I don't believe that I've ever read The Economist before. Its title is enough to put me off completely! However, I couldn't ignore the "How to Save Myanmar" splashed across the cover of the July 23 edition, and I was having a reading material frenzy anyway.
Of course, the article didn't quite offer the solution it proclaimed. But it did have a good overview of the current situation in Burma - one which I'm starting to get the hang of, if that is at all possible. To quote, "It cheerfully exports drugs, refugees and disease to its neighbours and beyond." Since this edition, the situation has been complicated further by the sentencing of the deposed head-of-intelligence-forces Khin Nyunt to 44 years in house arrest for "corruption".
Prior to coming here, I knew of Aung San Suu Kyi (but not how to pronounce her name - go on, give it a go!) and had heard of SLORC, the military junta - now jauntily renamed the State Peace and Development Council. There's so many convolutions it makes South American politics look simple. So for anyone who might be trying to keep up (and I know that's perhaps two people reading this, but still), grab a copy of the magazine!
1 comment:
The reality check with global journals like The Economist is to read coverage of your home country and see how well it squares with your own understanding of the story from the domestic media - and, sometimes things come out more than a little strange.
Recently, for instance, there was an article reporting on the gangland murders over the past few years in Melbourne, making the place out to be somewhere where drug wars ruled the streets; as somebody living close to where several of the murders were carried out, if I hadn't heard about it in the media I'd never had known there was anything going on.
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