Assorted Afflatuses

After watching a week of protests and violence in Burma, the public has decided that the United States and the rest of the Occidental world needs to impose sanctions on the military state. But sanctions — at least on the part of the United States and Western Europe — will do nothing to affect the military government. Burma, a very resource-rich nation, will manage to find at least one country or corporation to buy its natural gas and oil. As most analysts have pointed out, China's influence is likely the only reason the Burmese military has not done more to quash protest. Russia — not exactly a staunch ally of the West — also has no interest in putting pressure on Burma: the Burmese military regime sources most of its military equipment from Russian aerospace and defense contractors.

On the other hand, the Burmese people have very little contact with and even less access to the outside world. According to the CIA World Factbook, Burma has a whopping two radio stations and another two television stations. Less than 31,000 people — out of 43 million — have access to the Internet from a whole 42 Internet hosts. (Compare that to the 195 million in the United States.) The Factbook also mentions that the Burmese telecommunications infrastructure, "barely meets minimum requirements for local and intercity service for business and government."

In fact, the protests in Burma were catalyzed by an increase in fuel prices, which proved too much for the already cash-strapped Burmese people. They came about not, as one might have expected, because the Burmese were unhappy with their military overlords.

Bearing that in mind, I think the United States and European Union ought to impose reverse sanctions on Burma. We should encourage our citizens to tour Burma and expose the oppressed, information-deprived population to human rights, freedom and the social contract theory of government. We should feed and encourage a Burmese hunger for Western literature, entertainment and journalism. If a modest increase in fuel prices can spur action that merits above-the-fold coverage in The New York Times, then it does not seem inconceivable to think that the Burmese, with the right information, might have their own American-style revolutionary war.

For a backward country, we need to adopt a backward strategy.