The World is Watching Survivor, Burmese Edition--Chapters 12 and 13

Darwin's Fittest? This sounds like an episode of Survivor set in a small village in Burma! Will the tourists outwit and outlast their captors? Who will survive? The fate of the group is set against the larger backdrop of the plight of the people of Burma struggling to resist a corrupt and abusive military regime. Both seem to have the odds stacked against them.

While Harry is trying to save his friends by getting worldwide coverage of their disappearance, they are mourning Walter, digesting the fact that they cannot leave the village and, oh yes, fighting off malaria. Since they don't understand the language that they hear, they don't know that they are being lied to--about Walter's death, about the impossibility of rebuilding the bridge and most important, about the real reason they have been taken to No Name Place. Also, with their usual disregard of the customs and ways of other cultures, they refuse to accept herbs which the tribe offers to help them to regain their health.

I was intrigued that the Burmese government is allowing the families to come into the country to look for their loved ones. Bibi tells us that she has convinced them to see this as an opportunity to get some good press for Burma to counteract the prevailing negative international opinion. They know the world is watching.

Is it possible that this will influence them to change some of their abusive policies regarding human rights? Slim chance, but maybe all this media attention focused on the country will have some positive effect on the way they do business. I think that Amy Tan created this fictional tale of a small group in danger in order to shine a spotlight on an entire population in peril. Hopefully this will increase our awarenss of the past history as well as the current situation in Burma.

By the end of Chapter 13, the families and the TV crew have brought the tourists' plight to public attention. With the government's help, the search is on. And the group has finally realized that the "medicine" of the women of the village can indeed help to cure them. Are things looking up? I sure hope so!