by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
* အချိန်ပိုင်းဆရာ
* ရုပ်ရှင်ဒါရိုက်တာ
* စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း၊ စွယ်တော်ရိပ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း Cover Design
* ပုံတူ — ရေးဆွဲ ပြီး လှူ
* ကာတွန်း
* အင်ဂျင်နီယာ၊ မီးရထား (ငြိမ်း)
* ပန်းချီ ခိုင်တင်
* စက်မှုတက္ကသိုလ်မဂ္ဂဇင်း Cover Design
* ဆရာ
* ရုပ်ရှင် — သရုပ်ဆောင်၊ ဒါရိုက်တာ
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
Mr. David Ko (U Tin Myint, M67) has a successful mechanical components manufacturing firm in Union City. He co-founded the business back in 1978 with a partner from Croatia. The two partners have since expanded their business. With approximately 100 employees, they currently occupy 72,000 sq. feet of space for their warehousing and manufacturing operations. The company is continuously growing at a rate of 5-25% per year. Ninety percent of their employees started out as trainees in their shop. BAPS [and RIT Alumni International] would like to congratulate Mr. Ko for his hard work, his dedication to his employees and his contribution to the community.
Besides his successful business, David and his late wife, Daw Sein Yone, have three wonderful and promising children, two daughters and one son in all. The eldest daughter is working on her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and is expected to start her internship this year. Their second child is in his second year at the Stanford University Medical School studying for his MD and Ph.D. program. Their third daughter is studying hair design at the Vidal Sassoon Academy.
Mr. Ko emigrated to the U.S with his family in 1973 and they have been living in Fremont since 1976. He worked at the Raychem Company for five years before opening his own business. His interest in machining and tools started early in his life when he read Popular Mechanics and Mechanics Illustrated. He graduated in mechanical engineering [in 1967] from the Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT) in Burma. He is one of a few Asian Americans who are not only trained machinists but also professionals in their own right. Inspired by their keen interests in mechanical devices and accessories, they learned, for the most part, on their own and developed their skills. However he had to overcome many obstacles that other minorities and immigrants encounter. In the late seventies, there were few Asian American machinists. David was constantly asked by his customers whether he was a machinist, if he knew how to operate a machine, and where he acquired the skills.
David and his partner continue to thrive in this very cyclical business mainly because they take good care of their employees, re-invest their earnings into their business, re-invent themselves, and expand their business cautiously. Competition in the mechanical components business continues to be fierce because of new improvements in technology. In many ways, David compares technological advances in the machine industry to those of the software industry. Every year new models come on the market. These new products work faster and give you a whole lot of functions and features. Just as David manages his family and nurtures them carefully, he manages to nurture his business relationship with his partner and his employees quite successfully.
David, Congratulations to you and your family!!! You are a role model to everyone! It shows that the United States is truly a land of opportunities. Hard work and perseverance can and do lead to success. David and his company are always looking for trainees.
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
Video Broadcast on December 16, 2020
Thanks to Sayagyi Dr. Chit Swe (Founder/Director of UCC, Maths Professor at RASU), the following degree courses was offered
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
During my school days, my parents gave me 25 pyas as pocket money. They wanted to make sure that I study hard.
In Standard VI(D) and Standard VII(D), Ms. Amelia Kyi (“Miss Hong Kong“, mother of U Win Kyi (RUBC Gold)) taught us English. We had to take weekly tests. She would fine 25 pyas to those who fail in a test. She would give 50 pyas to those who do well in a test.
My parents would give bonus prizes only when I did well in the final examinations.
They would buy us typewriters : Remington for English and Olympia for Burmese.
They also gave me a Raleigh bicycle, a Yashika Mat camera, and Cash prizes (100 Kyats for passing a Government examinations and 100 Kyats for each Distinction).
They would also provide us books : several types of dictionaries, Myanmar Swel Sone Kyan, Reader’s Digest, Student’s Companion, A book for Idioms, Grammar (e.g. Wren and Martin), the King’s English (by Fowler and Fowler), “How and Why”, Fun with Mathematics, Classics Illustrated, …, Saya Mauk (Bedin), Cheiro (Palmistry), …, Second World War.
