Talk:Myanmar/Archive 1

message: I don't want to go and stir up unnecessary debate, but shouldn't the main name of the article be given to some sort of vote  or discussion as to whether it's Burma and directs from Myanmar, or Myanmar and it directs from Burma? I think this ought to be informed more or less directly by the number of countries around the world which currently recognise the military junta. I'm British and we neither recognise the junta officially or refer to it as anything other than Burma officially and in the media - it's the same with most of the rest of the Commonwealth. I'm not sure about the United States, but I know officials refer to it as Burma (and it's in the CIA Factbook as Burma). I'm not sure of the most correct and hopefully democratic way to resolve this or even if I'm correct in thinking that Burma is still the most commonly and widely-used English term, but I can't help shake the feeling that "Myanmar" is simply the name promoted by a dictatorial regime and not recognised by the majority of the international community.JF Mephisto 10:28, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The main reason, I think, is that Myanmar is the name used by the U.N.. For example see here. Further down the talk page you can see more arguments for and against this. Polaron | Talk 15:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

text: Well, what gives the regime the right to decide the name of the country? It should be based on what it is most widely known as internationally as well as what the majority of its people wish it to be called. Again, I request a vote on this issue. JF Mephisto 17:22, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Not all countries are ruled legitimately by the will of their people, but their leaders and country names are still listed as being 'legitimate'. If we continue to use 'Burma' over 'Myanmar', it would be contradictory to continue to state that Than Shwe and Soe Win are the country leaders, merely because they were not elected. This issue has been brought up several times already. Likewise, coming from Myanmar, there are many people who accept and use 'Myanmar' over 'Burma' in modern times. Usage of 'Burma' among those from Myanmar is more common among expatriates. Maybe this debate should be raised again, but if it does, we must change all articles that contain 'Myanmar' to 'Burma'. Hintha 22:13, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Main name of article 

message: This edit included a number of changes. I have reverted the addition of two instances of '(???)'. This has set me wondering about he following additions:
:US sanctions against the military government have been largely ineffective, due to loopholes(???) in the sanctions and the willingness of mainly Asian business to continue investing in Burma and to initiate new investments, particularly in natural resource extraction
and
:although Total (formerly Total-Elf-Fina) is now facing a lawsuit in French courts for alleged connections to human rights abuses along the gas pipeline jointly owned by Total, the American company Unocal, and the Burmese military.
I will do some digging to verify these claims and add citations. --Etimbo | Talk 18:55, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: That's done. --Etimbo | Talk 19:18, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Politcs: [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Myanmar&diff=9391898&oldid=9290910 Edit] by 128.135.103.151 on 11 January 2005 

message: The following characters seem to be an attempt to write "Union of Myanmar" in a non-Latin alphabet. They were in the article until now but invisible because they don't quite work. I've moved them to here until they can be fixed because I think they'll confuse new editors.
:ပ္ရည္‌ထောင္‌စုမ္ရန္‌မာနုိင္‌ငံတော္‌
Iota 03:10, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Non-working characters

message: Even though the country is official "Myanmar", is the adjective still "Burmese"? This puzzled me the other day.
Thanks to whoever responds.--ZayZayEM 06:31, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see any problems here actually, since Myanmarese stands for the country of Myanmar (which is multinational), and Burmese stands for the Burmese language and its native speakers (the Burmans, or Bamar). There is the same connection as between British and English. No one would argue, I suppose, that Britain and England are two different subjects, though both terms were historically derived from ethnonims. There is no "British" language except for the old language of the Britts. Similarly, there is no "Myanmar" language except for the old language of the Mranmas, who were ancestors of the Burmans. — X-lynx 09:01, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

text: I think you're probably on pretty safe turf calling the people Burmese, esp. in the U.K. and U.S.
Put it this way, if you were in the U.K. you would not call a Welshman an 'Englishman', you would either refer to him as a Welshman or as a Brit(ish). Same in Myanmar, if you call a Shan person 'Burmese', don't expect them to like it! If you call a Shan person a 'Myanmar', then you're ok. Calling a Bamar 'Burmese' is fine but you can't call everyone in Myanmar 'Burmese'. People here don't say Myanmarese or Myanmese, they simply say 'Myanmars'.Mandalay Resident 19:39, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Burmese"? A quick question. 

