Lesson Learned in Myanmar

Just because you don't get credit for what you do, doesn't mean you stop doing it.

In Myanmar, my friends and I had the opportunity to meet and talk to residents who carve statues and figurines for a living. They were a group of four or five men.

This group of men transforms the wood into something beautiful, something with a face. They give life to the wood.

You know, what was sad about their story?

After all the effort, strength, skill and time that they devote in creating a figurine, they are also the ones who inscribe 'Made in Thailand' on each piece. For how many years now, they create these figurines but the credit goes to Thailand and Thai workers. That's just sad.

This is one sad reality that workers from Third World Countries are facing. They don't enjoy the luxury of having a 'trademark' or bragging rights to call a finished product their own creation. The inscription speaks for the product.  

But I admire these men from Myanmar. They value their work more than they value the credit they will receive from it.