Visa process completed, but not without irony.....

A couple of nights ago I settled down to watch Luc Besson's 2012 film The Lady. It's a beautifully made film about Aung San Suu Kyi, and an excellent introduction to the recent political history of the struggle for democracy in Burma.

The film focusses on her political struggle and the personal sacrifices she made during her time under house arrest (in total for 15 years of the past 21) as her role as the popular leader of the National League for Democracy grew. Unable to leave the country in the knowledge that if she did she would not be allowed to return,  she was unable to see her family and in particular her husband , the Oxford academic Michael Aris, as he fought and eventually succumbed to prostate cancer. In fact they did not see each other between 1995 until his death in 1998.

The latter part of the film makes much of the many attempts by numerous statesmen to have Aris granted a visa to enable him to visit his wife in Burma as his health deteriorates.  Each and every one is rejected.

So it was with a sense of huge irony that I collected mine from the Myanmar Embassy this week. Particularly so as the building in Mayfair, just up from Berkeley Square, actually features in the film, (Aris is summoned to the Ambassador who urges him to persuade his wife to come back to England. He refuses.)








Unlike all their many attempts, just one simple form, one payment of £14 and a wait of three working days and I have my visa in my hand. But then my wife isn't the daughter of  the man who founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma's independence from the British Empire in 1947.