Menu is not displayed because Javascript is disabled. Spiders crawl here.

What's Best for Burma?

10/14/2009 8:45 pm

As anticipated, there were objections and agreement to my earlier posting about the reasons I am supporting travel to Burma.

Reader Comment
I am an activist and I am appalled at your position. Is it just possible your opinions are influenced by the industry you are in?
Frustrated in London

Reader Comment
Are you a Republican or what? No one who is liberal would have this opinion. I’m liking the rest of your blogs, but this one leaves me cold.
Annie on my way to volunteer in the refugee camps in Thailand

My Reply
I did some real soul searching to make certain I was taking the high ground on this one. I value the fact that I can have opinions that aren’t knee jerk anything.

No, I am not a Republican, I am a liberal Democrat. I have been an activist for human rights since I was a teen-ager and was arrested in Selma, protesting segregation (darn, I just gave away my age!)

I agree with Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, who argues that many tourists put money directly into the hands of individual Burmese people rather than the state coffers and also help open up a society largely shut off from the world.

Reader Comment
I was surprised, but I agree with you. Clearly what the world has been doing in response to the Burmese junta isn’t working. On your recommendation, I read Thant Myint-U’s book and it got me in the gut. When an insider makes a compelling case, it grips you and makes you rethink assumptions.
JC in BC

Here’s the essence of Thant Myint-U’s argument. I strongly recommend you read this book!!!!

So what of the future? There are no easy options, no quick fixes, no grand strategies that will create democracy in Burma overnight or even over several years.

If Burma were less isolated, if there were more trade, more engagement—more tourism in particular—and if this were coupled with a desire by the government for greater economic reform, a rebuilding of state institutions and a slow opening up of space for civil society, then perhaps the conditions for political change would emerge over the next decade or two.

Though not a particularly encouraging scenario, it is a realistic one, however much it might lack the punch of more revolutionary approaches.
The River of Lost Footsteps Thant Myint-U

Post your Comment: Join the Conversation