Dear litte brother

[pziwa@xxxxxxxxxxx]

A letter from a Rangoon about the problems people face under the 
military regime. The letter,translated from Win Naing,sent via a friend 
was received in the U.S in June 1995 but names and personal data have 
been removed to protect the identity of the writer.

My dear litte brother,

I am happy you are well. My family is barely surviving because prices 
are so high these days. At least I don't have to worry about you now. 
Our latest misfortune concerns the city beautification program. We 
had been hearing about how households are ordered to come up with 
payment for road repairs and to paint their houses as part of the 
campaign for the Tourism Year. It never really hit home until we 
received a similar order from the local State Law and Order 
Restoration Council. On June 19,we were asked to pay 4,000 kyat for 
the maintenance of our street and the sanitary lane in the back. Each 
apartment was told to come up with the amount without any exception.
You know, a household with both the husband and wife working makes 
only about 2,000 kyat per month. Many of us are in trouble. Do we 
forget about our daliy needs and pay up what they demand? I don't 
understand why they are collecting money from us.Maintenance is the 
job of the municipal department or the government.
There are about 800 to 1,000 people on every block on a give street 
in downtown Rangoon. Each street has four blocks and one block has at 
least 200 apartments.Four blocks would have at least 800 apartments. 
Funds collected per street should come up to 3,200,00 kyat.
Commodity prices are also skyrocketing. Would you believe one bag 
(about 32 bushels) of rice now costs 2,500 kyat. The price of 
edible oil also is high. One viss (about 3.6 pounds) costs 240 kyat. 
A viss of beef is 200 kyat, beans cost 100 kyat per viss, and salt 
per viss is 10 kyat. It used to be 40 pya.
People are also unhappy because the SLORC is trying to sell 
electricity to Thailand while they are made to pay 2.50 kyat per unit 
in Rangoon. The price per unit was only 50 pya before. Why are we 
selling electricity to another country while a small town like 
Darbein which is just 21 miles away from Rangoon still does not have 
any electricity?
We understand that the official rate for the U.S. dollar is kyat.But 
the dollar is actually being traded betwwen 120 and 150 kyat on the 
blackmarket. How do you correct this problem when the Tourism Year 
begins? I hope the tourists who intend to visit Myanmar relize that 
we starved and toiled to pay for the renovation of the streets they 
will be walking on in 1996.


End.