Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Thailand’s western neighbor, Myanmar (often still referred to as Burma, its former name), has a population of 55 million and is one of Asia’s poorest countries. Long oppressed by one of the world’s most corrupt and brutal military dictatorships, its government turned a comer in 2011 and soon surprised the world by taking bold steps forward. . . . When Myanmar finally shook off the excesses of dictatorship earlier in this decade and embraced long-awaited reforms, it was hoped that this change would usher in a period of national progress and a more democratic society. To a certain extent, advances were made—political prisoners were freed, press censorship was largely ended, and long-overdue elections took place. But a byproduct of the ending of that lengthy era of repression was the resurfacing of ugly, long-simmering ethnic tensions. Besides the appalling ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya community in Rakhine State, violent clashes have taken place in the northernmost State of Kachin between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army." The Shan State is plagued by opium-producing in the Golden Triangle, but Myanmar seems to be opening to new possibilities. [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 438-41]