RN Documentary: Waiting to go home
Series: RN Documentaries
From: Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Length: 00:29:29
There are 140,000 Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai Burma border. Some have been there for more than 2 decades. They live a life that is neither temporary nor permanent, in harsh jungle conditions. I traveled to one such camp – Mae Ra Mo Loung and found there a collective example of the resilience of the human spirit.
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Piece Description
There are 140,000 Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai Burma border. Some have been there for more than 2 decades. They live a life that is neither temporary nor permanent, in harsh jungle conditions. I traveled to one such camp – Mae Ra Mo Loung and found there a collective example of the resilience of the human spirit.
Transcript
NOTE: Around 15’00-15’30 – the narrator uses the word “shit” in the context of: this whole garden is fertilized by guinea pig shit.
Radio Netherlands presents Waiting to go Home: Life on the Thai Burma border.
The programme is produced and presented by Dheera Sujan
SFX – crèche 1 ‘39
This song roughly translated means something like this:
We’re now living in Maeramo and we remember our homeland Kawthulay and when we remember our home, our tears fall because we will never forget and we ask God to help us one day go home.
Both the song and the dream behind it has been passed down to this group of 5 year olds by their teachers and their parents. These children were born into a world that for them is neither permanent nor temporary. A land they have no kinship to, and a home they cannot claim. The children are Karen and they’re singing of a homeland they’ve never seen....
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Dmae Roberts
Posted on December 20, 2005 at 07:41 AM | Permalink
Review of RN Documentary: Waiting to go home
Another excellent documentary by Dheera Sujan of Radio Netherlands. This half-hour piece gives us a detailed examination of the life and dilemma of Burmese refugees currently living in Thailand with no home and no hope of going home. Like the Southeast Asian refugees who escaped the aftereffects of the Vietnam War, the 140,000 refugees from Burma live in poverty conditions along the Thai-Burmese border, some for more than 20 years. Sujan traveled to the Mae Ra Mo Loung camp and talked with refugees of many nationalities and social workers there about the harsh living conditions, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, political divisions--pretty much everything that you would expect in a small city but with more emphasis because of the temporary conditions of the refugee camp. Still there is a sense of hope and strength in the residents there especially for the children as they embrace new techonology and education. "Waiting To Go Home" is a timely piece and can easily be partnered with another Radio Netherlands half hour to make a great and pertinent world affairs one-hour special.
Advisory: "Guinea Pig shit" is spoken very quickly 15 minutes into the piece.