Termite News: Tickling the Ivories in Burma



Aung San Suu KyiThe path of least resistance is most often the path of the termite to food and water. Termites are more likely to work on damp wood than hard wood. They will eat the tender spring wood before eating the firmer wood grown in the summer months. Termites love an easy meal and so will always take the shorter easier path.

The path to democracy and equality has never been an easy one. Just because peace sounds like a great idea that does not mean that preaching peace will get everyone to follow. It’s kind of ironic that more wars have been fought in the name of peace than for any other cause. Aung San Suu Kyi has been fighting for peace and equality in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for a generation. She won the Nobel Peace Prize and yet was under house arrest for fifteen years. During her imprisonment Suu Kyi played her piano which was, more often than not, out of tune and the haven of termites.

I couldn’t help but notice the ironies. Termites were free to come and go as they pleased, while they infested the piano of a freedom fighter. She was imprisoned and yet played her piano in defiance to her lack of freedom. The freedom fighter and those free to roam had come together in one piece of furniture. In an interview with a British Journalist, Suu Kyi admitted to playing the piano so hard that she broke keys and even a string. She said that she had a hot temper; she would take out her frustration on the piano. Apparently the termites didn’t mind.

During the peak of security in Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment, her piano was even free to go, while she was not. In order for the piano to be tuned and repaired it would be taken to the home of a relative and the piano tuner would do the repairs there. Then the piano would be returned to her. One of her piano tuners had so much trouble getting replacement parts that he actually made his own from whatever he could find. Perhaps the analogy taken there is similar to that of the termites, eating whatever they could find. In the meantime the people of Burma awaited the release of hundreds of political prisoners who would fight for them at the risk of their own lives and freedom.

Termites in Gilbert are not imprisoned in their underground chambers and they will not limit their eating to the trees and fence posts. Termites will eat anything, even the wood of a piano. This wasn’t the first piano I read about that had termite damage. There must be a reason that termites love to infest instruments, but in the case of Suu Kyi’s piano it is not because it was left unattended. Perhaps the termites like the good vibrations; perhaps they were dancing to the tune of freedom calling.




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