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by Zoya Phan with Damien Lewis
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Wednesday, 01 July 2009 18:28 |
Little Daughter: A Memoir of Survival in Burma and the West
Author: Zoya Phan with Damien Lewis
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2009, 352 p.
Price: $32 U.S. (hardcover)
Reviewed by: David Calleja
Imagine you are walking a trail to school littered with landmines; education is restricted because you spend your life on the run between villages, living in jungles and refugee camps to avoid mortar shelling; chronic food shortages reduce you to eating grass roots; the school in a “new village” has been rebuilt for the fourth time because soldiers who want you dead burnt it down on the previous three occasions; all that shelters you and your family is a plastic sheet hung over a tree in the forest; you can never go back to your village because there is none to return to; then, when you finally manage to seek asylum in a safe country, you live in constant fear of being deported because you call for peace, freedom and democracy.
For individuals fleeing for safety from Burma, this is a normal life.
Your browser may not support display of this image.Zoya Phan, a young woman from Karen State, is lucky to simply be able to relate her account – as many cannot, and her story speaks for thousands of people who have lived through similar horrors.
Named after a Russian resistance fighter, Zoya is the face for Burma Campaign UK. She and her family have foregone stability to prevent deportation to Burma, where the military regime’s welcoming committee guarantees only bullets and pre-marked graves. She has seen hell engulf her village with her own eyes from childhood to teenage years, and has carried the message to act decisively throughout her adult life.
This girl from the jungle born to resistance fighters has forced a re-think in British foreign policy towards Burma and the effectiveness of aid. Her sincere honesty has roused the average Briton and political elites alike, and has afforded her the respect due any conflict survivor.
Zoya was born to fight. Her parents, committed resistance fighters, inspired her to be tough yet compassionate. Raised by a father who spent time away from home as part of his duties as President of the Karen National Union (KNU), Zoya relates the importance of seeking peace without compromise in her eloquent dialogue. Equally as influential is her mother, a battle hardened soldier, who tells of skinning pythons so that her platoon could eat.
Yet the constant message throughout is the value of sticking together as a family. Amidst the terror lies a humbling and wonderful picture of a simple childhood, making mud-pies on the floor of village school classrooms and treasured family moments she wishes never ended. The reader learns of the close kinship that develops among community members that both rejoice and mourn together.
The fear of expulsion from Thailand and the United Kingdom stalks her at virtually every corner. Many of us cannot readily relate to this unless we have traced the same steps. But sometimes, life hands us a slice of good fortune and there is a chance to make a difference. Zoya’s moment came at a rally on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 60th birthday in London. Dressed in traditional attire, her brief but powerful speech put the spotlight back on events in her homeland and made BBC headlines.
Although Zoya’s book does not have the brutal impact of Loung Ung’s First They Killed My Father, you do not have to survive being a child soldier to be the driving force of change. There is no substitute in the English language for having your natural life progression interrupted by the horrors of conflict. As Zoya painstakingly recalls upon discovering a dead body floating in a river: “…His back was shattered, as he had been forced to work as a porter, carrying heavy loads to build barricades for the military junta...once the man could lift or move no more, after numerous beatings, he was thrown into the river....”
One characteristic shared by the Karen and all Burmese is the tendency to laugh as a means of coping with hardship. It is impossible not to smile at this lady whose first experience with putting on lipstick she finds to differ wildly from using vitamin pills, or as she struggles to come to terms with many modern conveniences such as electrical plugs and escalators.
While Little Daughter is an obvious collector’s item for all people with an interest in the tragic events affecting ordinary civilians in Burma, readers will find themselves drawn to a woman who speaks from the heart and shows maturity beyond her years. Like Kim Phúc, a famous Vietnam era anti-war icon, has been saying for many years – "We all yearn for the right to live in a peaceful homeland."
Zoya Phan, the woman from the jungle, is one brave warrior and an excellent advocate to call for an end to the genocide in Burma.
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Little Daughter: A Memoir of Survival in Burma and the West
