Good news for a country that really deserves a break.

[mystictiger]

Several decades too late, The Lady has finally been released. I would like to think that it'll mean Good Things for Burma / Myanmar, but given the machinations of the generals and leaders, I suspect that this is 'fig-leaf' gesture politics. The new constitution is set up in such a way that, not even The Lady can undo it. They can therefore legitimate their control through 'democratic' parties and their built-in veto.

Does it matter? Why do I care? Because I firmly believe that democracy and the rule of law anywhere is good for democracy and the rule of law everywhere. And this is important to me in much the same way that a certain American by the name of Rev King Jr is important. It shows that fire and thunder and blood and power can be overcome by the water-like erosion of ordinary people.

You have to find your light somewhere in the darkness.

Still, this is a Good Day for Burma, and waking up the read the news that she was free has left me smiling all day.

[Synecdoche17]

It definitely is a good piece of news.  :-)

[Callie Del Noire]

Burma needs all the good turn of luck. They've been suffering for decades with little or no notice in the media. (Paris Hilton is sooo much more important than 'real news')

[Alsheriam]

It's a dog & pony show, to be honest. I'm from Singapore, which is the main founding member of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) group of nations of which Burma (or what we call Myanmar here) is a part of. Every day, I witness my country quietly helping the Burmese to circumvent trade sanctions and such by allowing their government-connected rich to buy houses here and get their children educated here, and live the good life. The Burmese junta don't give two sh**s about what the rest of the world, or even their own peasants think about them, because they already have this ingrained mindset that only they are the ones who are fit to rule and the rest are inferior subhuman scum.

My government in Singapore (also an authoritarian state) thinks that they can make things better by engagement through ASEAN, but it's not helping at all. Every time we try to do something through ASEAN, Burma just ignores us and validates the world's perception of ASEAN as a mere paper tiger all the time.