Suu Kyi and her unplayed piano.

閱讀有關昂山素姬(Aung San Suu Kyi)的事，只是從這一年開始的吧。我從不對政治感興趣，關於緬甸這個國家亦認識不多。直到上過無心插柳的電影RP課，以及這個semester的english through current event，開始了解她的故事，亦會為緬甸軍政府的事感氣憤。

當年昂山素姬的丈夫因癌疾在英國病重，希望能在有生之年到緬甸見妻子最後一面，但軍政府拒發簽證。軍政府暗示素姬可去英國，但離開後就不要指望回緬甸，變相要她流亡。最後素姬為了國家，忍痛不赴英。結果其夫於1999年病逝。

然後，於舉辦"Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign"中，愛爾蘭歌手Damien Rice為素姬獻上"Unplayed Piano"這首為她寫的新歌。有點慚愧，放在iTune很久的一首歌，最近才知道它背後的意義。由"Closer"這部電影的主題曲"A Blower's Daughter"開始我便喜歡Damien Rice，在他於老拍檔Lisa Hannigan寫的"Unplayed Piano"中，講述的是在昂山素姬軟禁的家裡，連她喜歡的鋼琴壞了，軍政府也拒絕為她修好。

我不願評論緬甸軍政府的做法，畢竟我知道的太少，但我了解的是，昂山素姬一生為緬甸的自由和人權問題努力，得到的下場卻是犧牲的自己的自由和人權。

她曾向世界呼喚“Please use your liberty to promote ours!"，然而，國際未曾能夠營救昂山素姬，當聯合國要求緬甸結束政治鎮壓時，投下反對票的，只有中國及俄羅斯。我想，她的夢想還有很長的一段路。

Unplayed Piano的歌詞:

Come and see me

Sing me to sleep

Come and free me 

Hold me if i need to weep 

Maybe it’s not the season 

Maybe it’s not the year

Maybe there’s no good reason

Why i’m locked up inside

Just cause they wanna hide me

The moon goes bright

The darker they make my night

Unplayed pianos 

Are often by a window

In a room where nobody else goes

She sits alone with her silent song

Somebody bring her home

Unplayed piano

Still holds a tune

Lock on the lid (years years have passed by)

In a stale, stale room

Maybe it’s not that easy

Or maybe it’s not that hard

Maybe they could release me

Let the people decide

I’ve got nothing to hide

I’ve done nothing wrong

So why have i been here so long?

Unplayed pianos 

Are often by a window

In a room where nobody else goes

She sits alone with her silent song

Somebody bring her home

Unplayed pianos

Are often by a window

In a room where nobody else goes

She sits alone with her silent songs

Somebody bring her home

Unplayed piano

Still holds a tune

Years pass by

In the changing of the moon

[延伸閱讀]

1. Youtube - Unplayed Piano by Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan

2. Free Aung San Suu Kyi

3. 緬甸起訴昂山素姬惹國際關注

4. Wikipedia - Aung San Suu Kyi

Get me out of my coffin!

2009.5.25 MRI Scanning 

By the way, that's not me. Just a random picture from the internet.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)，you would probably know it from somewhere, from TV shows, all kinds of documentaries. So, I've actually tried it for my very first time (and hopefully the only time) and I'm going to tell you how it feels inside the little noisy coffin.

I got the weirdest position for the 30 minutes MRI scan, since I need to do that mainly for my hand, so I'm not lying on the machine but to freefall on the machine. So it wasn't that coffin-like since I don't think there would be someone sleeping in it like that. I did not expect it would take 30 minutes even just for a hand scan and you just cannot move at all and they would just tie you up.

The worst thing of all is that the pressure or nervous of having the scanning, but the injection of some kind of contrast agent for shading. The nurse there tried to inject it somewhere near my right wrist, but later she found out I was having an imaging for my hands, and then she tried to find another place to put the needle in. But she could hardly find a better place so she just inject for like four, or five times? Alright this is not the first time they said it's hard to find my blood vessels, but please, my both arms are covered up with bandages afterwards!

And in fact the contrast agent may lead to life-threatening disorder and there is a probability of 1/200000 that I may actually die! Good luck! And put me in a better coffin by then.