Today, 2009-06-19-Fr, the (again imprisoned) Burmese NLD leader celebrates her 8x8th, birthday. The The Irrawaddy magazine invites its readers to submit fan art as kind of birthday presents, to be published online. Even though it looks a bit like personality cult to me (just bad memories :), they are free works of affection by admirers, not commissioned from top.

Another affectionate issue I'd like to recommend is the Metta Development Foundation (needs JavaScript enabled to display navigation menu). "Metta" means "loving kindness" (or "affection", if you like ;) I know some people in person who are behind the supporting Metta Myanmar Emergency Programme, so I trust that path. Some of their long-time involvement is going on for decades already, even before 1997's founding of the NGO. For transparency:

• Their PDF reports;
• The whois records: the NGO (US resident and Yahoo-hosted, if I'm not mistaken) and the support project --> look up publicwhois.ascio.com --> moved to portal.ascio.com/whois/whoislookup.aspx --> encrypted connection (enter xmnr.net) (HostEurope Germany hosted).

For all who've been wondering about my whereabouts: I'm okay, doing relatiely fine, compared to other people. Struggling a bit, but maybe that'll bring me a bit further. Darn, I miss this place here...