A Buddha statue, its face torn off by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, sits amid the ruins of a small shrine in Dalah on the very top of the delta close to Rangoon. Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Irrawaddy Delta in Burma, destroying villages, killing an estimated 140,000 people, and leaving another 2 million homeless and traumatized. When the cyclone’s high winds churned up enormous waves, people fled the flat delta to the sturdiest buildings they could find, usually schools and monasteries. Rangoon, May 2008.

Buddhism, Christianity, and spiritualism help sustain many ordinary Burmese. Some people think religion has given the Burmese people the strength to endure their terrible leaders. Others have suggested that Buddhism has fostered tolerance to such a degree that Burmese are less likely to rise up. The generals, who see themselves as devout Buddhists, have made serious efforts to co-opt and control Buddhism to their advantage. The Sangha Council, the official leadership of Burma’s Buddhist monasteries, is packed with junta supporters to such an extent that the Burmese speak of two kinds of monks—the generals’ "corrupt" monks and the people’s "pure" monks. Rangoon, October 2007.

A novice monk puts on a clean robe in a monastery in Rangoon. Novices like this young man will study for 10-13 years before they are able to pass required tests and be ordained as monks. It is not known how many monks were killed during the September 2007 protests, but the monks’ political activism has come with a high price: over 250 monks have been imprisoned and have received sentences ranging from 12 to 65 years for their alleged involvement in the protests. Many other monks have gone underground or have fled the country, unlikely to return until there is a change in government. Rangoon, October 2007.

All communication is potentially monitored in Burma. Citizens need to obtain a special permit from the Ministry of Communication to own a cell phone or a satellite dish. The cost of a SIM card (up to US$2000 on the black market) helps ensure that most Burmese use traditional phone booths on the street or run by local shops. Burma is often thought of as an isolated country where no one can access information from the outside world. This is not so. Rangoon has Internet cafes on almost every block and satellite dishes mushroom from the city’s rooftops. While the regime understands that it can be undermined by technology, it also uses it to generate revenue and to monitor the population. Rangoon, July 2006.

An old man, seemingly sick and in poor health, lies outside a train station in Rangoon. The junta allegedly spends up to half of the country’s budget on its army while the expenditure on health care is below half a percent—equaling less than $1 per citizen per year. According to WHO, Burma has the second-poorest health care system in the world. Half of all Asia's malaria deaths occur here; the country has some of the world’s deadliest strains of TB and is facing a potentially devastating HIV epidemic. Rangoon, March 2007.

Teahouses are where people meet to talk about politics. As a result, the government considers teahouses, like universities, as breeding grounds for opposition. It is a common belief that teahouses are monitored by the military intelligence service. Burma’s 1988 uprising was sparked by an incident in a Rangoon tea house. A group of students playing a tape recorder were attacked by some drunken youths who seriously injured one of the students. Police initially arrested the assailant but then released him once they found out his father was a high-ranking government official. The next day, a few hundred students protested at the local police station where riot police fired upon them and killed one student. Rangoon, April 2007.