Burmese Daze: Should We Boycott or Go?

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Illustration for TIME by Jon Conrad

Travel used to be about fun, freedom, feeling good. The point was to get away, unwind. Bugs and sunburns were the main holiday worry. Now it's the footprints you leave behind.

Case in point: Burma, or Myanmar, the indigenous name used by the generals who annulled democratic elections a decade ago. Repressive and corrupt, the junta has managed to avoid blanket sanctions by the West. But campaigners are demanding a travel boycott, taking their lead from Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi whose National League for Democracy won the 1990 vote. She maintains that tourist dollars prop up the regime. Another deterrent:...