Finding George Orwell in Burma Quotes

“had read a description of this ability to act so well in public in Czeslaw Milosz’s book The Captive Mind, in which he describes life in 1950s Poland under the authoritarian influences of Nazism and Stalinism. He writes that in such circumstances people must, of necessity, become actors and actresses. ‘One does not perform on a theatre stage,’ says Milosz, ‘but in the street, office, factory, meeting hall, or even the room one lives in. Such acting is a highly-developed craft that places a premium upon mental alertness. Before it leaves the lips every word must be evaluated as to its consequences. A smile that appears at the wrong moment, a glance that is not all it should be can occasion dangerous suspicions and accusations.”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull. Nineteen Eighty-Four             MYAUNGMYA”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“By using these informal informers, the MI have become incredibly effective, he said. The reason the system works so well is very simple: it is hard to tell who is an informer and who is not. The”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“cabbalistic”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“Burmese”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“The revolution is led by pigs with a vision of an egalitarian utopia free from tyrannical human beings, but their ideals are gradually abandoned as power goes to their heads and they become cruel and greedy. They decree that only pigs are allowed to eat the apples grown in the orchard (nutritionally essential for a pig’s brain, they claim), and they breed a terror squad of dogs to police the hens, sheep, cows and horses living on the farm. As the pigs take on the luxuries of the humans they fought to overthrow—sleeping in the farmhouse and swilling whisky—the other animals die of overwork and starvation. Orwell had based Animal Farm on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Stalin’s fearsome drive to collectivize the Soviet Union’s farmland, resulting in the death of millions of peasants.”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“Pagoda are the centre of Burmese spiritual life, and every town and village has one. People visit the pagoda daily or weekly to pay respect to the Buddha relics which are often enshrined there, to meditate, to give alms, or to attend the festivals held on religious holidays. The pagoda is considered a place of spirituality and learning. The stairways leading up to the platform are decorated with educational paintings from Buddhist legend, often depicting the moral lessons in the Jataka tales about the Buddha’s previous incarnations. The peaceful principles of Buddhism, which encourage wisdom and compassion, are instilled through these teachings. The”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“Big Brother really is everywhere.”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“They are simply opening up more and more schools so the system will look good on paper. It’s all bluff,’ said one of the professors. ‘It’s only education on paper. They build the building. They put up the sign. And that’s it. After that they go away. They don’t care about quality. They don’t care if the teachers are properly trained, or if the school is fully equipped.”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma

“We Burmese people are totally content,' he replied, hazing calmly into my eyes. 'Do you know why? Because we have nothing left. We have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed until there is nothing left.”
― Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma