Tuesday, September 25, 2007

It's Burma now, is it?

You can measure the shift of attitude in our 'wonderful British Press' by the labels given to their news stories. A few years ago the lil' country with part Risk value was named Myanmar by it's Junta government. Myanmar was a bloody oppressor of human rights - as you would expect from any half-decent military regime that swept to power amidst chaos and blood. Don't need those speccy intellectuals complaining about human rights and lack of democracy, after all.

Yet the press still referred to the country as Myanmar. Best not upset any trade or TV rights that may be ongoing.

Until today. When it's Burma back on the map. Good old Burma, with it's history of Tigers and Jungles and - - what's this? Monks leading a revolt against the military government? Good-oh. That'll make excellent news coverage. Swaffron robed monks karate kicking undemocratic soldiers in a giddy nine o'clock round-up. Yay. So Burma is back. And so is the support of the British media for those violated by the Myanmar junta.

We needed some good coverage, after all, Afganistan and Iraq were getting a little stale.

Now all we need is Rambo to storm the country, knife clenched between teeth, with a grenade for a nosering!

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