In 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's current president, Thein Sein, will both turn 70, so a great deal depends on future leaders. On a recent visit I caught up with two promising aspirants who focus on the "politics of the daily."
On Sunday at sunrise I met Dr. Nyo Nyo Thinn in front of Yangon City Hall along with several hundred other people, some holding banners. She welcomed me and mentioned that this was an illegal demonstration because its permit was for 200 marchers, not 800-plus.
Nonetheless, as police looked on, the rally proceeded slowly and without incident through the traffic in the streets of central Yangon, an impressive and unlikely sight. The march was part of the international United Nations Women's Day activities, protesting violence against women. It was also an expression of civil-society activism only five years after soldiers had slaughtered monks marching along the same streets in 2007.