1120. To publish*****. Myanmar stories - Loss of diamond ring & Myanmar writers

On Sep 5, 2013, I visited Khin Khin Employment Agency in the afternoon. Khin Khin was shouting at her manager for submitting payment of her husband's tax in duplicate and thereby for being incompetent in his office work. She was wrapping something inside the tissue paper before discarding it into the dustbin.

"How much is it?" I asked as the shouting was so ferocious and loud. "$256," she showed me the tax statement which had a $256 (Credit). "The IRAS will not return the money."

"The IRAS does return the money if you write to them. Say you are desperate and broke. But it takes a few months to get the money back."  It can become destructive shouting at the manager who makes mistakes. He said: "I was paying so that you don't get fined by the IRAS." That was the excuse. This manager does not want to admit his errors but would talk his way out.

I went to see another Myanmar lady to make contact with Myanmar writers since I wanted to start a E-publishing business and met a retired editor of the old Myanmar government press - "The Light of Myanmar" or some equivalent name.

It will not be easy to get writers' work translated to English but she could do it. As to how good she is, it is hard to say as she does not have the track record. If a person has the track record, I cannot afford her services anyway. So it is a chicken and egg situation. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? We had a good discussion. No high profile authors. The legal contract, the copyrights, the royalty payments and the connections. She knew a publisher in Yangon and would talk to him.

Khin Khin phoned to say she would be going home as she had lost her diamond ring. She was much upset. This ring could be worth some money as it had around 20 diamonds but I would not know the actual costs. Later her manager came to say she found it. Inside the dustbin beside her desk.

Fortunately she thought of rummaging there. I did see her wrapping something inside the tissue paper while she was scolding the manager and I presumed it was rubbish, not a diamond ring! "Finding the diamond ring means I have not been dishonest in my life," she commented later. She is a devotee to Buddha and had a picture of Buddha and flowers on the wall above her desk. "I don't relate how honesty is related to Buddha but if you believe, it must be true."