IM 2 students love to see old pals and teachers and they take that opportunity in homage paying ceremony to their old teachers. In one such ceremony, I realized that they nick-named me “Millisecond”. I had taught them about the Action Potential where an electrical phenomenon was calibrated in milliseconds and they noticed my peculiar pronunciation. Those who know me as “Millisecond” are now professors and heads of departments and I am proud of them. One of them is Prof. Win Nyi Shein who was then a MBBS student when he first heard my nickname.
I had the best days of my teaching career as Assistant lecturer. I saw my students daily and told them whatever I wanted (chew the fat) and had an audience who never got bored of my rumblings. What a nice period! I think they enjoyed these conversations better than my proper Physiology lecture. (You stand where you sit).
About teachers and students: students think that the questions were difficult whereas the teachers thought they were “must know” questions.
I remember that my Professor and Head of department, Daw May May Yi, was very strict and assigned me to supervise the cleanliness of departmental toilets. I was downhearted. How can a doctor supervise cleanliness of toilets? I felt it was not my job.
I also had to tend the department animal house. We had hamsters, rabbits, rats and mice. They bred so quickly and we had a lot of animals in not time. The problem was getting enough animal food for those voracious vegetarians. One attendant got water cress (kang kong in Malay, KaZunYwet in Myanmar) from North Okkalapa and fed the animals and I reimbursed him the cost of the animal feed. The problem was that the reimbursement money was not always on time. I gave him out of my pocket and resettled the department account. When my Head of Department learned this, it was forbidden because of improper procedure. (You stand where you sit).
As the Director in DMS Administration, I was involved in activities with construction of buildings and budget allocation and grants were not received in time. Budget allocations, if not used by the end of the fiscal year, were to be returned to the department and considered illegal, if the money was kept in hand. This resulted in contractors having money deficits to carry on the construction.
(You stand where you sit).
Just about a week ago, there was peace parlance between State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with Mon locals in Mawlamyaing. The people asked for solutions to local problems and Daw Suu said that the government had to take the whole country into consideration.
(You stand where you sit)
Since this has a great effect on us today, I tried to find out about (you stand where you sit) and came across “Miles Law” stating that (Where you stand depends on where you sit).
Miles was a Truman-era bureaucrat who coined this phrase and served as a federal official in the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He saw the polarization of “us versus them” between two major parties in US Senate and House of Representatives because they sat on either side of the aisle. Each party developed the thinking mindset that their own side is right and the other side is wrong. Miles suggested that members of the two parties have alternate seating arrangement determined by a lottery.
I wonder if our parliament has that type of seating arrangement!
Another person whose quote (where you stand depends on where you sit) was attributed to Nelson Mandela.
GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE, HUH?
Dr. Ye Win
Hon Prof. Department of Physiology, University of Medicine 2
