A Beautiful, Nasty Country

THERE are few countries in the world more charming than Burma; there are few countries in the world that have been consistently worse governed. Whether these two facts are connected in any causal way I will leave political scientists and philosophers to decide.

There is, of course, nothing whatever to be said in favor of the military rulers of Burma. Judged by almost any conceivable standard, they have ruined their beautiful and richly endowed country. They have impoverished and looted it, and suppressed every last vestige of freedom. They have profiteered from the longest-running civil wars in the world, unable or unwilling to end the conflicts that are the raison d’être of the huge but ragged army that they control, and that are therefore the ultimate source of their seemingly perpetual hold on power.

About the Author

Anthony Daniels

Mr. Daniels, a retired doctor who worked in several parts of the world, is the author of Mass Listeria, a book about health scares.

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THERE are few countries in the world more charming than Burma; there are few countries in the world that have been consistently worse governed. Whether these two facts are connected in any causal way I will leave political scientists and philosophers to decide.

There is, of course, nothing whatever to be said in favor of the military rulers of Burma. Judged by almost any conceivable standard, they have ruined their beautiful and richly endowed country. They have impoverished and looted it, and suppressed every last vestige of freedom. They have profiteered from the longest-running civil wars in the world, unable or unwilling to end the conflicts that are the raison d’être of the huge but ragged army that they control, and that are therefore the ultimate source of their seemingly perpetual hold on power.