Boycott Visit Myanmar Year

[101470.1700@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

  There is one compelling reason not to run tours to Burma, and it is economic.
For an undeveloped country, the tourist industry is the fastest way of
generating large amounts of foreign exchange really fast.  That was China's
policy - using overseas Chinese in south-east Asia to finance its tourist
industry, and paying them back out of the proceeds.  It worked extremely well.
Now Burma is doing the same thing.

  Actually, tourism is the one field where the SLORC's drive for foreign
investment has been really effective.  Elsewhere, big deals have often failed to
materialise. But hotels, airports etc have had big money put into them from
abroad.  At present, most of those hotels are nearly empty.  If they remain
empty, the SLORC will be unable to pay back its foreign investors, and will be
in real economic trouble.  But if tourists do flock in, the SLORC will make a
big economic success.

  The SLORC's offer to its people is "money instead of democracy".  At present,
it is unable to make good that offer.  Tourists can make the SLORC succeed - and
what they will be doing is robbing the Burmese people of their chance of
democracy.

		Derek Brooke-Wavell