YES Countries are like people. They each have their own face. They each have their own personalities and idiosyncrasies. If I imagine Switzerland as a person I can see a face scrubbed clean and shining red with health. Bright eyes peer out above a smiling mouth. If I imagine Burma - or Myanmar - as a person, I see a face carrying a deep knife wound down its left cheek, slicked back hair, a cruel mouth, eyes dreamy with narcotics and a broken, syphilitic nose.
But let's say I was in a strange bar with these two characters. Which one would I rather talk to? I might try out Mr Switzerland at first but I'd soon lapse into a conversational coma. I have a feeling I would end up spending the evening with Mr Burma, finding out how he got the scar, picked up the dose, broke his nose and hooked himself on the poppy. The unusual is always more interesting.
I don't relish the idea of visiting Burma in the knowledge that every dollar I spend on every beer is going into the pockets of a corrupt and vicious general. I don't welcome the idea of walking down streets constructed by slave labour and I don't get a kick out of looking at young girls who have every chance of being marched into Thailand, flung on their backs and sold by the hour to sad men. At the last count, about 40,000 Burmese girls have suffered this fate.
It's a nasty, despicable and contemptible regime but the fact is I am too fascinated to stay away. Nothing is quite as alluring as a bad influence and, to me, Burma offers access to the darker side of the 'Asian miracle'. It represents all that is wrong with the over-rapid adoption of capitalism.
Cast an eye over some of Hong Kong's finest. I can't name them for obvious reasons, but there is no doubt at all that they made their money running drugs, arms and basically anything that turned a buck.
In fellow Asian nations the ruling powers ensure they benefit financially from all sectors of the economy. Nepotism is rife. Human rights abuses are pandemic. Corruption is the system. Social evils abound. Everyone in power is creaming something for their own benefit. Many Asian nations have managed to hide the dark side of the free market behind a screen of incoming US dollars. You could argue that by visiting Burma you are simply helping to construct this screen.
I agree. That's exactly what you will be doing. But it is going to happen anyway. Businesses are moving in, trade relations are being established and profits are being generated. A few politically aware tourists refusing to visit aren't going to change the inevitable. But if we visit the place now, at least we can be witnesses. If we don't visit, we simply remain ignorant. By the way, I haven't been there ... yet.