Myanmar = Burma

The Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on May 2nd and killed 10,000+(?) people and I'm reminded that most of what I previously knew about Myanmar I learned from Amy Tan's novel, "Saving Fish From Drowning". The story is about a tour group that gets lost in a remote jungle and is taken in by a susperstitious native tribe. I highly recommend this novel. For more about Amy Tan and her work, check out her writer profile and blog at http://www.redroom.com/author/amy-tan. By virtue of being a well known writer, and of course being an excellent one at that, her blog gets readers and comments....

I read "Saving Fish from Drowning" last August, checked out from the public library. Which in turn reminds me how great the public library is! You can search for and request any book or material on the library's web site and then in a matter of days it will be waiting for you at the branch of your choice. You can later renew multiple times on-line. Unless it is some insanely popular novel or cd with 89 holds on the next 12 copies. Then you may as well go to Amazon. And don't get me started on the one week no renewals "bestseller" books. Somehow the idea of bestsellers and library patrons don't mix for me. Real library nerds prefer the stacks.

But I digress. Myanmar/Burma. All the reporters on NPR call it Burma. The newspapers refer to the country as Myanmar. From Amy Tan I learned that the Myanmar military government does not allow "Burma". So from this I conclude that NPR is opposed to the current Myanmar regime and prefers the democratic leader under house arrest Daw Aung San SuKyi.