Word: burma
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Fields of poppies have bloomed for centuries in the remote, jungle-clad valleys of northern Laos where five nations-Laos. Red China, Burma. Thailand and Communist North Viet Nam-meet in a tangle of ill-defined boundaries. The local Meos and kindred tribesmen delicately pierce the flowering buds, extract the sticky raw opium. Some of it they use themselves: when a Meo child complains of an ache, his mother may blow opium smoke into his mouth to ease the pain; for Meo adults, opium smoking provides a goofing-off pleasure that is their substitute for the combined attractions of alcohol...
...Burma, brothels have been shut down in the capital city of Rangoon and only survive in dingy hideouts in the suburbs. There is a public outcry from conservative Burmese (echoed by the opportunistic pro-Communist press) against such Western innovations as rock 'n' roll ("dance of mad persons with chronic diarrhea"). Western ballroom dancing ( "couple-rubbing exhibitions" ) and beauty contests ("degradation of Burmese womanhood"). Last month the government destroyed opium crops in a northern district, warned that other opium growers in the Kachin and Shan states would be the next to suffer...
...desire a life of freedom, which is not possible for a citizen of the U.S.S.R." Talking with Burmese newsmen later, he said that "the main occupation of all the Soviet embassy staff in Rangoon is to spy," that Russia and Red China cooperate closely in espionage activities in Burma, but that "my personal opinion, based on my knowledge, is that the main role is played by Communist China...
Like Colonel Stryguine, Kaznacheev's small child had not been allowed to accompany him to Burma. What will happen to his family now, he was asked. "Normally, nothing good can be expected...
...degree from almost any accredited Commonwealth school is acceptable to all others. Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have dovetailed their old-age pension plans, medical and unemployment benefits so as to make them interchangeable. Even Eire and Burma, which left the Commonwealth, are elliptically described as "not foreign countries." The tradition of the dignity of the individual seems to pay off. In not a single Commonwealth country is there a major Communist Party of importance or prestige...