AN OUTSIDE VIEW

An economics journalist, Samuel Brittain, once attempted to explain the curious fact that some of the best developed countries in the world, such as Japan, were poorly endowed with natural resources, whereas many richly endowed countries were characterised by large numbers of extremely poor people. In his view, the reason was that natural resources create rent and the powerful try to get their hands on it, hold on to it and use it for their own benefit. I think the term is kleptocracy. This seems to be the case in Burma. It is rich in natural resources. On the other hand, the Burmese government cannot be altogether blamed for not wanting to let the west in. No doubt there are all sorts of factions in corporate America who would like to get their hands on the goodies, so say nothing of outfits like Bechtel and Halliburton, and well-funded evangelical Christians who must be itching to try to convert the poor benighted Buddhists to their scripture-based religion. "Burma is a resource...