Off the Road to Mandalay

How the news changes… China and the product recalls have faded from the news, and now it’s all about Myanmar (Burma). Protests in the streets! Angry Buddhist monks! But as usual, the key components of this event are left out or obscured. The media loves putting things into polarized frameworks: it’s the evil Myanmar government versus the common people and their Buddhist muses. The U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is off to the country in the next day or so; he plans to meet with the ruling generals there to discuss the protests and the government’s response. Bush called for sanctions in a speech at the U.N.

Therein the story ends… as far as much of the media is concerned. Despite the “outrage” of the international community, this important question is rarely asked: Where does the government of Myanmar get its money — that is, the money that it uses to keep them in power? The real kernel of this whole Myanmar story can be found buried inside a BBC report posted yesterday (Thursday, 27 September 2007): “The scramble for Burma's energy resources make it almost impossible to isolate the regime.” Yes, as usual, it’s all about resources, and Burma has lots of offshore oil and natural gas. In fact, natural gas is the most important export for Myanmar (Burma), worth some 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2005; natural gas exports make up over a third of the country’s total export revenue. It is unlikely that international “outrage” is going to limit those exports, nor the income they provide the military government. This fact should be in the headlines, not the sidelines. The media needs to start talking about hard economic realities, not bleeding-heart fantasies.

Canada, Culture, and September 11 Good Deeds

I just came back from a wonderful talk by Mr. Claude Elliott, the mayor of Gander, Newfoundland. Gander is a small but important town in the farthest eastern portion of Canada. It is an important nexus for flights both military and domestic. But on September 11, 2001, it took on even greater importance, when dozens of flights were diverted there after U.S. airspace was shut down. Over 6000 passengers ended up spending several days in Gander, all hosted by a town of only about 9500 residents. The stranded passengers were housed, fed, and given free medical treatment by the town, with assistance from the provincial and federal government in Canada. There were stories in the Canadian and U.S. media about these good deeds; the event even generated a book.

Mayor Elliott spoke today about the decency of the townspeople, but noting — with, perhaps, typical Canadian humility — that it's "just what a person does". In fact, it was a remarkable feat, not just in terms of the good deeds done, but the efficiency with which such a small community handled such a big crisis. He talked about how each flight was assigned a specific residence, so that an American Airlines flight, for example, was housed in a local church. That way, when it was time some days later to re-board, it would be easy to relocate all the passengers.

Mayor Elliot, speaking with the engaging lilt of Newfoundland speech, said that his town of Gander is ready to help the U.S. again any time, praising Americans as "good people". I hope that term is correct — certainly it applies to these Canadian citizens.

Most importantly, it should make us all take more careful note of this northern land, with a culture that is more different from the U.S. than we might think. It's a culture that despite its quiet and self-effacing reputation seems to know how to get things done...