Burma
To suppress bad media coverage, Burma suspends its visa-on-arrival program
Earlier this year, Burma’s government introduced visas on arrival. Visitors were still required to enter via Yangon, but at least they could just show up. While it’s super-convenient for travelers, such freedom prevents the government from keeping their famously close tabs on foreign visitors. What a surprise that, in the run-up to the November elections, the visa-on-arrival program has been suspended.
Burmese government using railway project to displace and exterminate ethnic minorities (but they’re no angels, either)
The Democratic Voice of Burma reports that the Burmese government is using a railway project as an excuse to upend, displace and (if they have their way) exterminate rebellious ethnic minorities. But, as with all things in that country, it’s not a black-and-white case.
Drought, heat waves threaten Burma’s Inle Lake (with photos)
Burma’s Inle Lake is one of those amazing places. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to put into words. It’s huge. It’s remote. And it’s home to several communities that live on the lake itself. Houses on stilts. Schools on stilts. Everything — on stilts. It’s alarming, then, that after record high temperatures and a brutal drought, the lake’s water level may be down by as much as 50 percent.
Thanks to sanctions, Burma’s citizens cannot enter YouTube’s ‘global’ day-in-the-life contest
How’s this for an unintended consequence of economic sanctions: Residents of Burma are unable to participate in a YouTube contest that aims to collect “Life in a Day” videos from around the world.
In Burma, protesters use ‘Team America’ version of Kim Jong-Il on their posters
In Burma, protesters used the Team America version of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il on their posters — as seen in a Reuters wire service photo.
Burma VJ trailer online
A few years back, I spent a month in Burma. At the risk of sounding like a crunchy hippie jerkoff, I’ll admit that my time there changed the way I saw the world. I didn’t emerge an activist, but my heart definitely softened. When the monks protested the military government in 2007, I was actually [...]
