Aung San Suu Kyi Wins

It was back in 2007 that I started blogging. Part of it was that I figured my demented genius was simply too awesome not to be shared, but it was mostly because I liked saying “I have a blog.” Those early days were full of mistakes and wobbles with my writing – when I look back it’s quite coarse and unpolished, but I’ve left it alone because, well, it is what it is. At any rate, my first post was on November 9, 2007 and my first subject was one that I’m very happy to be writing about again tonight in this short post – Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. That old post was about the failed protests and yet another crushed bid for democracy in which ASSK (as I’ll call her) could only watch from behind her gates. But happily, tonight, for the first time in 24 years, ASSK has left Burma and landed in Bangkok.

The changes that Burma has gone through in the past few years have been nothing short of amazing, and the country seems to be on a steady path for real reform. It’s certainly not there yet, but it takes baby steps, and one of the surest indications that real change is happening is ASSK’s release. At her arrival tonight at Suvarnabhumi Airport she looked healthy and ready to dive into her new life, which was great to see.

As this story from AP shows, the last time ASSK was let out of her house, it was a different world. The Iron Curtain was up; Regan was just leaving office; Prozac had just been invented; George Michael’s ‘Faith’ was a huge hit; and I was in grade 7, although she probably wasn’t aware of that.

Aung San Suu Kyi in 1990.

It’s a very different world that she’s entering into, but she gives hope to thousands of her fellow countrymen who have been displaced by war, and inspiration to regular folks around the world – including me – who have seen more grace, strength, and passion from this 66-year old woman than they’ll likely ever know.