The less important kind of lives

Well it looks like a whole fuck of a lot of people are going to get murdered in Myanmar pretty soon (apparently when the government evactuates the hospitals, it is not because they are redecorating), but don't worry -- Bush has tightened sanctions! Rather meaningless since they mostly just sell drugs, but good call anyway.

I confess to being a bit baffled by the whole matter -- by most accounts Burma was a very prosperous country, full of oil and teak and so on, until it was taken over by the State Peace and Development Council which obviously did the opposite and ran the whole country into the ground, while enslaving and raping everybody in sight. So I guess they took the oil industry for themselves and are getting rich off it and that's the whole point? (Guess who's buying the oil! I'll give you a hint -- they never met a brutal repressive oil rich regime they didn't like!)

But how rich are you really getting? Seems like spending all that time killing people would kind of take away from the fun of it, plus what can you buy in Myanmar anyway (sex slaves and gold toilets? Also shitloads of opium?) but maybe that's just me. Depressing state of affairs, really, but of course nobody much cares...this might be on the front page of the NYT, but the most emailed is still "In Portland, a Golden Age of Dining and Drinking". Way to keep your eye on the ball, people! Oh hey that reminds me, it's playoffs time! Fuck Burma, go Cubs!

Actually on second thought, if people did start paying attention we'd probably just invade them, and if there's any way to make that situation worse, we'll find it, so never mind. I will however recommend Beyond Rangoon (or perhaps it's Beyond Yangon now?), it's pretty informative about the whole mess from '88 on and actually a decent film. Which I am just now realizing had Frances McDormand in it, so there's that, too! You might as well Netflix it, it's not like you're watching baseball.