Rob, Rambling

Just imagine if a newspaper columnist had written days after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, with its estimated death toll of 230,000, that at least it would potentially lead to the ending of the civil war in Sri Lanka and hamper the efforts of Muslim rebels in Indonesia. Burma is being treated in a very different way here - many are pinning their hopes on the disaster being a harbinger of a positive change.

Not that the Burmese junta are exactly fierce defenders of human rights and free speech, but it’s hard to disagree with the points made here. There’s a whole load of moral hand-wringing surrounding Burma at the moment, and it’s hard to understand exactly why this case is so different from previous ones.