Peter Popham | |
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 Popham in 2016 | |
| Born | 10 January 1952 Cork, Ireland |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
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| Years active | 1976–present |
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Peter Popham (born 10 January 1952) is an English journalist, author, and playwright. He is best known for his journalism at The Independent from 1990 to 2016, and his books on Aung San Suu Kyi.
Popham was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1952. His father was the poet, novelist, and military historian Hugh Popham. [1] Raised in Richmond, Surrey, he was educated at Latymer Upper School, where he edited the school magazine, and was a contributor to the notorious ‘Schoolkids Issue’ of the underground magazine, Oz . [2]
At the University of Leeds, where he read English, he edited Poetry and Audience, [3] the university's long-established poetry magazine, and launched Leeds Larynx, [4] a cultural review. His first fiction to be published was "Collision and Goodbye", a short story, in Transatlantic Review no. 55/56, in May 1976.
After working in theatres in Leeds, London and Bristol and writing more plays, in 1977 he moved to Japan, where after teaching English for two years he became a freelance journalist and wrote his first book, Tokyo: the City at the End of the World, published by Kodansha International in 1985. [5] It was translated into Japanese and published the same year by Asahi Shinbunsha as Portrait of Tokyo (東京の肖像, Tōkyō no Shōzō). [6]
In 1990 he joined the staff of the British newspaper The Independent as feature writer on The Independent Magazine under Alexander Chancellor. In 1997 he was appointed South Asia correspondent of the newspaper and moved to Delhi. [7] While living in Delhi he drafted his novel Across the Great Divide, set before and after India's independence and partition. In 2002 he moved to Italy to become the Rome correspondent.
In 2011 his study of Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady and the Peacock, [8] was published by Random House. It was translated into Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Mongolian and published in the US by The Experiment. [9] A pirated edition appeared in Burma, on sale at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, in Yangon. His sequel, The Lady and the Generals, was published by Penguin Random House in 2016. [10]
Since leaving The Independent in 2016 he has written several plays, including The Kingdom of Heaven, performed at the Script Room in London in February 2019, and Savages, in a Zoom production directed by Sebastian Michael and starring Tim Bentinck, in July 2020.
Aung San Suu Kyi, sometimes abbreviated to Suu Kyi, is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since the party's founding in 1988, and was registered as its chairperson while it was a legal party from 2011 to 2023. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.
The National League for Democracy is a deregistered liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It became the country's ruling party after a landslide victory in the 2015 general election but was overthrown in a military coup d'état in early 2021 following another landslide election victory in 2020.
Aung San was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goal was realized. Aung San is considered the founder of modern-day Myanmar and the Tatmadaw, and is commonly referred to by the titles "Father of the Nation", "Father of Independence", and "Father of the Tatmadaw".
General elections were held in Myanmar on 27 May 1990, the first multi-party elections since 1960, after which the country had been ruled by a military dictatorship. The elections were for a parliament-sized constitutional committee to draft a new constitution.
Aung San Oo is a Burmese engineer who is the elder brother of politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi; the two are the only surviving children of Burmese independence leader Aung San.
Aung Kyi is a Burmese politician and veteran serving as chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission of Myanmar. He previously served as the Minister of Information, Minister of Labor, Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in the Cabinet of Burma. He was appointed as the Minister of Labor on 24 October 2007 by the then ruling State Peace and Development Council. In October 2007, he received an additional, concurrent appointment as minister for relations to detained National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Unplayed Piano" is a 2005 single by the Irish singer-songwriter duo Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. It was released in June 2005 and appeared in a total of six charts, spending a total of twenty-five weeks there. It spent twelve weeks in the Irish Singles Chart after entering on 23 June 2005, breaking into the Top 10 and achieving a peak of fourth position. It remained in fourth position for two weeks before falling to seventh position where it spent a further three weeks. The song peaked at number 24 in the UK Singles Chart and number 36 in the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles. "Unplayed Piano" was released on the DRM label and featured Rice's usual backing band of Vyvienne Long, Tom Osander and Shane Fitzsimons.
On 4 May 2009, American citizen John Yettaw trespassed upon the residence of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, two weeks before her scheduled release from house arrest on 27 May. This illegal visit prompted Suu Kyi's arrest on 13 May 2009. Yettaw himself was arrested by Burmese authorities on 6 May. He was charged on 14 May with illegally entering a restricted zone, illegal swimming and breaking immigration laws. It is illegal in Burma to have a guest stay overnight at one's home without notifying the authorities first.
Alexander Myint San Aung Aris is the elder son of Aung San Suu Kyi and Michael Aris. He is also a grandson of Aung San, who is credited with achieving the independence of Myanmar. He has been representing his mother, who has been detained by the military junta for years; he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for her, and on many other awards and occasions, he has represented her.
The Lady is a 2011 British biographical film directed by Luc Besson, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as her late husband Michael Aris. Yeoh called the film "a labour of love" but also confessed it had felt intimidating for her to play the Nobel laureate.
Maha Thiri Thudhamma Khin Kyi was a Burmese politician and diplomat, best known for her marriage to the country's leader, Aung San, with whom she had four children, including Aung San Suu Kyi. She served as the Minister of Social Welfare and MP of the Pyithu Hluttaw for Lanmadaw Township.
Sayadaw U Rewata Dhamma was a prominent Theravada Buddhist monk and noted Abhidhamma scholar from Myanmar (Burma). After pursuing an academic career in India for most of two decades, he accepted an invitation to head a Buddhist centre in Birmingham UK, and over the next three decades gained an international reputation as a teacher of meditation and an advocate of peace and reconciliation.
Ma Than E Fend was a prominent Burmese singer in the early 20th century, known by her stage name Bilat Pyan Than (ဘိလပ်ပြန်သန်း). She was also an international civil servant who spent a long career in the United Nations.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2015, with the National League for Democracy winning a supermajority of seats in the combined national parliament. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by the military, to select Members of Assembly to seats in both the upper house and the lower house of the Assembly of the Union, and State and Region Hluttaws. Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them.
Htin Kyaw is a Burmese politician, writer and scholar who served as the ninth president of Myanmar from 30 March 2016 to 21 March 2018. He was the first elected president to hold the office with no ties to the military since the 1962 coup d'état. The second son of scholar Min Thu Wun, Htin Kyaw had held various positions in the education, planning and treasury ministries in prior governments.
The state counsellor of Myanmar was the de facto head of government of Myanmar, equivalent to a prime minister, from 2016 to 2021. The office was created in 2016 after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the 2015 Myanmar general election so she could lead the government despite being constitutionally ineligible for the presidency. The officeholder could “contact ministries, departments, organizations, associations and individuals” in an official capacity, while being accountable to parliament. The office was abolished by Aung San Suu Kyi's political adversary, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing, after he seized power from her in a 2021 military coup d'état.
54 University Avenue is a house in Bahan Township, Yangon. It is the residence of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician and former State Counsellor of Myanmar. The house is situated on the University Avenue Road, adjacent to Inya Lake.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2020. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by or reserved for the military, to elect members to both the upper house - Amyotha Hluttaw and the lower house - Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws (legislatures). Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them. A total of 1,171 national, state, and regional seats were contested in the election, with polling having taken place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions.
A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then vested power in a military junta. Acting president Myint Swe proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared power had been transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing. It declared the results of the November 2020 general election invalid and stated its intent to hold a new election at the end of the state of emergency. The coup d'état occurred the day before the Parliament of Myanmar was due to swear in the members elected at the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from occurring. President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained, along with ministers, their deputies, and members of Parliament.
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