Difficult Past, Troubled Future

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I believe it is pertinent to properly understand the history of a country before you can understand the current situation. So, in this blog, I will present some background information on the history of Burma. The country of Burma is located in southeast Asia between Bangladesh and Thailand. Burma was controlled by the British Empire for 62 years and was made apart of the British Indian Empire. By 1948, it became a seperate, self-governing colony with General Ne Win becoming the first military ruler and president. During the elections of 1990, the people of Burma believed that they had finally escaped the military dictatorship they were under. The National League for Democracy won the election in a landslide, but the ruling junta refused to hand over power. Since then the military authorities have promoted the name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state, but no other country or the people have recognized this as their actual state name. The current government has led to economic strain, human rights violations, fighting between ethnic Karens and Burmese troops, increase in sexual traffiking, and illicit drugs. These situations have only been escalating in their severity. I know this blog was a little dry, but the history is important to relate. In my next blog, I will focus upon one of these situations.