As long as you stop making everyone else responsible for happiness, the happier you’ll be.

Nina Guilbeau, author of Too many sisters

Today we meet the experts to brief the current situation in the peace process. It is facilitated by Ms Sofia Busch, Dr Thant Myint U’s better half, who is also the principal organizer of the workshop tomorrow.

They are:

• Mr Pak Kuntoro – on Aceh, Indonesia
• Mr Alejandro Eder – On Colombia
• Ms Karin Landgren – On Nepal
• Ms Ulrike Hopp-Nishanka – on Sri Lanka, Afghanistan

The original plan was to hold a two-day workshop in Rangoon and then another two-day one at Naypyitaw. Unfortunately, several VIPs including Dr Tin Myo Win, who had previously agreed to join the workshop in Rangoon, will not be able to make it, we are informed by Sofia. As a result, we will be having only a one-day exercise instead of two, tomorrow.

The bright side of it is that I’ll be able to pursue other worthwhile activities on 7 May.

At 13:00, I’m at the PIY (Pyidaungsu Institute-Yangon Office), to meet our researchers led by Dr Sai Oo there. The office here has become bigger as PICM (Pyidaungsu Institute-Chiang Mai), first set up in August 2013, shrinks down. Which is nothing strange, because PIY is where the real action is.

The reception is in the evening, 18:00-20:30. Lots of people to meet and lots of things to discuss and forget afterward.

But I do remember one thing, what two of the friends say: That the investment machine no longer runs.

I ask why? And they reply it’s because the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) has been without a chair since 30 March, when the reins of power was transferred to the new government.

Then I remember what Jim Hamerle, my late American friend, said years ago:

It’s one thing to run for the office. But it’s entirely another thing to run the country.