The BBC recently ran a five-part series of articles about life inside Burma, written by Kate McGeown. In all honesty, the articles were pretty good. I thought, finally, a journalist traveling to Burma for the first time was able to offer a reasonably balanced perspective, acknowledging that what happens there is not apparent on the surface. Sure, it didn't go into much depth as far the ethnic minorities go, but as far as they're writing for people with only a cursory knowledge of the country, it was pretty informative. And you know, the BBC does a pretty good job of covering Burma, so kudos to them.

That's why I was all the more disappointed when I read the final installment of the articles, where Kate answered readers' questions about the country. It was all going pretty well, until I got to this question:

Your description of Burma sounds somewhat like North Korea. How would you compare the situation there to other countries you have (or have not) visited?

And, in particular, her response:

I've never visited North Korea, but while I was in Burma I heard many people compare the two countries.

Both are repressive regimes which tightly control what their people are allowed to do and see, and both have rulers that issue somewhat bizarre decrees.

But Burma is nowhere near as bad as North Korea, in several ways. As far as we know, few people have actively starved in Burma in recent years, although there are reports that some people, especially children, are malnourished.

The Burmese rulers are also far less successful at stopping their citizens having contact with the outside world - despite all the secret police, phone tapping and paranoia.

In some ways, Burma reminded me of some of the communist countries I have visited, like Russia, Cuba and Vietnam.

What?! "I've never visited North Korea, and I've only been to Burma once, but to answer your question, North Korea must be worse because..BABIES are STARVING!" Has starving babies become the epitome of 'can't get any worse than this' suffering? [note, I know Kate didn't say babies, but I'm also referencing the accompanying picture - still, starving babies, malnourished children, starving people - the point remains]. And what is "actively" starving? Can a person passively starve? Accidentally starve?

Oh, and, it's also not as bad because the government has partially failed to isolate the people. Except, maybe, the goal of the 'secret police, phone tapping, and paranoia' is not actually to isolate people, but to root out and destroy dissent and dissenters, and to create a psychologically battered nation that they can more easily control.

How could you even say that the situation in one country is worse than the other, anyway? That's not something any of us is qualified to pass judgment on. In the first place, none of us know the full extent of what is occurring in North Korea. But we do know what is going on Burma. Are babies starving there? Well, maybe not in droves, but I'm sure some have at some point. But, they are dying of easily treatable diseases like diarrhea. As are adults. They're also dying of malaria, cholera, diptheria, and any number of diseases that every other country in the region has reasonably under control. Let's not forget the AIDS epidemic.

Oh, and that whole genocide thing. Babies are being blown up and shot, but hey, they aren't starving to death. Really, it's just like Cuba or Vietnam there!

This statement is not only incorrect - seriously, we can't say one country is worse than the other, it's just not comparable. Maybe the North Korean government's negligence has resulted in as much suffering as the the junta's warfare against it's own citizens. Who can measure the value or weight of suffering? The statement is also irresponsible. Kate just spent how much time writing five articles to raise awareness about the situation there, and then she turns around and says, hey, it's really not so bad. How many of her readers now will measure their perceptions of the situation in Burma against their perceptions of how bad it is in North Korea - and how much of their perception of North Korea is based on facts and not the remnants of cold-war era anti-communist propaganda?

And that picture of crying, starving babies that BBC inserted next to her answer with the caption, "The situation in North Korea is worse than in Burma", oh my god, it makes my head hurt. BBC, you're better than that kind of crass, famine-porn journalism.

I'm sure Ms. McGeown is not going to find my humble blog buried in the blogosphere, and I'm sure the only way I'll feel better about this is if I can share these thoughts with her, so I'm going to hunt down a way to comment at the BBC about this question.