My photo of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah.
A selection of my essays and articles. Beasts and turmoil! Art and warfare! More of my Burma articles are linked at www.projectmaje.org My epic 2023 essay “A Death in Arakan” is about Clive Branson, a British Communist poet and painter who fought in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in World War II Burma as a tank commander. “Our Riot Elk” is my bramble & brimstone essay on wolves of Yellowstone National Park & the 2020 urban uprising in Portland, Oregon. "Fire-Hardened" tells the saga of US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Detachment 101, a multi-ethnic force Allied against Fascism in World War 2 Burma In Sept. 2020 issue of The Sentinel, a Special Forces veterans’ magazine. “Drawing Soldiers in Burma: Reflections on the War Artists” centers around Anthony Gross, one of Britain’s War Artists of World War 2. He painted battle scenes and Indigenous peoples in Arakan and Chin Hills, Burma. The WW2 story of Anthony Gross leads into discussion of ongoing conflict in Burma (Myanmar) and the roles of artists in conflict zones. In “Troop Withdrawal Crucial for Peace in Myanmar” I wrote that there could be no real peace in Burma (Myanmar) without troop withdrawal from occupied ethnic areas. Published in 2017, more true than ever since the 2020 coup. With “Build A New Green City: Use Urban Planning for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh” I suggested a better way forward for the massive, hastily built refugee camps. My 2017 travel essay "Beasts of the Northern Mountains" has everything you want to know about the mithuns (forest ox) of remote, embattled Chin State, Burma. Numerous photos. “The Dragon Mothers Polish Their Metal Coils” is about Kayan women in Burma, their traditional metal neck rings, their matriarchal power and their exploitation. "The Ruby Ape: A Deadly Storm and a Lethal Regime” is my two-part essay on the aftermath and political context of Burma's devastating 2008 Cyclone Nargis. "The Ruby Ape" Part 1 "The Ruby Ape" Part 2 “Escapist Entertainment: Hollywood Movies of Burma” examined the “Green Hell” depiction of Burma over decades of cinema. |