“We can’t afford to Ignore Myanmar,” writes Democratic senator Jim Webb in the New York Times. Webb wa sin Burma to meet with the junta’s leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi, and to bring the American “swimmer,” John Yettaw home. The sanctions are hurting the people and helping the dictators, he says. More than that, they are not fully upheld by the international community, and Russia and especially China are using the West’s disengagement to deepen ties with Burma.

Webb lays out a program leading up to this:

Our ultimate goal, as it always has been, should be to encourage Myanmar to become a responsible member of the world community, and to end the isolation of its people so that they can live in economic prosperity, under an open political system.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that not-for-profits, stifled during the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, are finding more breathing room. Frustrated with the lockdown on Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, some students in Burma are looking for another way to bring about change.

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