Backround on Myanmar

Myanmar is a very tightly controlled society. Myanmar was a British colony until 1948. After the British left, a military junta took power. This military government has brutally controlled the country since then. Myanmar’s name was actually Burma until 1989, when the government officially changed it. Almost everybody that lives there still uses the name Burma, and so will I.

The military junta has been controlling the country and killing dissenters for a long time. In 1990 the government reluctantly agreed to multi-party elections. The National League for Democracy (NLD) won the election by gaining 80% of the vote. The military did not like these results so they imprisoned the leader of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi, and kept control. Aung San Suu Kyi still remains under house arrest in Yangon today.

Burmese society seems to be slowly opening up to the outside world. They are allowing more foreigners into the country, and a few people even talked to me about the government, although not in public. The country is still very censored. I saw no signs of western culture, and I couldn’t access my google email when I found a computer. Search engines like google and yahoo are blocked. Cell phones are illegal, as are unregistered modems.

The U.S. and many other countries have placed economic sanctions on the country. There is question as to whether people should travel there, as some of the money inevitably goes to support the regime. It does seem like awareness about the situation in Burma is growing, and I will be really curious about what will happen in the next 20 years. I believe that something will be changing in this country soon.