My uncles & aunts were my adopted Parents.
They had private libraries. There was a set of Encyclopedia Britannica, books by Dale Carnegie (“How to win friends and influence people”, “Five minute biographies”) and more.
They aallowed me to play their piano and games (Badminton, Table Tennis, Carrom, Bridge).
One uncle would take us to Inya Lake for swimming followed by a feast of Buthee Gyaw.
Another uncle would take me to the Recreation Center in the Main Campus (e.g. to meet Saya Dr. Than Tun) and to the Faculty of Social Science & Library (e.g. to meet Saya U Khin Maung Kyawe (Jimmy) and Sayama Daw Myint Myint Khin (Hazel)).
Dear beloved parents, uncles, aunts and teachers, “I’m sure you will be in the good abodes. I want to thank you for your unbounded love and for your exhortation that “Every thing that’s worth doing is worth doing well” “.
My beloved spouse and I tied the knot in June 1973 in front of our parents (my father, my mother and her mother) and elders including Sayagyi Dr. Chit Swe (Founder and Director of Universities’ Computer Center).
All my siblings are alive and well.
My spouse had lost five family members.
She volunteered for social and religious events. She wrote several articles for Dhammananda Newsletter with the pen name “Neik Ban Zaw“.
She encouraged me to pay back to our parents, mentors, alma mater, society and our beloved land.
With her support, I served for 26 years as Chief Editor of “RIT Alumni International Newsletter” and as an organizer of activities (including RIT Grand Reunion and Saya Pu Zaw Pwe).
I have written 2500+ posts in my Facebook pages and hlamin.com
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
Volunteer for HMEE, SPZP, SDYF, ARITA
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
by Kyaw Sein
Updated : June 2025
The first Hovercraft was fabricated and submitted as a thesis by 1973 Mechanical students as a partial fulfillment for the Bachelor Of Engineering degree. Their supervisor was Saya U Tu Myint.
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
by Hla Min
Updated : June 2025
Modern Olympics was a revival of the ancient games held every four years at Olympia.
The four year interval is called an Olympiad. The ancient Greeks use Olympiad instead of years when describing dates.
Pierre de Coubertin created the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894.
IOC selects a city or cities to hold the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. The two Olympics are interlaced.
Summer Olympics has its share of drama.
The 1936 Summer Olympics was held in Berlin and was attended by Adolf Hitler (who promoted the supremacy of the Aryan race). Jesse Owens, a black athlete from the USA, won four Gold medals : 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay, and Long Jump.
The drama occurred in the Long Jump event. Jesse Owens was having some problems in the Long Jump when the German competitor Lang supposedly advised him to leave about six inches gap behind the broad to prevent overstepping and getting disqualified. Jesse took the advice, regained his poise and went on to win the Long Jump Gold.
1972 Olympics in Munich saw both good and bad.
Mark Spitz (USA) won seven Gold medals in swimming : 100m & 200m Freestyle, 100m & 200m Butterfly, 4 x 100m Freestyle relay, 4 x 200m Freestyle relay, and 4 x 100 Medley relay. He saved energy by not competing in the trials for selected relay events.
Olga Kolburt (USSR) was awarded a couple of Perfect Ten in Gymnastics.
Eleven Israeli athletes were kidnapped (shown live on TV) and murdered by Black September. Mossad took several years to track down and decimate Black September.
USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow.
USSR retaliated with a boycott of the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.
Some went on to have illustrious careers.
Johnny Weissmuller, swimming champion, gained fame as Tarzan in the movies.
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion, went on to become Mohammad Ali, three time World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
During my SPHS days, there was no television in Burma. I received a ticket from Brother Austin as a prize to see the “1960 Rome Olympics” documentary at Thamada (President) cinema.
I was in the UK and was fortunate to see the 1972 Munich Olympics on a Color television.
The games were postponed due to the pandemic.
HlaMin 