myanmar: epilogue
safely ensconced in mumbai , I thought I’d just summarise some of my feelings towards visiting burma, and the situation therein. I think my views on the ethical angle of going have actually been reinforced by having been there: you can avoid using government enterprises fairly easily, and without travellers the guys who run the guesthouses and suchlike would be absolutely shafted. they have a hard time of it as it is, without our minimal contributions it would be absolutely desperate.i also think that it’s pretty crucial that people have the chance to access sources of information about the outside world without restriction by the junta. it’s all a bit of an orwellian nightmare: the state run paper looks like it’s been churned out by the ministry of truth, and billboards pepper the streets filled with very dubious aphorisms warning against external influences and stooges. one of the few english books allowed to be sold is ‘burmese days’: ‘1984’ would have been a much more appropriate title. it’s astounding that the rules and tenets of authoritarian rule set down decades ago are still so effective. it just goes to show that the efficacy of fear is timeless. whenever you travel by road there are regular checkpoints, most displaying a disquietingly dark sign: ‘all respect, all suspect’. the plan appears to be to create a atmosphere of constant suspicion and fear, and it seems to be working.
the upshot for me, and other foreigners, however was actually bizarrely positive. The burmese can’t talk freely about their situation to anyone, friends or even family, apart from us. as such, if you ever get talking to someone alone, they are incredibly open: it’s a cathartic opportunity that only someone from abroad can provide. people in most south east asian countries normally only talk to you to try and get to your cash: for the burmese, we have something much greater to give, and it really allows you both to get a feeling for the hardship being suffered, and to truly interact with the locals. whatever stoners in goa or bangkok might think, this level of genuine conversation when abroad is actually remarkably rare.
as for the junta themselves, they are pretty much scum to the highest degree. life won’t suddenly become idyllic when they disappear: burma is very much a colonial construction, and there are various individual ethnicities looking for greater autonomy that could easily lead to it disintegrating. the chinese, as with everywhere in the region, are also constantly in the background, sending in thousands of migrants, and there is a genuine fear that the junta will go only to be replaced by beijing. there is however still no excuse for extorting and repressing some of the friendliest and beautiful people you can ever hope to meet, and the sooner the ruling elite fuck off and die the better.
the people in burma look at the situation in iraq and plaintively hope that bush will come and free them next: the lack of oil means it’s not going to happen. this isn’t so much an indictment of the yanks, however, as of an international community that is far more concerned with conferences and lunches then actually helping people around the world. sad times: that’s the thing about visiting burma, the lasting impressions it leaves are far beyond temples and beaches.
posted by bicrom @ 9:16 am
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