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NEWS- Shantytown: Behind a fence in
Subject: NEWS- Shantytown: Behind a fence in Rangoon
http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/gallery/portfolio/ah/inside_burma/front.htm
News/Photo Gallery by Andres Hernandez - Inside Burma
NEWSWEEK
Shantytown: Behind a fence in Rangoon
The expression 'Bamboo Curtain' was
coined to describe China, but it might
just as well describe life in the South
Asian nation of Burma, formally known
as Myanmar. In 1962, only 14 years
after the Burmese won their
independence from Britain, Gen. Ne
Win seized power and sealed the
country off from the outside world.
The "Burmese Road to Socialism," as
he called it, lay in an isolationism so
extreme it bordered on paranoia. In
fact, except for the general and his
cronies, it was a road to ruin. Burma's
economy had never recovered from
the Japanese occupation during World
War II, and nationalizing industry only
made things worse. By the late 1980s,
Burma was a backwater, one of Asia's
poorest nations.