“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.” This quote has been attributed to everyone from St. Augustus to Bruce Lee. I don't know who actually said it, but it rings with a powerful truth. At cocktail parties, when people find out that I am a published author, they often say to me, “I also want to be a writer, but I don't know what to write about.”

Shan States is a state that fulfil with natural resources, good weather and nice environment. In addition to that, our land barely faced natural disaster. However, we come through the man-made problems that created by the Burmese Army. The problems and trouble that caused by Burmese Army, send people into poverty. Moreover, the Burmese Army enslave people; confiscate land, farms and paddy fields. Repeatedly, they forced people to work for them. Worse, hundreds of people were persecuted, houses were burned and destroyed.  

The RCSS strongly supports the UN effort of trying to wipe out the drug from the world. For decades, poppy plantations have cultivated in the Golden Triangle, Shan State, Burma. Local people double poppy growing percentage and around 5000 - 6000 tones of opium production per year.

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=OqcO16az6R8

For the last seven years Antonio has been working as an adventure and martial arts author in Asia. in 2007 and 2008 he went into Burma with the Shan State Army. This radio interview on English Radio, Taipei, takes place while he is attending emergency medic training in the Philippine.
This video was produced by Andy To.

Enjoy the video. And please, say a prayer for the people of Shanland.

“Your training is a lonely war.” When you train, you battle yourself. You wrestle your internal demons forcing your mind and body to bend. We all know the story of the sculpture who was asked how he carved such a perfect warrior from stone. He answered, “The warrior as already there, I just removed the excess stone.”

On a bamboo bed in a dark clinic at Loi Tailang, a woman sits with her three children. One has a severe foot burn, which is all infected and ugly looking. It is very common for children in the rural villages to be burned when cooking pots overturn on the fire at the centre of their hut. At the Loi Tailang temple there is a young monk who was horribly disfigured by similar burns which cover his face and head. A health worker explained to me that in the villages burns are often treated with a poultice of cow dung or with oil, both of which worsen the effects of the injuries.

Burmese people are now suffering from the great impact of Cyclone Nargis. It is very shocking to hear that the death toll has increased dramatically three days after it hit last Saturday. An Asian expert has predicted that the death toll could mount up to 250,000. However, the US diplomat said on Wednesday more than 100,000 people have been killed with millions homeless. This is a great horrifying news for Burmese community from inside and outside the country as well as people around the world.

New figures from the UN have the death toll, possibly, a 216,000.The junta still hasn’t allowed any aid workers into the country. They allowed two plane loads of food and medicines in but then immediately commandeered everything. Now the US refuses to send anymore aid, unless aid workers are allowed to accompany the materials and see to their distribution.

The Seven Alliances of the Burmese democracy movement a united front of umbrella organizations representing the majority of Burma's ethnic and democracy groups in exile - today calls on the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to suspend the referendum nationwide, and allow all international aid into the country immediately.

Climate change is making its presence felt in Burma. We are deeply saddened at the new levels of suffering inflicted on so many of our people by Cyclone Nargis, and compounded by the inappropriate and wholly inadequate response of the authorities. Just in the past 18 months Rangoon has been hit by massive flooding, a tornado, and now a catastrophic cyclone. People in Burma are now starting to die as a result of climate change in unprecedented numbers. If global warming continues to increase, the impacts and realities of climate change will become even more devastating.