Myanmar (former Burma)
src: Wiki
Some interesting facts about Burma:
- British colony until 1947
- Upon achieving independence (Jan 4, 1948) Burma was one of the wealthiest South-East Asian nation with world's largest rice exports, a developed infrastructure, the highest SE Asian literacy rate, and oil & natural gas reserves
- Prime Minister U Nu's government initiated the Two-Year Economic Development Plan, designed to transform Burma in to a welfare state
- The plan's failure plunged Burma to the World's Least Developed Country status in 1987; today the nation's infatrasture is almost non-existent, and Burma is the world's second-largest opium producer/exporter.
- The EU, UN, and the US have issued various economic sanctions against Burma; of interest, the UN sanctions of 2006 are full of loopholes (due to stonewalling by China and Russia), allowing Chinese trade interests (mosly oil) to function inside Burma.
- Burma's ruling military junta enjoys widespread support by China
But this just can't be about oil, because Bush isn't involved, right? ..