Mission to Burma
I've been spending the last few days in transit mode before heading off to Myanmar (Burma). I'm in Bangkok now waiting for my tourist visa to Burma to come through. Prior to now, I was in Singapore for a couple nights. These 2 cities are the main transportion hubs for travel to Southeast Asia, and the two couldn't be more bi-polar opposites. Bangkok is your stereotypical big dirty Southeast Asian city, while Singapore is clean, efficient and user friendly. Bangkok is on every backpacker's resume with "Intro to Bangkok/Khao San Road" being a mandatory introductory course at Backpacker U. On the flip side, Singapore has strong anti-backpacker laws such as no eating or drinking on the metro and no spitting in public. The latter goes against everything I've learned about Asian culture so far. Both carry insane amongst of fines.
But enough about the past. Looking ahead towards the future, tomorrow I'm off on a Mission to Burma. Ever since obtaining independence in the 60's, the country has been ruled by military juntas. When Aung San Suu Kyi won the presidency in 1990, she was placed under house arrest by the military government. She won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 but remains under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years. This is despite overwhelmingly winning the presidency by an 85% populus during democratic elections. For decades, Myanmar has had a terrible human rights record including holding 1100 political dissidents in jail. The question amongst travellers is whether travel to Burma is ethical or not. Travel to Burma can be viewed as showing support to the existing military government. The country is under economic sanctions from the US and EU governments until Aung San Suu Kyi is released. In 1997, Aung San Suu Kyi has even asked tourists not to visit the country under the current military regime during it's Visit Myanmar campaign that year. This is something I've debated over the past 2 years about whether to go or not. So what are the pros of visiting?
- isolating the country does nothing good for its people, and as bad as the human rights are in the country, visiting the country will hamper the gov’t from treating their citizens badly when foreigners are around.
- just this week, a high ranking UN diplomat visited Aung San Suu Kyi. Could this be a step in the right direction?
- you can give your money to locals without having to use government backed services. The tourist dollar is a powerful thing, and when used correctly, can do a lot to help the local people.
- isolationism doesn’t help anyone.
Here's a great website that describes how one can travel ethically in Burma, and I plan to use all the tips they speak of: http://www.voicesforburma.org/
and a great article in the NY Times today on the situation in Burma.
Personally I plan to travel ethically by staying at private, locally owned guest houses and avoiding government run transport services as much as possible. My desire to travel to Burma is to see the incredible temples of Bagan, as well as to see first hand what the country is like, and judge for myself. And for those of you from San Francisco, I personally want to find out if Burmese food is as good as the food at Burma Superstar. Hopefully I'll leave with a sense of optimism that things are changing for the better. I'll be armed with an open mind, a camera, and a new pair of flip-flops.
Since internet is a relatively new phenomenon in Burma, I might be M.I.A. for awhile. But for another more intriguing international Missing In Action, see Dónde está Ché Pelotas?
But enough about the past. Looking ahead towards the future, tomorrow I'm off on a Mission to Burma. Ever since obtaining independence in the 60's, the country has been ruled by military juntas. When Aung San Suu Kyi won the presidency in 1990, she was placed under house arrest by the military government. She won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 but remains under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years. This is despite overwhelmingly winning the presidency by an 85% populus during democratic elections. For decades, Myanmar has had a terrible human rights record including holding 1100 political dissidents in jail. The question amongst travellers is whether travel to Burma is ethical or not. Travel to Burma can be viewed as showing support to the existing military government. The country is under economic sanctions from the US and EU governments until Aung San Suu Kyi is released. In 1997, Aung San Suu Kyi has even asked tourists not to visit the country under the current military regime during it's Visit Myanmar campaign that year. This is something I've debated over the past 2 years about whether to go or not. So what are the pros of visiting?
- isolating the country does nothing good for its people, and as bad as the human rights are in the country, visiting the country will hamper the gov’t from treating their citizens badly when foreigners are around.
- just this week, a high ranking UN diplomat visited Aung San Suu Kyi. Could this be a step in the right direction?
- you can give your money to locals without having to use government backed services. The tourist dollar is a powerful thing, and when used correctly, can do a lot to help the local people.
- isolationism doesn’t help anyone.
Here's a great website that describes how one can travel ethically in Burma, and I plan to use all the tips they speak of: http://www.voicesforburma.org/
and a great article in the NY Times today on the situation in Burma.
Personally I plan to travel ethically by staying at private, locally owned guest houses and avoiding government run transport services as much as possible. My desire to travel to Burma is to see the incredible temples of Bagan, as well as to see first hand what the country is like, and judge for myself. And for those of you from San Francisco, I personally want to find out if Burmese food is as good as the food at Burma Superstar. Hopefully I'll leave with a sense of optimism that things are changing for the better. I'll be armed with an open mind, a camera, and a new pair of flip-flops.
Since internet is a relatively new phenomenon in Burma, I might be M.I.A. for awhile. But for another more intriguing international Missing In Action, see Dónde está Ché Pelotas?
posted by ::rentastic:: at 10:17 PM
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