ninme

sigh

From Saffron Ten, last two items:

The Times (Oct 10) - Fearful tourists desert Burma after protests – and the economy withers

“There were many tourists in the beginning of September but then, after this Saffron Revolution, very few,” says Le Le (a pseudonym is used to protect her identity). “October to November is our peak season, but all the reservations have been cancelled. It’s not just hotels and restaurants which are affected, but all the tourist businesses.”

Apart from coping with the brutal junta under which they have lived for 45 years, Burmese have faced two economic blows in two months. In August enormous price rises were caused by the sudden removal of government subsidies on fuel, which triggered small demonstrations and then mass marches. But the protests themselves have had their own economic effects, not least of which is to have scared away the foreign tourist trade.

The Times (Oct 5) - Boycott the boycotters: get that flight to Burma, by Cath Urquhart

At a clandestine theatre show in Mandalay, banned by the Burmese Government, three brave comedians performed skits and dances in English to a small group of backpackers. One of them, Par Par Lay, had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence imposed for telling an anti-government joke.

I asked fellow performer Lu Maw if I could write about the show, or would it get them into trouble? “We want tourists to come and spread the word,” he said. “Take our photograph and put it on the internet! Foreigners are our protection.” Par Par Lay said he was released 18 months early because foreign visitors had publicised his plight.

That was six years ago, when I travelled through Burma as a tourist, marvelling at the beauty of its sights and the gentleness of its people. I found a country thirsty for news of the outside world, where locals – rather than being terrified to talk to me – would pursue me down the street to practise their English, and who would come up to me at Rangoon’s peerless Shwedagon Paya to thumb through my Lonely Planet guidebook.

None of them had heard of Aung San Suu Kyi’s plea for tourists to boycott Burma; all were shocked when I told them of it, for while she is revered, the people are desperate for the income tourism brings. And it’s not true that all tourist money goes to the regime. I stayed in locally run guesthouses where my money went directly to the owner.

Evidently people didn’t get the message…

BBC - Planet’s Burma guide ‘unethical’

The TUC has called for a boycott of Lonely Planet guidebooks until the Burma edition is withdrawn from sale.

The trade union umbrella organisation says travel to Burma is unethical and helps prop up the military government.

Last year, Lonely Planet was bought by BBC Worldwide Limited, the commercial arm of the Corporation.

In a statement, the BBC said the guide book - one of 288 published by Lonely Planet - “provides information and lets readers decide for themselves”.

The TUC, Tourism Concern, Burma Campaign UK and the New Internationalist have launched an online petition calling for the immediate withdrawal of the book. …

It’s reasons not to go include:
• Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi opposes tourism
• The military government uses forced labour
• International tourism seen as ’stamp of approval’
• Money from tourism goes to the military government

Reasons to go are:
• Tourism one of few areas to which locals have access
• Carefully targeted spending reaches individuals in need
• Locals have told travel guide authors they are in favour
• Abuses less likely in areas frequented by foreigners

It would be interesting if they did a conscientious-tourism guide. Stay at these kinds of places and not at those…