Category: Burma

St. Paul’s High School

စိန့်ပေါလ်အထက်တန်းကျောင်း

It was founded by De La Salle Brothers in 1860.

Roll of Honor

Before the nationalization of schools, SPHS displayed the Roll of Honor for the High School Final & Matriculation examination.

* 1951 — George H Chapman (First in Burma)

* 1952 — ညွန့်တင် (First), ညီဝင်း (2nd)

* 1954 — Koon Yin Chu (First)

* 1956 — Harry Wang (3rd)

* 1958 — စိုးဝင်း (First), Robert Sein (2nd)

* 1959 — Frankie Ohn (First), Shewan Lee (2nd), သန်းနွယ်အောင် (3rd), Chu Lock Ying (4th)

* 1961 — Robin Ban (2nd), Paul Chan (4th)

* 1963 — ခင်မောင်ဦး (First), မင်းဦး (2nd), Freddie Ba San (3rd), ညွန့်ဝေ (4th), သိန်းဝေ (5th)

1959 Matriculates

* First Four Positions

* 22 Collegiate Scholarship Winners

1960 Matriculates

* 24 Collegiate Scholarship Winners

1963 Matriculates

* First Five Positions

* 7 in Top Ten

* 10 in Top Twenty

* 10 Collegiate Scholarsip Winners

Had to be in Top 40 (unlike Top 100 as in 1959 and 1960)

School Badges

March 23, 2025
Memories

March 23, 2025
Distinguished Toastmaster
Completed
- Competent Communicator
- Advanced Communicator Bronze
- Advanced Communicator Silver
- Advanced Communicator Gold
- Competent Leader
- Advanced Leader Bronze
- Advanced Leader Silver
- Leadership Excellence
- Club Mentor
- Ambassador
March 23, 2025
Saya Dr. Chit Swe (GBNF)
He is an alumnus of Mandalay University, Imperial College (University of London), Glasgow University and University of Liverpool.

He taught at Mandalay University, Rangoon University, Institute of Economics, Assumption University in Bangkok and Macquarie University in Australia.

He served as Professor of Mathematics at RASU (Rangoon Arts and Science University), Founder & Director at UCC (Universities’ Computer Center — first in Burma for teaching Computer Science, Computer Systems & Applications), and Rector of RASU.

He was Patron of Burma Judo Federation, Commanding Officer of UTC (University Training Corps), and Manager / Supervisor of several Education projects.

He passed away in Sydney, Australia.

Founder / Director of UCC

Dr. Chit Swe

Family
- Spouse : Daw Khin Khin Latt
- Daughter : Dr. Moe Thu (Marlar)
- Sons : U Thu Ta, Dr. Maung Maung Nyo, Dr. Swe Latt, U Chit Khin
Dr. Chit Swe with two youngest sons

Dr. Chit Swe & family
March 23, 2025
Life after RIT

by Htay Kyu

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014714635226595/permalink/9468019379896036/?

March 23, 2025
Intelligence
Types
- Human Intelligence
- Animal Intelligence
- Machine Intelligence
- Artificial Intelligence
- Military Intelligence
- Counter-Intelligence
IQ
- Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was introduced by researchers such as Terman.
- Mensa Society requires a high IQ to be a member.
- A study claims that beyond a certain IQ, there is not much correlation between “creativity” and “high IQ”.
- Other Quotients (e.g. Emotional Quotient) are being proposed to complement/supplement IQ.
Definitions
- One definition of Intelligence is “the ability to create new tools from existing ones”.”
- Variations include “the ability to find new ways of using old tools.”
Turing Tests

There is a classic “Turing Test” to determine if a machine (e.g. computer) is intelligent enough to fool the human experimenters.

There are scoped Turing Tests to determine if a machine is on par with humans in a specified domain.

Question

With advances in Artificial Intelligence, machines can help solve complex problems.

“Can machines really think?” is a hard question to answer (at least for the near future).
March 9, 2024
U Tet Tut
- U Tet Tut is a close relative of Oway U Nyo Mya.
- His friends include Ludu U Hla and Saya U Wun (Minthuwun).
- Ludu U Hla regularly sent his books to U Tet Tut.
  For some time Ludu U Hla was restricted to write serious books, so he chose to compile Folk Tales of the indigenous races.
- U Tet Tut hosted U Htin Kyaw, who was then studying at the Institute of Computer Science in London.
- We visited U Tet Tut’s house several times.
  There were some antiques (e.g. a pot from ancient China), many books (including “Buddhistic Logic” by a Russian scholar & Ludu U Hla’s collection).
- I tried to pay respect to U Tet Tut.
  He asked me to wait.
  He would recollect the virtues of the Triple Gems, before he said, “It’s now OK to Gadaw”.
- He was a Scholar.
  He also advised some museums.
  He requested the British Museum to return some artifacts to Burma to be displayed at the “Maw Gun Daik”.
March 7, 2024
Pioneers
Sayagyis
- U Pe Maung Tin
  First native Principal of Rangoon College
- Dr. Htin Aung
  First native Rector of University of Rangoon
- U Ba Hli
  First native Dean of Engineering, University of Rangoon
- Dr. Mya Tu
  Founder/Director of Burma Medical Research Institute
- Dr. Chit Swe
  Founder/Director of UCC
- …
Early Burmese Scholars in the UK
- Dr. Hla Myint
  Economics
- Dr. Tha Hla
  Geology
- Dr. Maung Maung Kha
  Meteorological Physics
- …
Recipients of the Twinning Program
- Dr. Aung Gyi
  BS, MS from MIT
- U Min Wun
  BS from MIT, MS from Cornell
- U Maung Maung Than
  BS from Clemson, MS from Lowell
- U Khin Aung Kyi
  BS, MS from MIT
- U Aung Khin
  BS, MS from Lehigh
- U Sein Hlaing
  MS from MIT
- U Tin Swe
  MS from Michigan
- U Sein Win
  BS, MS from Michigan
- …
Founders of Khit San Sar Pay
- Theikpan Maung Wa
  ICS U Sein Tin
- Zawgyi
  U Thein Han
- Minthuwun
  U Wun
There were the early students at the then newly established “Burmese Department” at the University of Rangoon (per request of Sayagyi U Pe Maung Tin, Pali and Burmese Scholar).

