I wouldn’t be surprised if most people reading this Washington Post article didn’t make it to the end. After all, we’re so used to getting a constant stream of news on the wretched conditions of people living in some third world nation that a certain level of fatigue sets in, and economic sanctions against Burma doesn’t have the same zing as the Yellow menace of rising China, the endless Middle Eastern wars, or the delicious scandals unfolding in Washington. But for those who did make it to the end of the article, or those watching this page, there is a paragraph at the end that I would say is quite literally jaw-dropping.

The import of automobiles, for instance, is so tightly restricted by these well-connected businessmen that Burmese say a 15-year-old Japanese sedan might sell for more than 20 times its value elsewhere and the supply of mobile phones is so limited that they can cost more than $2,000.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 7th, 2006 at 1:40 am and is filed under Asia, Econ & Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.