MYANMAR — Rangoon (or Yangon as it is now called) seen from the air seems subdued, at least after brilliant nighttime Bangkok. Just a light here and there, otherwise a carpet of darkness. This extends even down into the new and otherwise imposing "national" airport where the light is so dim that officials squint to read my visa.
After the ordinary airport glare of just about everywhere else this obscurity seems attractively somber. When I remark upon it, I am told that the effect is not deliberate, that it is due to frequent electric power grid breakdowns and the fear that more will occur if the light level is turned up.
This was my introduction to one of the many structural breakdowns occurring in unhappy Burma, caught in the grip of a restrictive regime, for decades now, the bureaucracy of the military junta having held the country since 1962.