Newsweek has a cringe inducing article from a Mr. Joe Cochrane regarding his visit to Rangoon for the New Year Festival. It's titled, Techno Revolution. The title doesn't immediately reveal the inanity of the article, although you might be able to guess what's coming. The page's descriptive title is "Burma: Despite Military Junta, Partying Goes On". Reading it seriously made my head hurt. If I ever meet Joe Cochrane in person, I'd have to put the smack down for the following quote: "People with a rudimentary understanding of the place think it’s only authoritarian rule, forced labor and gross human rights abuses around the clock. But that’s only one side of the story. Despite its endless woes, Burma is also a pretty happening place, as I learned last week."

Sweet Jebus, just pasting that into my post was painful. Do you see how he deftly manages to insult large numbers of Burma experts, while simultaneously establishing his superiority in having experienced Burma, and thinking it's pretty cool?

People with a 'rudimentary understanding' rarely are aware of the gross human rights violations which occur there - their misperceptions reflect typical notions of what a military dictatorship should look like - misperceptions that Joe apparently shared before he became enlightened. And those who do know a bit more about the situation than he does do not suffer under the impression that people in Rangoon walk around with rain clouds over their heads. His (subtle) implication that those focusing on the atrocities which do occur there don't fully understand the situation is both insulting and a little arrogant.

This article is up there with the "New China" articles, whereby a newbie journo gets sent to China and sends back a stock piece on the new changing face of modernizing China's up-and-coming urban youth. Then expats and English reading citizens alike proceed to roll their eyes at the well-worn cliches and platitudes that newbie journos have been writing about China for the last 10 to 15 years. Cochrane makes no effort to understand the underlying situation in Burma, but thinks he's discovered some kind of new angle that know one else knows about.

His belief that the fun which he witnessed, along with the music clubs and mobile phones owned by the youth is the 'other' side of the story, and occurs in spite of the Junta's efforts to the contrary are mis-informed.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that there are two Burmas, the one where forced labor, mass relocations and oppression are commonplace, and one where youths can wear revealing clothing, attend techno-clubs and watch CNN on sattelite. But this 'happy' Burma is not the other side of the story as Joe portrays it. It is the same story, inextricably linked to the oppression that occurs elsewhere. The urban elite of Burma who have ties to military are given significantly more freedoms and access to resources than the poor or ethnic minorities. The government isn't trying nearly as hard, or at all, to prevent this group from watching the news, or get mobile phones, or have contact with the outside. I'm sure many in the military are even happy to send their children overseas for study.

Cochrane says of the Junta's attempts to isolate the nation that they are as "inept as they are cruel. Mobile phones are everywhere, the World Wide Web is available to those who know where to find it, and satellite dishes dot the skyline in Rangoon, where the teenage children of the country’s elite and urban middle class kids [sic] can watch CNN and MTV."

They are in fact, inept, but this is not exactly a reflection of that ineptness. His observations of wealth among the urban elite in Rangoon is reflection of their plan to build a country where they and their kin can enjoy the benefits of economic prosperity - a wealth that is reliant on the exploitation of those they'd rather not have in the country.

Case in point, in 2002 it's estimated that 28% of the nation's total electricity supply was generated by the Lawpita hydropower plant in Karenni State. And yet, well over 90% of those in Karenni state have no electricity - only those with connections to the military have access to this supply. The rest of the electricity is sent to Burma proper. Ten's of thousands of Karenni were and are being displaced and even murdered for the production of these hydropwer plants. So who is paying the real cost for the discolights and turntables that make Rangoon's techno clubs so popular?

Of course, many people, like Mr. Cochrane, have misplaced expectations that visiting Burma will be like stepping into some alternate reality, where evil and oppression walk the streets. The world doesn't work like that, no matter how much violence or oppression occurs, the sun still shines, and people will still go on with their lives. Many people seem to have a hard time reconciling this with their perceptions - instead of presuming their expectations were misplaced or unrealistic, they presume the information they were given was inaccurate. It's true that in many humanitarian campaigns, people and organisations market extreme suffering, and that's not always a good thing. But, the fact that the youth in Rangoon can go to techno clubs and watch tv while texting their friends does not make the suffering which is occuring any less urgent. If anything, this discrepancy should make us care more, not less.

In his conclusion, Mr. Cochrane asserts that "Cliché as it might sound, Burma’s 18-30 year olds will likely decide which direction the country goes in the coming decades—continued authoritarianism and corruption, or democracy and economic development. For better for worse, the urbanites and more specifically, the children of the elite in Rangoon, will be calling the shots." There's a lot of truth in that statement - although it's not cliche so much as ...how would you say it...trite? redundant, perhaps? Of course the 18-30 year olds will decide the future of Burma. Hello, who else is going to decide the future of any country in the coming decades but the 18 - 30 year old demographic? I mean, maybe, just maybe there'll be a children's revolt or something, and no one who is currently 18-30 years old will ever assume any position of power or influence as the generation passes into in oblivion. That is possible. Nonetheless, it might be worth considering how we can more positively influence the 18-30 year old urban elites, who are being groomed to take over the reigns of power some day.

OK, enough silliness. I leave you with Mr. Cochrane's final thoughts - and, quite frankly, the implication that sound effects and gyrating will somehow spontaneously induce a penchant for democratic ideals and equal rights nearly made my head explode.

"Exposure to the outside world and its political, social and economic institutions will be far more constructive than isolation and exclusion. The Pioneer club is at least a start, with the country’s trendy future leaders gyrating to techno music laden with special sound effects including echoes and even whinnying horses. Bo Derek likes horses. In fact, she wrote a book about them. I think she would like Burma too.

(And thanks to Curmudgeon-in-Training for posting this story first. He also linked to a good commentary from the Canadian Friends of Burma)