In Burma, Talk Isn't Cheap

If you have a cell phone, today might be a good day to say thanks for what is, to most Americans, a never-give-it-a-thought convenience.

Because this is what acquiring a mobile phone entails in lovely Burma:

The process often takes years and costs about $1,500, in a country where many earn about $50 a month. Those who can afford it often buy the coveted SIM card from a person who acquired it through the lottery, as some Burmese dub it, or the black market. They generally pay that person a virtual fortune of about $2,500. Having a land line or a cell, mind you, does not entitle owners to call anywhere they want. Many use their phones only for local calls. If they want to be able to call outside the immediate area — say from Rangoon to Mandalay — they must first ask the government. Calling outside the country requires further clearance. And it is highly likely that some government apparatchik will be listening in. ...

Phone charges, meanwhile, resemble larceny: $11 a minute to the United States. It may be that Burma's generals need the money to fund their new capital at Naypyidaw, a billion-dollar indulgence that's virtually uninhabited except for government ministers and civil servants.

Of course, none of this phone stuff can hold a candle to what the military junta accomplishes when it really flexes its muscle, such as murdering Japanese news photographers and clubbing scores of Buddhist monks.