Search results for: myanmar

Last summarised here. I see the BBC is now reporting that “The UN World Food Programme says it believes hundreds of Burmese fisherman died in the tsunami, unaccounted for in official government figures”

Looking at maps of South East Asia and the Indian Ocean, it was striking that whilst Thailand, Bangladesh and the Anadaman & Nicobar Islands (not to mention Sumatra/Aceh, India, Sri-Lanka and West Africa) were all making the tsunami news in the last few days, it was as if Burma was off the map ? If … Continue reading “What About Myanmar (Burma) ?”

From a BBC picture story: “Yangon, also known as Rangoon, in Myanmar, also known as Burma” They’re NOT “also known as”. They’re the same effin’ words. Just different phoenetic spellings. You need to learn to pronounce ’em right. Rangoon / Yangon Burma / Myanmar You can just hear the British Empire quelling the natives. Jeez. That’s … Continue reading “Linguistic Pet Hates, One of Many”

Amazing that only (under) 2 years ago Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, and now not only are full US (and other) diplomatic relations restored, but there are elections and Suu Kyi is running for office. BTW, when did Myanmar become Burma again, reverting to the old colonial spelling of basically the … Continue reading “Things Move Fast”

Hate to blog about the knowledge angle of this, but it was interesting at the Christmas 2004 Tsunami that wreaked havoc in Thailand and Aceh / Indonesia, that hundreds were also killed in Myanmar, but the closed-to-media environment meant that this barely registered in international news for some time. This cyclone seems to have killed … Continue reading “10,000 dead ?”