Burmese Connection. Ashish Basu

minority tribes were excluded from the agenda. Aung was surprised to see the process of national reconciliation implode; his Burma had become a fiefdom run by a few lords who made decisions for the many. Those few lords cared about their ostentatious lifestyles and their inflated egos, not much else. The downward slide toward fiefdom happened rapidly, and all opposition was stifled systematically.

      After General Ne Win’s declaration, a part of Aung felt that he had wasted his life thus far. In twenty years’ time, he had come one full circle with almost nothing to show for it. Shans had no peace, no prosperity, and no say in the Burmese national government in Rangoon. The only difference was now the oppressors were the Tatmadaw full of Burmar and Mon people rather than the Japanese or the British. In some ways, the outside occupation was better because the locals were united; among the locals, there was empathy and understanding of one another. In Aung’s opinion, Burmese fighting against Burmese was worse because the biggest loser was Burma.

      That was hardly any consolation for Aung. To him, his youth, the bloody battles he fought, the sacrifices he and his comrades made as part of the resistance, and the sleepless nights he spent in hammocks and tree branches in the Kachin Hills were all a colossal waste! He could not imagine baby Win living his life under the army. Aung was desperate to give Win a chance. Gradually and very painfully, Aung was realizing that he would not be able to achieve that goal in Burma.

      Aung felt dejected and broken. He wanted to hide his agony but didn’t know how. He also did not know how things fell apart so quickly.

      2020: San Diego trip

      Kip Kimura’s early morning start was going great! Kip knew he had to plan a trip soon to meet up with Dr. Kang, the researcher in the High-Performance Wireless team, at the SCRIPPS Institute in San Diego. That team at SCRIPPS was consulting with Kip’s company for a wireless infrastructure project in Thailand. A couple of times, he had almost booked his tickets, but something important always came up, and he ended up postponing the trip. He always told himself that it was a day trip to San Diego, after all, and he could plan it any time he wanted with a week’s notice to Dr. Kang. Dr. Kang always made himself available.

      This time, however, several things fell in place. Kip himself was not over committed; United Airlines had his favorite seat in business class at the right price; Dr. Kang was available, and because of the lockdown, Kip had agreed to drive down to Dr. Kang’s home office in Chula Vista. So, with all the stars aligned the right way, Kip confidently decided to make the trip. The project was not on a tight schedule, and they knew that the wireless technology specifications could change again.

      Kip Kimura had obtained a license and started “ConSec” in San Rafael, California, almost immediately after he took early retirement from the US Army. The idea of ConSec, or Consulting in Security, came from Kip’s army buddy Tim Kramer, who eventually became co-owner of the company. ConSec specialized in physical and cybersecurity, breach prevention, mitigation, and conflict resolution internationally. Tim and Kip had a unique set of skills in ConSec’s area of specialization because they were involved in similar work for the Armed Forces and US Department of Defense (DoD). They still maintained their connections with the DoD and the US Army.

      The conflict resolution part of their work required Kip and Tim to have a very wide network of international connections. Some of those were through the government agencies, and some of those were outside the formal government structures. That practice was Kip’s area of focus. As the world became more connected, one side effect was social media. With social media taking over the world, tribalism increased considerably. Whether it was election interference in a foreign land or fighting a pandemic, or other kinds of nefarious media influencing, tribalism was out and about everywhere you went.

      Much of ConSec’s recent work focused on resolving those types of conflicts, identifying the sources, and preventing those from reoccurring. As a team, they were never short of work; people knew about them in ConSec’s niche market. They were not rich yet, but with a steady caseload from law enforcement teams all over the country and their contacts in the Department of Defense, they were busy. That was part of the reason for the delay in planning the trip to San Diego, California.

      Kip’s Lyft driver dropped him at the San Francisco International Airport with plenty of time to spare. Kip managed to check his email and even finished the coffee he purchased at the terminal. He was quite elated when he saw that the flight was departing on time. With COVID-19 lockdowns everywhere, one could never be sure when the flights actually departed. With so many new restrictions, a lot could go wrong; most of the airlines were not yet allowed to sell all the seats. Some flight routes might not be commercially viable, Kip thought.

      He hoped that the US Congress would be able to approve a financial relief package for the airlines. After the flight took off into the bright blue California morning, Kip settled down in his seat and opened his tablet to watch the Netflix movie he had not finished last time. The WWII true story was about three brothers saving several hundred Jews in Northern Europe by hiding them in a dense forest. For over two years, the brothers ran a small makeshift village of Jews in the middle of the forest. It had its school, communal kitchen, and ragtag security force. Kip loved the first hour of the movie—the acting and the direction were great. Adversity really brought people together.

      Several minutes after the flight reached cruising altitude, just about when the flight attendants were getting ready with their service carts, a passenger started feeling unwell. She was three rows behind Kip’s, so he could not see much, but he could feel the anxiety in the voices of the flight attendants.

      After a few minutes of tense discussion and snippets of conversations from a couple of passengers near her, Kip heard the senior flight attendant say, “I would go and talk to the captain. He might consider landing in Burbank so that she can get immediate medical attention. We are not far from our destination of San Diego, but Burbank is even closer—could make a difference of fifteen minutes.”

      With those words, the flight attendant went away for several minutes. When she got back, she said, “I tried to explain, but the captain is reluctant to consider landing in Burbank because it would change the connecting flight options from San Diego and save twenty minutes. He did not think it would make a material difference, also Air Traffic Control might not be able to clear us for landing immediately.”

      On hearing that statement from the flight attendant, the passengers who were nearby started reacting. A male voice that sounded elderly said, “Twenty minutes can make a lot of difference when someone is unwell. You go and say that to your captain, young lady.”

      The flight attendant seemed to make an attempt to say something, “Sir, I understand, but—”

      Before she finished her sentence, another lady’s voice picked up the thread, a bit more aggressively, “What is wrong with your airline people? Why are you worrying about flight connections when someone is unwell? Someone’s life is more important than your flight schedules. You know, planes will fly tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that. I cannot believe this!”

      That last bit of lecturing opened the floodgate! More passengers spoke up; several of them had graphic tales to tell—stories of suffering uncles, cousins, and aunts started coming out of many seats. One lady spoke of a very sick aunt who got stuck on a plane in New York last month for three hours just because the captain parked the plane away from the gate, and the passengers were bused to the terminal. Her sick aunt had to wait for her wheelchair, which took a lifetime to arrive.

      They asked the flight attendant to go and talk to the captain one more time and persuade him. The experienced flight attendant realized the direction in which the conversation was going and how quickly things could go south. She left before things went out of control. This time, the flight attendant came back quickly and said that the captain had agreed, and the flight would land at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank in about twenty-two minutes. Pretty quick, thought Kip.

      Kip watched the whole thing unfold and wondered if he should inform Dr. Kang that he would be delayed for his 11:00 a.m. meeting in Chula Vista, but his AT&T iPhone had no bars, so he decided to wait for the plane to land. On landing in Burbank, he would have signal and could call then. He was still