message: The article says: 'Myanmar derives from the Burmese name Myanma naingandaw, which literally translates as "country of Myanmar".' That makes no sense a all! A word with a recursive meaning?
:I think it's a case of sloppy wording saying Myanmar is short for Myanma Naingandaw, and Naingandaw is the "The Country of..." part. —Casey J. Morris
I didn't notice that before. I tried to fix it, though I don't speak Burmese, so please look it over. El_C 12:11, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meaning of "Myanmar" 

message: Craziness, but anyone know more about the internet control of Myanmar, I did a quick search and came up with...
"Computers, Internet, and E-mail: The military government carefully controls and monitors all Internet use in Burma. The government has made available a censored version of the Internet and has allowed several cyber cafes to open. However, access to the Internet is very expensive, and the government prohibits access to most “free” international e-mail services. It is illegal to own an unregistered modem in Burma. Tourists may bring in one laptop computer per person and must declare it upon arrival. Limited e-mail service is available at some large hotels. All e-mails are read by military intelligence. It is very expensive to send photographs via e-mail. One foreign visitor was presented a bill for 2,000.00 U.S. dollars after transmitting one photograph via a major hotel's e-mail system."
Source:USgov travel site
I think it deserves mention, anyone have any arguments or more information about it? I wonder if they get wikipedia?
--Capi crimm 23:11, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Internet Control? 

message: This article appears to have no mention of the religions of Myanmar - let alone what sort of relations there are between the political sphere and the religious sphere. 
Does Myanmar have a secular (albeit military) state?  What sort of religious education is there?  Is this because no-one knows?
::Belongs under the 'Culture' section I guess. Probably a brief mention (one sentence) in this article and a redirect to a  separate article would be a good idea. Any volunteers?PiCo 10:45, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Religion? 

message: Any Burmese speakers or Burmese language experts out there?  I've just listed the Burmese name for tofu as "pebya," but I'm not sure if this is the right romanization.  Please check the tofu article and see if it's correct.  Thanks!  Badagnani 22:45, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Burmese word for tofu 

message: I have read in several places that the Metric system is not officially used in Myanmar, but have never been able to discover the details. Is there a local system of measurement that is used? Have there been attempts at metrication? Seabhcán 11:48, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The SI system is used in Myanmar, but the Burmese language has adopted the English system's measurement names (eg. pound, mile, etc.) instead of the SI system's, because of British colonisation, but their equivalent measurements are those of the metric system. Hintha 01:43, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Use of Metric system 

message: I've could've sworn there was some student lead armed resistence against the government in the aftermath of Aung San Suu Kyi's arrest. In fact, I still hear some reports now and then of Mon rebels attacking government troops from time to time. Why is there no mention of this? Typos 02:43, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Civil War? 

message: Can anyone provide authoritative information on Burma's civilian losses in WW2 1941-45?--Berndd11222 23:45, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Burma's losses in WW2 

message: Burma is among the very worst enemies of Internet freedom and in many ways its policies are worse than China’s. The price of computers and a home Internet connection is prohibitive so Internet cafés are the target of the military regime’s scrutiny. As in neighbouring Vietnam and China, access to opposition sites is systematically blocked, in this case with technology supplied by the US firm Fortinet. Web-based e-mail, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, cannot be used and all Internet café computers record every five minutes the screen being consulted, to spy on what customers are doing.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that while the enforcement of Internet restrictions is unyielding in Yangon,  the smaller Internet cafes of Myanmar's other cities occasionally advertise their ability to hack through government firewalls.
Before any of this can be put back in, the text must be refined, neutralized, and properly merged.  --Lotsofissues 20:22, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Burma and the Internet 

message: I've removed the reference to wikipedia from the demographics section. I've also noticed that this article claims that there has been no census in 70 years and the "demographics of Myanmar" article says that the last census was in 1983: can someone who knows the correct date please correct? Tellkel 13:49, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Demographics

message: I've just tagged the article Mandalay Palace for copyediting, but I think it needs someone familiar either with the subject or the native language of the person who wrote it...perhaps someone here could help out...it's just a few sentences, but I couldn't make sense of them. NickelShoe 01:25, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Mandalay Palace]]

message: Shouldn't the fact that Rice added this to the 'outposts of tyranny' list be included here?Evilbu 11:16, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This is encyclopedia and not tool for propaganda. Pavel Vozenilek 23:58, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  outpost of tyranny 

