The Burma Orphanage Project!

Introducing the aptly named, ‘Burma Orphanage Project’!

To avoid confusion, it is a project! A project I want to undertake that will help a Burmese orphanage. One in particular, as there are a countless orphanages littering Burma and it would indeed be a monumental task to assist all! However I am not adversely hostile to the idea of expanding operations in the future, if it received positive results. I believe that any help or assistance you can give to someone who is disadvantaged is better than nothing!

I could have perhaps thought of something a little bit more sparky. Something that would catch the eye but I am not in the marketing business. The truth is that the Burmese Government, would loath to be affiliated with an orphanage, or even the word ‘orphanage!’ Many are forced to rename themselves or face closure. You will find many a ‘Child Development Centre’ or the like in Burma.

Basically - I want to get involved with helping the ‘Peniel Children Home' which is situated in Kalaymyo in northern Burma. The director, Zohmingthanga has made his need clear and when Dad and I visited we were able to give a small gift which fed the children for one month. The need for a new building and for regular sponsor for basic provisions like food is still essential.

I intend to run the Potter’s alf in July with Tom to raise money for the structure but I need help with the regular sponsor. If we could pool resources then we could make a positive impact. I know this is asking a lot in this time of economic uncertainty! But resources don’t necessarily need to be financial! We are blessed to have such a diverse family with many different skills and talents. If anyone has any ideas about how I can make this project effective and have a deep impact then please don’t hesitate.

If you do decide to provide a regular monthly sponsorship then remember it is investing in some one’s future! Like we have committed to saving in Tom’s Natwest saver scheme, we in effect are investing in our own future and there is nothing wrong with that, but £10 a month in Burma, cumulatively, could make a massive difference to someone else’s future!

This is all very much still on the drawing board. Thoughts and ideas welcome.

Here are some pictures of conditions...



Just under 30 children all live in this upstairs



This is the roof that lets in the water during the raining season, and causing floods downstairs.



The pretty basic toilets they all share!



The building from the outside!



And some of the children as we handed out fruit when we left!

I wish you could see the video of them singing to us when we first arrived. Of all the places we visited it was the one that moved me most. I don't believe that Dad's involvement through Shwekey was by chance. I think us Bettanys can help here!

The Real Rain Man

D.O. Bettany (1924-1944) R.I.P.

Banksy in Bristol Slideshow

Welcome Home Dad

Hi Dad, it's great to have you back! I hope you had a wonderful time!

I'll look forward to seeing some of those (many - I'm sure) photos from Burma up here on the Bettany Blog!

Two items of interest on a sunny March morning:

1. From the BBC: Community penalties 'laughed at'.

The credibility of community sentences is at stake because offenders who breach the orders are not dealt with firmly enough, a study says.

Experts from King's College London examined Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders, which were introduced in England and Wales four years ago.

They require offenders to do unpaid work or undergo rehabilitation.

But a probation officer interviewed for the study said those under the orders left court "laughing their heads off".

2. And from the World Famous inflight magazine of VLM Airlines, Velocity Magazine. A rare piece of original writing from yours truly.

WHEN, IN 2003, THE NOBEL PRIZE winning economist Myron Scholes told academic journal Quantitative Finance that “the world is our laboratory”, he was comparing the work of scientists with that of financial academics and practitioners. Like the physical world, the financial world consists of a bewilderingly complex system of interrelated parts and processes that lends itself to the tools and analysis of mathematics and science. It should come as no surprise, then, that the quantitative professionals who now dominate the financial markets with their models and products, and who have lately come under so much criticism, should associate themselves with the scientific method.

On 29 March 1900, a French student, Louis Bachelier, successfully defended his doctoral thesis, Théorie de la Spéculation, at the Sorbonne. Bachelier’s achievement was to offer a mathematical description of randomness and to introduce many of the concepts in the field that has come to be known as stochastic analysis. Crucially he applied his insights to the problem of pricing financial options and, in doing so, is considered by many as a pioneer in the early study of mathematical – or quantitative – finance...

Exchange of Letters

This is my favourite poem by Wendy Cope, who was in the news this week after saying that the post of Poet Laureate should be abolished:

Taken from "Serious Concerns", Faber

Exchange of Letters

Dear Serious Novel,

I am a terse assured lyric with impeccable rhythmic flow, some apt and original metaphors, and a music that is all my own. Some people say I am beautiful.

My vital statistics are eighteen lines, divided into three-line stanzas, with an average of four words per line.

My first husband was a cheap romance; the second was Wisden's Cricketers' Almanac. Most of the men I meet nowadays are autobiographies, but a substantial minority are books about photography or trains.

I have always hoped for a relationship with an upmarket work of fiction. Please write and tell me more about yourself.

Yours intensely,

Song of the First Snowdrop

Dear Song of the First Snowdrop,

Many thanks for your letter. You sound like just the kind of poem I am hoping to find. I've always preferred short, lyrical women to the kind who go on for page after page.

I am an important 150,000 word comment on the dreams and dilemmas of twentieth-century Man. It took six years to attain my present weight and stature but all the twenty-seven publishers I have so far approached have failed to understand me. I have my share of sex and violence and a very good joke in chapter nine, but to no avail. I am sustained by the belief that I am ahead of my time.

Let's meet as soon as possible. I am longing for you to read me from cover to cover and get to know my every word.

Yours impatiently,

Death of the Zeitgeist

Final Fantasy Versus XIII