ࡱ> )+(a jbjbdd "eerrrrrrrJJJJ V En,RMfrrr.rr$rrrrrrb ruJ 0ErDDFrom  HYPERLINK "http://courant.com/" \t "_blank" courant.com -------------------- Eyes Opened To The Advantages Of Being American -------------------- HANNA INGBER November 26, 2005 Google's new e-mail feature has changed living abroad. I can "Google Talk" - or talk through a speaker and headset - from Thailand to my family and friends in New York for the price of an Internet connection. A call is virtually free and crystal clear. If only Google could fix the 12-hour time difference. My boyfriend does not have it so easy. He lives with me in Thailand, but his parents live in Rangoon, Burma. I talk to my parents weekly. He has been here for 16 months and has not spoken with his once. They do not own a telephone, let alone have Google Talk. We met in Rangoon two years ago. We worked at the Myanmar Times newspaper, under the repressive government that calls Burma Myanmar. I thought Aung Moe Win (nicknamed Morning) looked sweet but scrawny. Yet he did wear the cutest green, wire-framed glasses. They could have come from a boutique in the East Village. After a few months, I e-mailed a friend about Morning. "We hang out all the time, and I really like him," I wrote. "But he's so not my type." "Hanna," she replied, "your type has been jerks. Maybe you need a new type." Point taken. The longyi-wearing man and I started dating. We had our share of obstacles. I made five times his salary because I am white. Morning may not have been able to buy me jewelry, but he taught me his language, introduced me to his family and took me traveling around the country. As my stint in Burma was coming to an end, Morning tried to return with me to America. He wanted to travel abroad and study - the junta closed universities for five years, out of fear of student unrest, just as he graduated from high school. Through connections at the newspaper, he managed to get a passport. But, after an interview, the U.S. Embassy denied him the visa. He said to me: "Poor men can't go to America." Wanting him to see the modern world and try Baskin Robbins, we went to Thailand as a goodbye vacation. In Chiang Mai, he got a job with the Irrawaddy, the leading publication in exile on Burma, and decided to stay. He now works for the Burmese pro-democracy movement. If Morning went back to Burma, he'd be arrested. After 10 months in New York, I returned to Morning and Southeast Asia. Now we live together in Thailand, under a theoretically democratic regime. We can sit in coffee shops bad-mouthing politicians without fear of military spies. I have written about corruption, sex workers and undocumented migrant workers. In Burma, even the newspaper's entertainment section was censored. In Thailand, the electricity rarely goes out. I can shower when I want and never have to make dinner in the dark. Some things, though, have not changed. I am still a privileged American with more safety nets than I could ever need. If free-lancing fails and I run out of money, I can move in with my parents in New York. I can waitress and make back the money in a summer. As I work on my graduate school applications, anxious about getting in, Morning looks at me like I am crazy. "Your future is set," he says. "You just have to work hard. For me, I have no idea what my future will bring." Forget graduate school, Morning still dreams of college. Some American schools offer scholarships to Burmese students, but they are almost impossible to obtain. Even if you have the funding, getting the visa is far from easy. I lose sleep over whether my graduate school application essay sounds compelling. My boyfriend wonders whether Thailand will change its policy. Will the Burmese junta pressure its neighbor to crack down on the opposition movement? Will he be forced to go back to Burma? Will his name be added to the list of political prisoners? During the past two years, Morning has taught me what it means to hold an American passport. Though I find Southeast Asia captivating, I know it would be very different if I were not a visitor. I have learned to cherish both my passport and my supportive family just a Google Talk away. Hanna Ingber, 24, is a free-lance writer living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant 34?@6~6OJQJ]^J0JOJQJ^JjOJQJU^J OJQJ^J  1h/ =!"#$%@@@ NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH DA@D Default Paragraph FontZi@Z  Table Normal :V 4 l4a _H(k@(No List 6U@6 Hyperlink >*B*ph z z Q8 Q8M(saDetWSM\1D}  3?X#)fo@M30 @UnknownGTimes New Roman5Symbol3 Arial"qh1&1&g !r4d3Q@ From courantHanna Joshua Julian Oh+'0x  4 @ LX`hp'From courantHannaNormalJoshua Julian2Microsoft Word 11.3@@| @| g  ՜.+,0 hp  'Hanna  From courant Title !"#$%&'*Root Entry Fhv,1TableWordDocument"SummaryInformation(DocumentSummaryInformation8 CompObjXObjectPoolhvhv FMicrosoft Word DocumentNB6WWord.Document.8