Should I stay or should I go?
To Myanmar, that is.
Not that I'm planning to travel to Myanmar in the next few weeks (or Burma, or whatever the country's calling itself these days), but it's a question you have to ask.
Why? Myanmar has an utterly corrupt military dictatorship that rules the country with an iron fist, as the saying goes. How corrupt? They had free elections about a decade ago, and the democratic party, the party that actually, like, advocated, you know, DEMOCRACY, won, and the government said, basically: "We don't care."
Their spiritual leader, Auu San Kyuu (the spelling of her name is horribly wrong, but forgive me) has been under house arrest for a few years now, maintaining her solidar-
ity with the people. (She's the daughter of the last honest leader of the country, and she's given much of her life to forwarding the pursuit of democracy in
So, the dilemma is:
If you visit Myanmar, and meet its people, and witness its beauty, you're feeding the regime. You're planting money in the pockets of the military. You are, essentially, advocating and enabling a dictatorship to continue, and even thrive.
The counterargument is:
Myanmar is poor. Myanmar is needy. The PEOPLE are needy. If you go there, you will be buying their food, staying in their hotels, purchasing their products. You will be giving money to people who need it. You will be helping honest people improve their lives.
Difficult choice.
I don't know what the right answer here. On a massively lesser scale, in Cambodia you can buy cheap DVDs of the current Hollywood releases for three bucks a pop. Is it illegal? You bet. Are you helping the government continue their piracy? Uh-huh. Are you also allowing small-time business owners to STAY in business so that they can continue to feed their family. Yes. So what to do?
Don't know.
The good thing about living in a poor country is that it makes you THINK about these issues. In Canada (or Japan, or Norway), you can buy a DVD, and travel abroad, and not worry too much about where your money is going, and who it is profiting.
Here, in this hot, wretched land, the most basic, fundamental human elements -- travel and barter -- become moral dilemmas. It's a lesson, if you look at it that way. It's a continual reminder that the elemental functions of humanity reveal other, more complex shadings the further away you are from home.
