As Defiant Monks Protest in Burma, Travel Debate Rages On

As thousands of defiant Buddhist monks rally for democracy in Burma (or Myanmar) despite of warnings of a military crackdown, travelers watching in awe from afar continue to debate the ethics of visiting the country. Arthur Frommer yesterday denounced tour operators who continue to lead groups into Burma and called on all travelers to boycott the nation. “Shockingly enough, several major U.S. tour operators continue to operate trips to Myanmar, despite pleas not to do so by the country’s democratically-elected leader, the Nobel-prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi,” he wrote. “On occasion after occasion, Mrs. Kyi has emphatically stated that such visits simply support the brutal, thuggish military junta that now rules Myanmar.”

As the BBC has pointed out, Aung San Suu Kyi once told reporters: “Tourism to Burma is helping to prolong the life of one of the most brutal and destructive regimes in the world. Visiting now is tantamount to condoning the regime.”

Yet others have maintained that the question of visiting Burma isn’t so black and white.

As Thant Myint-U, a former fellow at Trinity College who has relatives in Burma, wrote in the Times Online (UK) in May:

Responsible tourism can help to lift many ordinary people from poverty and an influx of outsiders will hasten the possibility of political change. And it’s just not true that tourist money props up the Government. Nearly all hotels are privately or foreign owned (including all the big ones). It’s easy to avoid the few Government-owned hotels if you want—the Lonely Planet guide spells it out.

Journalist Emma Larkin, author of “Finding George Orwell in Burma,” recently spoke with NPR about the protests. She called the monks’ uprising “totally unexpected” and termed a government crackdown “not unlikely” if the protests ensue. Frank Bures reviewed Larkin’s book in 2005 for World Hum.

He wrote:

Larkin, however, gives the most elegiac account of life in Burma, and what is probably the best travel book on the country since Norman Lewis’ “Golden Earth: Travels in Burma” was published in 1952.

And what comes through most clearly in her, and Orwell’s, Burma is a colossal sadness, as well as the humor and patience that lets the Burmese bear it until the day when some of the last people living Orwell’s nightmare can finally wake up.

We can only hope that day will come soon, and that it will come peacefully.

For travelers wishing to express support for the monks, Ethical Traveler offers one way.

Photo: AP.

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