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12/28/2005

Hello from Myanmar!

Our visit to Myanmar has so far been a very complex and fascinating experience.  One slightly scary tidbit:  all access to google, yahoo and g-mail is denied.  I guess that is seen as a bit too, shall we say, democratic for the powers that be here in Myanmar. 

We will have lots to say when we return but for now let me say that Myanmarians sure do love the Buddha!  Every which way you look there is another massive Buddha shrine with a lovely image of the Buddha.  It is really quite amazing.  Many of the Buddha temples and pagodas and stupas and shrines are stunning - a few of the sites we have seen truly rival in pure wonder anything we have seen on the during all of our travels around the globe.  

More in a few days... 

17:02 Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this

Comments

i'm fascinated by the idea that the powers that be have denied access to google and yahoo. how does it work? are all computers in the country blocked? what else is forbidden (or allowed)?
warm regards to the buddhas

Posted by: maxine | 12/30/2005

It is pretty ease - the government controls all the landing points (and is probably the only ISP) for the undersea/overland fiber-optic cables and the sattelite uplinks - so it can filter all traffic coming in and going out. China does the same with theirs

Posted by: anon | 12/30/2005

Anon - Is it true that the Burmese Govt controls the satellite links too?

Posted by: Uma | 12/30/2005

I am not sure, but highly possible, since it is a military regime. Another country which controls access to Internet is Singapore where all traffic to and from passes through the govt's firewall.

Regarding sattelite links - the situation was not very different in India back in 1993 when ERNET was the only way to access the internet and it was controlled by the government.

Posted by: anon | 12/31/2005

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