Burma

A fantastic album. Kindly considerate, if it would be more proper to avoid the names Burma or Rangoon, that might evoke British colonial past.

Thanks. I understand what you mean but it was the military junta that changed the name and it's the military junta that is killing the people today. Incidentally the people of Myanmar are known as Burmese in English so the colonial past is still evoked!

For the people's name - actually, I believe that the Burmese comes from the dominant nation - the Bamars, so it's not very exact translation. For your defence, the Myanmar actually reflects only the historical centre of the country as well.

However, the democratic government did not change the name back, so it's probably it's more acceptable to its people.

When comes to politics, it would be hard to judge if the colonial Burma was worse than a military junta of Myanmar. If bringing the Bengalis to the Arakan was a good step. If the driving on the left hand side is better than on the right side :D

Sadly the junta never went away and even during the democratic period the military effectively ran the country, the terrible events in the Rohingya region being one result. I suspect the Burmese crave peace and prosperity and don't really care what an Englishman calls their country. Why should they? The colonial period is long gone thank goodness.

Rohingya issue is by a large part the result of collonialism. So long time or short, it cannot be ignored. I'd say that many Burmese, not only the military, disagree with a presence of a muslim nation in their territory. You might well know, that the human rights continued to be largely abused even during the rule of democratic government.

And well, they might not care how an Englishman calls their country, equally they might not care if the statues of the heroes of collonial era still stand. They equally do not care to wear Nazi symbols (e.g. www.traveladventures.org/continents/asia/burmese-helmets.html). However these issues matter, when you look at a bigger picture.

I certainly agree with you. The British Empire as elsewhere applied Divide & Rule in Burma and encouraged 100s of 1000s of Bengali muslims to emigrate to the Arakan and Burmese cities - where they formed a majority. After independence you can understand why the Burmese resented their presence. Yes, sadly human rights abuses against the Rohingya have been ongoing since the 1960s.

it's a beautiful album, full of gorgeous pictures!! it's so sad that the political situation in Myanmar it got worse again in the last years...