Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution

by Edith T. Mirante

As captivating as the most thrilling novel, Burmese Looking Glass tells the story of tribal peoples who, though ravaged by malaria and weakened by poverty, are unforgettably brave. Author Edith Mirante first crossed illegally from Thailand into Burma in 1983. There she discovered the hidden conflict that has despoiled the country since the close of World War II. She met commandos and refugees and learned firsthand the machinations of Golden Triangle narcotics trafficking. Mirante was the first Westerner to march with the rebels from the fabled Three Pagodas Pass to the Andaman Sea; she taught karate to women soldiers, was ritually tattooed by a Shan “spirit doctor,” has lobbied successfully against U.S. government donation of Agent Orange chemicals to the dictatorship, and was deported from Thailand in 1988.

Genres: Asia, Nonfiction, History, Politics

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Edith Mirante is an American artist and author of Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution published in 1993 and Down the Rat Hole: Adventures Underground on Burma’s Frontiers published in 2005. Her most recent book, Down the Rat Hole, is about a hidden world of guerrilla warfare and jade trading, the AIDS pandemic, rainforest destruction in Burma western border among the Arakanese, the Chins and the Kachins. She is also author of several reports about politics, human rights and environmental issues about the Chins among others; “The Chin Compendium (1997)”, “Ashes and Tears (2001)” (A report a bout Chin/Burmese refugees in Guam), the “Razor Edge” (Survival Crisis for Refugees from Burma in Delhi, India-2004) and “Mithuns Sacrificed To Greed: The Forest Ox of Burma's Chins (2004)”. Her commentaries are regularly broadcast on the BBC World Service, she's lectured for Amnesty International and Greenpeace, her articles appear in New York Times, Asiaweek, and she's given evidence about Burma before the US Congress and the European Trade Commission and International Labor Organization. Ms. Mirante is founder and project director of Project Maje.

(from http://www.calvin.edu/january/2012/mi...)

Reviews

[Mona · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is an adventurous woman who feels compelled to gather evidence in order to document human rights abuses of the Burmese tribal rebels. It is fascinating to follow her journeys back and forth across the border between Thailand and Burma. Hardships don't faze her in her desire to document the abuse: the use of agent orange chemicals. Chemicals provided by the US government to the oppresive Ne Win regime for the purpose of eradicating poppy fields. Instead, as the author learns, the chemicals are used indiscriminately on the rebels, their lands, and thus their livelihoods. She describes the food, difficult traveling conditions and where she stays, but doesn't give details of how she manages to stay healthy in those primitive conditions even when drinking river water. Badly blistered feet seem to be her only medical concern. Love comes into the story, but she leaves the reader guessing just how serious until the end of the book. The story is easiest to follow when she's describing her jail experiences which happen twice in the book. She must possess an amazing spirit to get along with so many different groups while gaining their trust as she pursues her goal of helping the Burmese by telling the world of the abuses by the repressive Ne Win government.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Descriptive not analystical.