Pagan photo (c) Jim Johnston
Myanmar, still called Burma as much as H.C.M. City is called Saigon, has made an amazing transformation lately. I’ve long been a skeptic of the whole premise that if travelers go to a place it will help “open up the country” and bring on better human rights. It never worked in a long list of repressive regimes, including Cuba, and the Middle East didn’t suddenly erupt in protest because we westerners were frequently the hotels and cafes.
So I’ve avoided Burma, even when taking one Thai bus over another would have gotten me there. And I certainly wasn’t going to include it in my book and encourage people to go hand their money to a bunch of power-hungry generals who controlled most means of commerce. If you went there, you supported the government, not in some esoteric way, but with your cold hard cash.
Finally, things are turning around. The opposition won nearly every seat possible in recent elections. There are signs of real freedom in what people can say and do. Aung San Suu Kyi can finally move freely.
There are people who know much more about this subject than me, so I’m turning the mic over to them.
- A Chance to Breathe in Myanmar – from NPR’s longtime Southeast Asia correspondent. An interview with him on Talk of the Nation.
- The BBC’s story on how the government is going to float the currency , ending a ridiculous 2-tiered exchange rate system.
- Elections in Myanmar: the Best Party in Decades from The Economist
- It’s safe to say the current guidebooks for Myanmar are only a notch less useful than the ones for Syria, so check out the Myanmar section of the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree for the inside scoop from people who are there.
