the dotmatrix project

I can think of no other way to describe Burma at this point.

I began writing this post before the recent Cyclone Nargis disaster and finished it just days after the cyclone hit. In fact this is actually the first part of a series posts under the same title.

In some ways it would now be appropriate to remove “Disguised as a Tourist Attraction” from the title of this post since the cyclone quite literally blew the roof off of the regime’s charade to cultivate a tourist industry. Though I’ll leave the title as I originally wrote it since the regime is already trying to re-start the tourist industry in the north of the country not affected by the cyclone.

For those not familiar with the situation in Burma I’ll begin with a brief description of the country prior to May 2, 2008.

Burma is a military dictatorship. Perhaps the nastiest I’ve ever encountered of the dozen or so I’ve passed through over the years. The country is ruled by a group of thugs and their leader is a ruthless individual named Than Shwe. In addition to being extremely violent, the military regime running Burma is also deeply superstitious. The regime relies on fortune tellers to guide domestic and foreign policy. Now, while many world leaders have relied on fortune tellers and astrologers for advice — including a number of U.S. presidents and First Ladies — they tend not to undertake major policy changes solely on the word of a soothsayer. In Burma the recent dictator as well as previous dictators have on many occasions made fundamental policy changes based on the advice of a fortune teller.

Some fine examples of policy change due to the word of a fortune teller throughout Burmese history has been:

• The overnight change in the direction of automobile traffic on all of the country’s roads, which of course resulted in a major spike in traffic fatalities
• The sudden introduction of new currency — rendering previous currency void, resulting in countless bankruptcies in the business communities as well as the evaporation of personal wealth in the country for those who were not able to sprint to the bank in time to convert their cash
• A most ridiculous undertaking in the last few years which was the formation of a new capital. The regime actually built an entirely new capital city for the country, forcing thousands to relocate, hundreds of thousands more homeless, while leaving foreign embassies bewildered, unsure if they should move to the new capital or remain in Rangoon the old capital.

This should give one a taste of what the regime in Burma is like. Under these conditions it becomes clearer to see why the cyclone disaster is as bad as it is.