This is the backstory. Søren Kierkegaard was a great philosopher in the 19^th century. His masterpiece, Either/Or, was published in 1843. I majored in philosophy in college and hold Kierkegaard in high esteem. Before I get into my discussion of a 21^st-century Kierkegaardian Either/Or debate, I need to share with you a medical problem I've been facing for over the last decade. I have been treated for sleep apnea. The most common medical treatment is a device called CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). Every night before going to bed, I put on my chin strap and my headgear for the breathing device before going to la-la-land.

Sleep apnea can be fatal if not addressed. It can cause sudden cardiac death, especially during the hours between midnight and 6 am. My problem relates to stopping breathing during sleep. The two causes for sleep apnea have to do with the relaxation of throat muscles, which blocks breathing. The other has to do with the brain sending faulty signals to muscles in the throat that stop one’s breathing.

Either or both causes can be addressed with a CPAP. Recently, I got a new CPAP machine, which allows me to see all sorts of data that my device records during my sleep each night. It will also tabulate results weekly and monthly.

Now, CPAPs are very common in America, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia. CPAPs are far less common, especially in developing countries. I can’t wait to hear from my family in Myanmar about their knowledge of CPAP.

That was the backstory. There is a great divide between the two worlds: the developed and the less developed world. America used to reach out to less developed countries.

Trump has stopped our country’s US Agency for International Development (USAID) from going to the world that needed help. This photo doesn’t need an explanation.

This quote from Oxfam shows how cuts will affect millions of people worldwide due to Trump's suspension of USAID. USAID started in the aftermath of WWII. It was designed to assist in feeding, caring for, and assisting the locals to improve their countries.

PBS outlined a list of 66 organizations worldwide that are no longer in sync with Trump’s mindset. Organizations like the World Health Organization, the U.N. for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the U.N. Human Rights Council, and UNESCO.

A dozen years ago, I went to Myanmar in an attempt to interview Aung San Suu Kyi, the Lady. In her adult life, she spent over 15 years in house arrest and detention. In 2021, she was arrested by the coup leader. The trial took place in the prison located in Naypyidaw. Someone took this short video, which was a brief part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial. On December 30, 2022, she was sentenced to 33 years. No one knows whether she is still alive.

While in Myanmar, I traveled in the tourist triangle. One of the places that I visited was Inle Lake. While touring Inle Lake, Moh Moh, my tour guide, had to pick up my itinerary at her home after leaving that area of Myanmar.

Interestingly, Ti Ti, her nine-year-old daughter, was at home on winter break from school. When I walked into their living room, I was greeted with this question: “Hi. My name is Ti Ti. Do you want to play some games?” We played Scrabble for a better part of an hour.

At the end of the game, I started to get up and was told to wait until she added up the score. I did as I was told. It took Ti Ti less than a couple of minutes to total the score. Ti Ti announced the score so that the neighbors could hear that she won.

My retort to Ti Ti’s declaration was sticking my finger in her face and saying, “Young lady, don’t you ever forget it this. You beat me at my game, in my language, in your country. Don’t forget this.” At one level, it was a retort. Nevertheless, it was my affirmation to her that I admired her ability as a female. America, Myanmar, and the rest of the world need to address sexism. Sexism and racism are similar in that one is born into either of those -isms.

I left her home that day, realizing that I had met my granddaughter along with her two younger sisters, and her parents, who are my children. That changed my Weltanschauung, worldview.

Several years later, I returned to Myanmar. It was apparent to me that Ti Ti was smart, and I wanted to make sure that she could go to college in Myanmar. Therefore, Ti Ti needed to go to a college preparatory high school in Taunggyi, a large city not far from Inle Lake.

On my last trip, we went on a family tour together. However, Ti Ti had just graduated from high school and had to attend a special recognition assembly. The school was presenting students with academic awards. Ti Ti received the best in math for the entire State of Shan.

Then, off we went on our family tour. Moh Moh and Ko Ko were both tour guides, and they planned a tour of places that very few Westerners even knew existed. Set Set Yo was such a place. The family is devout Buddhists, and Moh Moh and Ko Ko wanted to give an offering to the Buddhist monks living at the monastery at Set Set Yo.

I busied myself doing two things. This is a video of my flipping young kids.

I also carried around a child who was even a year old.

This young child was in my arms while we were at Set Set Yo. I called her the little one. Finally, I asked Moh Moh to translate the little one into Burmese. It is A Ngal Lay. The time with her was like meeting Ti Ti for the first time. The only difference is that A Ngal Lay is my great-granddaughter.

I have a good friend and a great artist in Myanmar, and his name is Than. I commissioned Than to paint the photo of A Ngal Lay and me. Several months after finishing the painting, A Ngal Lay got Than’s the portrait of the two of us.

This past February, Ti Ti graduated from Gusto University with a Bachelor of Science, with honors, in Computer Systems Engineering. She wrote to me thanking me for making it possible for her to get her degree. This was my response. It is my Kierkegaardian either/or.

My email was my Kierkegaardian Either/Or. We need to address, as a country, issues related to sexism and racism. My family in Myanmar consisted of five people prior to visiting Set Set Yo. Since then, four more were added. My family totals nine people, seven of them are females, and they are all Asians. Ti Ti couldn’t even visit me at Christmas because Trump thinks people from Myanmar are terrorists. We, as a nation, need to address both -isms. Women and non-white people aren’t second-class. We are all family.

This is Ti Ti’s term paper.