message: I'm pretty sure that the coat of arms of Myanmar is not coloured in blue, pink, and orange. I've only seen it completely in gold. Hintha 20:29, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coat of arms 

message: The French Wikipedia lists Myanmar's motto as: «Le bonheur se trouve dans une vie harmonieusement disciplinée». 69.234.149.76 05:36, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Motto 

message: Can you please try to include more about the ethnic guerillas in Burma. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.16.225.80 (talk • contribs) .
:I've added a few sentences in the article about ethnic guerilla groups working in Myanmar, but if anyone would like to add further, feel free to do so. Hintha 01:40, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Ethnic Guerilla groups

message: We need to discuss the situation with the new capital to establish consensus and prevent this back-and-forth, slow-motion edit war from continuing.  This is how I view the situation.  A "capital" is the location of the seat of government.  The current government, regardless of how we view its legitimacy, has moved the seat of government to Naypyidaw.  Therefore, Naypyidaw is now the capital.  Likewise, Yangon is no longer the seat of government; therefore Yangon is no longer the capital.  If there's a flaw in that logic, somebody please point it out.--WilliamThweatt 14:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: As a recent editor of capitol information, I feel that I should comment here.  I made a good-faith edit to correct what I perceived to be an error regarding the location of the capitol.  The only reason why it was even brought to my attention was that there was a conversation on the IRC channel #wikipedia about the unknown population entry on the Naypyidaw article.  I decided to investigate and my research led me to believe that Yangon (Rangoon) was the capitol of Myanmar.  The United States' Central Intelligence Agency recognizes Yangon as the capitol and makes a note of the junta beginning to shift the seat of government to Pyinmana.  The site is updated daily and as of 14 June 2006, the United States still recognizes Yangon as the official capitol of Myanmar.   As we live in a world where the United States does not dictate global policy (although at times it may seem otherwise), I'd be more than happy to concede that Pyinmana (rather than Naypyidaw, because of the name-change in March) is the official capitol, as that seems to be what the Burmese people consider their capitol to be.  I was simply going on what one of the world's leading intelligence agencies led me to believe.  In fact, perhaps we should just make a note on relevant pages that the capitol is disputed?  I'm open to pretty much anything. hoopydinkConas tá tú? 15:51, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Naypyidaw in traditional usage simply means  royal seat or capital  e.g. Mandalay was known as Yadanabon naypyidaw and Ava as Innwa naypyidaw. It's never been a name in itself, like naingandaw  in Myanmar naingandaw simply means royal country, and is not a proper noun. I don't know if people call it Pyinmana naypyidaw or Kyatpyay naypyidaw for that matter. They call the country itself Bama Pyi/Pyay or Myanma Naingan synonymously although I suppose the latter is now politically correct as the former could mean just the Burman homeland or the dominant Bamar's habitual usage for the entire nation. Wagaung 18:28, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: The Capital

message: How do you pronounced Myanmar? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.53.138.186 (talk • contribs) .
:Contrary to popular belief, Myanmar is pronounced as two syllables: (1) Myan (pronounced myun), and (2) Ma (long a sound without the 'r' sound). Hintha 23:02, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Could someone with actual IPA knowledge add that to the article? I'd wager it's something like ['myanma:], but I'm no expert. —Nightstallion (?) 11:24, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Myanmar is pronounced , but is increasingly being pronounced  by Burmese speakers (especially in the Yangon-Bago region). Some, by preference, use .  translates "country" in the aforementioned cases. Hintha 23:13, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronunciation 

message: Wikified as part of the wikification drive.  KarenAnn 19:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikified as part of the [[WP:WIKIFY|wikification drive]]. 

message: I think that I may ask this question in this page about image. Is changing the siza of image allowed in article? Because I want little bit bigger, but not too much. *~Daniel~* 23:32, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think most images in Wikipedia articles are thumbnailed, but some editors force a size to enlarge (or shrink) the image.  Most images aren't any larger than about 250-275 pixels.  But keep in mind that when you force a size on an image it will appear different on different screens, depending on what browser and what resolution the user is running.  A large image can make an article look really bad in lower resolution as well as take longer to load.  My advice is to go ahead and experiment (within reason, of course)-- if it turns out bad, somebody will change it back.--WilliamThweatt 00:06, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Size of Image.