The Anonymous Widower

Aung San Suu Kyi and the DJ

Years ago, I can remember Dave Lee Travis on Radio 1 on Sunday mornings, whilst I was writing Artemis. I suspect as a young mother in Oxford, Ms Suu Kyi was listening to the same program.

Aung San Suu Kyi then went back to Burma to care for her dying mother and for twenty four years she couldn’t return to the UK, as she feared any return to her family would mean the Generals wouldn’t let go back to Burma.  She couldn’t even return for the death of her husband, Michael Aris.

But during those years of isolation in Burma, she did at least have the BBC World Service, which kept her in touch and she listened to the shows of Dave Lee Travis, who briefly met her yesterday.

In some ways I can understand her isolation, although I’ve never suffered like she has.  When I had my stroke in Hong Kong, there was only CNN, that I could understand on the television. But at least, I could get BBC Radio 5 at most times through the Internet. Never has a broadcasting channel been so important to my sanity.

Today, Aung San Suu Kyi is praised in the first leader of The Times. The last sentence is something we should all remember.

She not only represents a better future for Burma, but testifies to the resilience of the human spirit in extreme adversity.

I very much agree with that. She has also been an extreme example to me, as to how to cope with the worst that life can throw at you. But then I’m not alone and thousands of miles from my friends and family.

In

June 20, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Health, World | Aung San Suu Kyi, BBC, Burma, Democracy, Family, Radio, Stroke