Insight Myanmar27 Heinä 2025

Oslo’s Lost Accord

Episode #369: “I promised Aung San Suu Kyi and committed myself to work for democracy and human rights in the country as long as necessary. And still it is necessary!” So says Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway and a longtime supporter of Myanmar’s democratic struggle. In this conversation, he reflects on his decades of advocacy for Myanmar, from a surreptitious 1997 visit to Yangon where he first met Suu Kyi, to his post-retirement work at the Oslo Center, which he co-founded to support democratic institutions globally.

Bondevik describes Norway’s strategy toward Myanmar as one of principled engagement: opposing the junta while supporting civil society and political parties. Though optimistic during Myanmar’s tentative liberalization in the 2010s, he now concedes that Norway and others may have placed too much faith in the reform of Myanmar’s transition period. The military’s lurking presence was underestimated, ultimately culminating in the 2021 coup.

Acknowledging the diplomatic dilemma around formally recognizing the National Unity Government, Bondevik calls for coordinated global action, combining pressure on the military with support for the democracy movement. He critiques ASEAN’s passivity and highlights China’s dual role—economically empowering the junta and holding sway over ethnic armed groups—as a major obstacle to international leverage. Yet he remains hopeful, urging Norway and others to sustain diplomatic efforts and keep Myanmar on the global agenda.

“It’s very easy to be pessimistic and to give up… but we know from history that it’s possible to change the situation.”

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Strong Determination

Episode #584: Lora Roy, a longtime Vipassana meditator in the S.N. Goenka tradition, reflects on a lifelong effort to live truthfully from direct experience rather than fear, social expectation, or ri...

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Ground Rules

Episode #583: “If you can maim them, you can get multiple people off of a battlefield, and it’s also a terror tactic as well.” Collin Mayfield, an American journalist and documentary filmmaker, spent ...

4 Elo 1h 32min

Open Source Awakening

Episode #582: “If you're having weird meditative experiences, I'll be happy to talk to you about those for free. I won't even take a donation.” Daniel Ingram, a physician, meditation teacher, author o...

3 Elo 2h 21min

Bonus Episode: Shake It Off

In this bonus episode, we share a special online fundraiser for Better Burma led by Richmond Heath, a certified TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises) provider and trainer based in Australia, wh...

1 Elo 52min

Never Break the Chain

Episode #581: Tin Tin Htar Myint, a medical epidemiologist based in France who has worked in vaccines for more than two decades, describes Myanmar’s immunization collapse as a problem of governance as...

31 Heinä 1h 43min

The Missing Self

Episode #580: Professor P. L. Dhar, a longtime Vipassana teacher in the S.N. Goenka tradition, reflects on his life-long spiritual journey. A decade immersed in Vedanta and other Indian traditions, al...

30 Heinä 2h 15min

Rangoon Calling

Episode #579: “I did not expect to be conversing in Urdu with someone in Yangon.” Bilal Hassan, a Pakistani creator and doctor, traveled to Burma after noticing how much of Karachi’s everyday culture ...

28 Heinä 1h 42min

Past the Commentaries

Episode #578: Aye Myat Thwe is a Burmese lay Buddhist practitioner raised inside the Mahasi Vipassana world, where devotion, meditation, and study were braided into ordinary family life. Watching her ...

27 Heinä 1h 54min