What is This Life or Forum?

Dr Maung Maung Nyo

“What is this life if,, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?”

I learned it in a poem for ever first
When I was in the premedical class
At the No.1 State High School in Mandalay
That was in 1954 in its heydays.

Now there is a forum here
That we like it so dear
Reading it daily near
Blogs and blots blur or clear

Written in English or Pidgin
In prose poem fact or Fiction
That we try to understand its meaning
We’re Burmese capable of gleaning or interpreting!

Bloggers’ ages vary from eighteen to eighty
From undergrads to postgraduates of lately
From singles and spinsters to newly weds and granny
Posting personal things to political themes plenty

Some supporting ASSK and NLD so obvious
Others claiming neutral and NGOs but
Dancing delicately with the demonic regime
They claim they are the true benevolent beings.

Some suggest us to start simple solutions
To raise the standard of medical education

In Burma by collecting money and books
From abroad and donate them to look
Like replacement for lost books at IM 1 or updated about
It’s like sprinkling sesame seeds to elephant’s mouth.

When the Nargis Cyclone hit Lower Burma
It was the most severe natural disaster ever
More than a Lakh died and many more missing
Properties destroyed and earth inundated within
Foreign governments and NGOs offered to help
But the government sat still doing nothing else
Some in the forum were furious demanding action
They forgot the forum is a forum and not an organization!

There are no office bearers on this forum
Except the moderators or coordinators as locum
But they wield quite a lot of lethal weapon or power
They may stop, delay or withdraw a blog for ever
Without ever telling the reason why to the author
It’s not here- say but personal experience to abhor.

Although professional in its statement and design
Non-medics and others can join without any sign
Some pseudonyms are really funny they can claim
Anglo-Pali or Pali-Burmese combination names
Sometimes animal and bizarre Burmese nomenclature
It really chuckles me to see them as doctors in this endeavor!

Some people became doctors because of their matric marks
Or because their mothers have money from the marts
They just don’t know what a doctor, degree or diploma means
They think every qualification is a higher degree in the profession
Some think his specialty is the most special in the whole world
I remember Ledi Sayadaw ridiculing D.Lit. of the RU offered!

A university has its vision and mission
It also has a logo emblem and diction
The peacock is the emblem of RU and Burma
Red Cross is emblem of the society all over the world

Only the snake and staff represents medicine
Asclepius is the owner of that serpent-twined staff scene
One reader told me a doctor claims Nightingale
To be the epitome of physicians in the hilarious way!

Oh, Dear me! What can I say?
When people have their way
Right or wrong they don’t care
They don’t have time to stand and stare
In that situation they are not to blame
They are not seeking their fame
Or they probably don’t care their name
After all, life is too short and no one is to blame!

Dr Maung Maung Nyo
12.5.2010 (original)