CONSIDER BOYCOTTING BAGAN AIR
According to the Times article below, Bagan Air is owned by Teze the son-in-law of Burma’s junta leader Than Swe. So for anyone booking internal flights, why not boycott Bagan Air?
Times Online October 1, 2007; Wife and daughter of Burmese junta's leader 'have left the country'
Extracts from the article…
Ten years ago Mr Teza was an unknown businessman but he has risen to become one of the most powerful men in Burma, thanks to his close connections with the regime. He is banned from visiting EU countries under targeted sanctions and is suspected of involvement in arms deals.
He owns Bagan Air, a tourist airline, and his Htoo Company is believed to have made tens of millions of dollars constructing bunkers and government buildings in Naypitaw. The crippling costs of building the city - located in an old jungle logging camp far to the north of Rangoon - are believed to have forced the regime to treble fuel prices, sparking the current round of protests.
Mr Teza was also notorious for building an ugly 60-metre viewing tower complete with a cocktail lounge in the historic city of Bagan. Known as Than Shwe’s tower by locals, because the military strongman financed it and Teza’s company built it, the cylindrical structure is hated because it is higher than all the 3,000 pagodas in the extraordinary complex that was once a Buddhist holy city. It was part of a complex, including a golf course, aimed at attracting Chinese package tourists. Locals complained in private that to build higher than the height of a pagoda was arrogant and deeply sacrilegious.
Teze - Bagan Air
This is what Tay Za looks like so if you ever see him in public, be sure to spit in his face. And yes boycott Air Bagan. They have just acquired two second hand Airbus A310's from China Eastern airlines and the word is that he paid cash for the two planes .... you heard right .. cash.
There is no point Austromyrtus. Air Mandalay is half owned by the Burmese government. Yangon Air by some drug kingpin with close connections to the junta. The bus companies are owned by people in cahoots with the government. The rail company is owned by the government. How would you get around? By pickup?
No. Either we follow RunningDog's policy and just say no to Burma or we admit that our travels are, at the worst, helping keep the government in power and, at the best, the good of going outweighs the bad. Can't have our cake and eat it too.
Air Bagan flies from Yangon to Singapore and Bangkok. You have alternatives on this route. Don't fly Air Bagan internationally.
By just going to Burma you're bound to help the government out inadvertently. Calls for boycotting certain companies are going to have little effect as #2 said, you're left with little alternatives once inside Burma. Flying into or out of the country is another matter, but the damage is already done by then.
LOL! That stupid tower has been a total bust, anyway. And how much money do you think these airlines make, anyway? I can answer that for you: Not much if any at all. Same with the big hotels, which ALL operate at a loss.
Someday all the boycott proponents are going to realize that the government doesn't make any money out of tourism. They can scream and howl, but it's true.
The military junta has been in power long before there were many tourists at all in Burma. Tourists are some of the people that have publicized the terrible conditions which exist in the country. If another tourist never entered Burma it would have no effect on the junta.
what's wrong with a bunch of you hiring a local driver? gets some money back to the people
I was going around by bicycle a very hot day in July 2006 around the temple areas. All of a sudden I thought I was dreaming when this building came up in front of me. I couldnt understand what it was doing there. It sure didnt fit.
To the subject. I think the good outweighs the bad by going to Burma. If I didnt believe in that I would never have gone there. I never regretted that.
While those who write that these airlines, hotels and travel companies are not making profits.... they may or may not be correct.... but that is not the issue....
The main interest for these business is not profits. Their reson d'etra is money laundering and legitimacy of those who operate them..
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