NLD. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of that party and the State Counsellor of Myanmar.
Myanmar has a bicameral parliament. The recent election had a total of 476 seats available in the parliament. The USDPN was only able to garner a total of 33 seats. On the other hand, the NLD won 396. As a result, the generals claimed voter fraud, which is precisely what Trump claimed. After the Myanmar election commission dismissed the general’s claim, they did what Trump tried. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing staged a coup d'état, on February 1, 202, and was successful.
As a result, the military attested Aung San Suu Kyi along with many of the leaders of the NLD. If Trump had been successful during his coup d'état, many leaders of Congress would have been killed.
As a consequence, America and Myanmar are a tale of two countries. It is a parallel of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
The American coup d'état.
The Myanmar coup d'état.
Interestingly, Aung San Suu Kyi added a critically important comment to the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities. She wrote, “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
Visit the On Seeing the Light page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Darkest Before Dawn page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Best and Worst of Times page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Connecting the Dots page to read more about this topic.
Visit the "We Are Family" page to read more about this topic.
Visit The Mentors and Me page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Burma Independence page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Ti Ti page to read more about this topic.
Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."
Visit the Stupid is As Stupid Does page to read more about this topic.
Visit the Donald the Dumb page to read more about this topic.
03/03/21
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