# Myanmar: Portraits of Change **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 24, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787 "2013-03-24T01:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787/1 "2013-03-24T01:40:39Z")
I stumbled upon [this story](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/freedom-brings-new-challenges-myanmar-writers) awhile ago, and was curious to see what my fellow Dopers thought of it. It discusses recent changes in Burmese politics, and how the opening of Burma (also called Myanmar) after decades of military rule is changing life in the country. Part of what will be a yearlong series by the AP, this particular article’s topic is censorship. How do you go from having to self-censor every thought, every expression of dissent (or have it rather vehemently censored by the government) to having a far-greater freedom of speech? One Burmese writer in particular has said, "With censorship gone, it’s _harder to write."_ (Emphasis mine). Interesting topic. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787/2 "2013-03-24T18:05:00Z")
It’s hard to leave your past mindset, especially if it underpinned everything you do. The company I work for used to be running deep in the red. As a result, everything was done at the lowest possible cost. This always limited any systems we deployed. We have since been bought by a company that has money to invest in the business. It took more than a year for me to stop making “ok, what’s the cheapest thing we can build” the first question of any project. Similarly, it took that long before I started to think of more ambitious projects that would be able to take advantage of our expanded budget. I can understand the problem of the quoted writer. Before they had a limited set of subjects they could write about, and a limited set of things they could say about those subjects. Now, they could write about almost anything. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787/3 "2013-03-24T20:20:43Z")
Myanmar is undergoing some momentous changes, and rather quickly, right now. Does anyone know what prompted the sudden change? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787/4 "2013-03-25T12:09:23Z")
I heard a story on NPR recently in which it was reported that some diplomat from the US gave Myanmar’s leaders a copy of the series _The West Wing_ as an example of functional leadership in a democracy. Just throwing that out there. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myanmar-portraits-of-change/653787/5 "2013-03-25T19:54:59Z")
I know a couple of people who are creating high-tech startups in Burma/Myanmar. They live in the Bay Area, but they go there for extended periods, like several months at a time. They say it’s like a new gold rush there, the country is opening up so fast, a lot of companies want in at the beginning.