Founders of UCC
- Dr. Chit Swe
  Founder Director
- U Soe Paing
- U Myo Min
- U Ko Ko Lay
Sayadaws

Early Burmese Sayadaws in the UK
- U Thithila
- Dr. Rewata Dhamma
Early Burmese Sayadaws in the USA
- U Silanandabhivamsa
  Dhammananda Vihara, Northern California
- Penang Sayadaw
  Southern California
- U Kelasa
  East Coast
Early Non-Burmese Sayadaws in Burma
- U Lokanatha
  Former Chemist in the USA
  Italian Buddhist Monk
- Ashin Ananda
  Formerly Reverend F. Lustig
  Buddhist Archbishop of Latvia
March 7, 2024
Cost of Living
In our days at RIT and some time after graduation

School fees
- 15 kyats per month
- Paid 30 kyats every two months
Collegiate Scholarship and Stipend
- 75 kyats per month
- Net 60 kyats after paying the school fees
Remuneration
- Poem 15 kyats
- Article 15 kyats
- Translation of short story (a) 50 kyats to the translator (b) 50 kyats to the author
- Artist 50 kyats for doing the background
Bus fare
- 10 to 15 pyas (for short and medium distances)
- 30 pyas (whole route)
Mohinga
- 15 pyas (without ah kyaw)
- 25 pyas (with ah kyaw)
Bananas
- 15 pyas for one banana
- 25 pyas for two bananas
Meal
- 50 pyas for a plate of rice
- K 1.50 – 2 kyats (with Hin)
March 4, 2024
Typing, Transliteration, Word Processing and Publication
Typing

Typewriters
- Remington typewriters were used for typing English text.
- Olympia was commissioned to produce typewriters for Burmese.
- Versions : Office, Standard and Portable
- Red keys were used to type vowels; the carriage did not go forward.
- Black keys were used to type consonants.
- Back-spacing for half a step was necessary on the Standard version to type “tha gyee”.
- Manual dexterity was needed to type “pa sint” characters.
- The Office edition had extra keys.
- IBM produced Selectric typewriters.
- Golf ball-like character sets had to be installed/replaced.
Challenges
- In the early days we had to type perfectly or reasonably well on typewriters using messy carbons.
- For mass copies, we had to plan to cyclostyle double-sided printing
  (odd numbered pages first, then repeat with even-numbered pages).
Transliteration
- Burma Research Society (BRS) used transliteration for its publications.
  For example, “k-o-l” combination represents “ko”.
- The scheme was used for typing Burmese words on Macintosh.
Word Processing

Word Processor
- Wang Computers provided word processors for various languages.
  Ko Htay Aung (Victor, EC80) worked at Wang for a while on the “Burmese” language project.
- Chinese characters were input on the early systems using
  (1) Large tablets
  (2) Three corner method
  (3) Romaji
  …
UCC Projects
- UCC had Burmese word processing projects.
- Saya U Myo Min supervised a project for Ma San Yu Hlaing for collation / sorting.
- Saya U Tun Aung Gyaw and his team (Ko Htay Aung, Ko Soe Myint, …) worked on Cromenco System Three for printing and processing.
- U Soe Win and team worked on Calcomp graph plotter.
Evolution
- The evolution has seen various type face/font families, keyboard layouts, Unicode support, …
- The transition from old fonts (e.g. Zawgyi) to Unicode-compliant fonts is not smooth.
Publication

Spelling Issues
- Burmese Language Commission bowed to higher authorities to revise the spelling at least two times.
- Fines were imposed on authors and publishers spelling the established way. (e.g. “ta”) instead of the preferred way (e.g. “tit”) despite the scholars pointing out the old inscriptions at “Bo ta htaung” (not “Bo tit htaung”) pagoda.
- Children’s Treasury of Knowledge (CTK) project was delayed — after the initial type setting — to correct the spellings.
Censorship
- It was not easy to write in those days without facing censorship.
- It was taboo to quote “Dhammata” poem (by Ananda Thuriya).
- It was a crime to write about the “setting sun”.
March 3, 2024