Burma & Tourism (again)

[Kristal]

Carrying on from an earlier thread, the BBC News website has just asked questions about whether or not it is right to visit Burma, when many, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have urged forgeigners to stay away.

It's an interesting point, considering that the general consensus seems to be that the Burmese welcome tourists, if efforts are made to minimise the amount of cash ending up in the pockets of the military junta. I still don't think it justifies building a boat there for cheap labour and easy access to teak, by any means...

/<

 

[Mirelle]

Thanks for the link.

Read the article; the "point" made by Aung San Suu Kyii, which is rather skipped over in the text, is that tourism is the Junta's main source of foreign exchange.

I shall NOT be going, much as I do like Southeast Asia.

 

[Guest]

Judging from the strength of readers' opinions on this forum it may have been ill conceived to run the article on Sunshine - the replica Fife schooner built in Burma (CB 213 March 2006).

Long before I worked for CB there would be talk around the boatyards of building a wooden boat cheaply somewhere like the Philippines or Indonesia where cheaper labour made it possible. So I must confess to a long term fascination with the subject.

The Burmese guys I met on Sunshine were really pleased that we were going to cover the boat, they were proud of their achievements and were keen to promote the workmanship of their colleagues back in Rangoon.
They wanted the work and the chance to produce something beautiful.

CB is not a political magazine and the article concentrated on the business and experience of building a schooner in Burma. At the end we reported the project manager Peter Wood's take on things which was that sanctions were having little effect on the ruling junta and if anything pushing Burma away from western influence and towards the Chinese.

The fact that the BBC is running a: Have Your Say on Burma website suggests that there is much indecision on whether it is right to visit (and do business with) the country or not - and there is a split between those who favour sanctions and those who don't.

I ran the story because it thought it was interesting and I think people the world over should be allowed to build and sail good looking boats.

As for being anti big boats as far as I can remember CB has never criticised "rich men and their toys". Surely as soon as you get into a Mirror dinghy and go sailing for fun that is basically what you are doing isn't it? Big boats create work for all sorts of people and retain or even retrain skills that would otherwise be lost. They require crew and create career paths for many folk who like classic boats.

CB covers a huge range of boats and it's wrong to say we favour large craft. I haven't counted them all but July's issue has far more small boats, open boats, power and sail, pocket cruisers, than large fancy yachts. And that's a typical mix.

Dan Houston - Editor

 

[Kristal]

It's a fair point, Dan, and the article and its associated "Have Your Say" gives a wide range of views on the subject. It certainly suggests that the Burmese have different opinions on how foreigners can best help them and their country.

I haven't seen the article as all my spare cash is going into a certain hole in the water (actually, a certain space in a certain well-known boatyard) at the moment, but I think the main objection raised was the photograph which, as I understand it, featured some military chaps leering over the boat and which raised a few temperatures amongst the forum members.

I don't think it was wrong to run the article, in principle - as you rightly say, CB isn't a political magazine and it's a relevant story - although maybe a photograph of Sunshine with the Burmese guys who built her may have carried less suggestion of endorsing an unpopular regime.

Apologies for only being able to give an opinion from a second-hand point of view, I'm asking for a subscription for Christmas!

/<

 

[Mirelle]

3/10

Dan,

Thank you for posting that, but, with respect, Editors should not have tin ears on this sort of subject.

If you want to carry an article or two on boat building in Southeast Asia there is ample scope – there are at least two yards in Thailand building and repairing Western wooden yachts, and there is a certain amount of activity in the Philippines, also. Sir Robin Knox-Johnson has written eloquently, in this month’s edition of your sister publication “Yachting World” about the way in which his fleet was repaired in Subic Bay in the Philippines.

There is no need to run stories about Burma, and absolutely no excuse for pictures of the Burmese military leering over their profits, or for printing comments justifying dealings with the regime. By doing so you become "political".

Few will object to the odd story about the very big yachts, but many of your readers dislike to the vapid and gushing tone, reminiscent of “Hello!” magazine, in which these boats are covered. Let us have some substance, please, not just a glorified Press release from a charter broker.

This is something that seems beyond “Classic Boat”, unfortunately, which I why I recommended that you study “Woodenboat”, “Le Chasse-Maree” and “Maritime Life and Traditions” – they also cover large and expensive boats from time to time but they do so in a way that allows the typical reader, who owns or crews on something much more modest, to learn from it.

By way of example, the best article on large old yachts with professional crews that I have seen was carried, not by CB, but by “Woodenboat” – I refer to the fascinating piece by Jim Thom, the professional skipper of the “Mariquita” on how that boat is actually sailed. It’s a bit of a poor reflection on “Classic Boat” that this article, written by a British skipper about a boat designed, built and restored in Britain, was carried in an American magazine, but the real point is that Jim Thom’s descriptions and explanations allow anyone to follow how it is done and to attempt to emulate the methods of the professionals aboard their own boats.

Please remember that there is no such thing as a “non-political” subject, there are just non-political ways of writing about them. This you did not achieve in your article about Burma.

3/10.

 

[Dan_Houston]

Re: 3/10

Tin ears is as tin ears does: I'd always hoped mine were made of sun-sensitive skin, chitin and a certain receptivity to good music (plus some good criticism, of course). I am certainly not above apologising to anyone who is offended by this piece. The idea was not to offend but to inform.
For those who want to know what the fuss is about, they can access the article from the following url:

http://www.classicboat.co.uk/cb/pdf/cb_213_sunshine.pdf

As for the Hello tilt, I am half-tempted to take it as a compliment – I'd love the circulation, not to mention the editor's wages! A gratifying image I took home from a regatta in Italy in 2004 shortly after Mariquita's relaunch was seeing skipper Jim Thom emulating Captain Edward Sycamore's on-deck helming pose after he'd pored over our issue of CB (Oct 2004) with John Leather's piece on the 19-Ms.
The month afterwards (Nov 04) Tom Cunliffe's report concentrated on how Jim and his partner Lucy ran the ship... er, how she is actually sailed; I'd been so impressed that I asked Tom C to concentrate on that aspect of her story. Jim's American article came out later.

Of course we can always do better; that's what keeps us going.

Dan H

 

[JKay]

Very few visit Zimbabwe and yet Mugabe's still in power /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

cheers Joe

 

[Mirelle]

Well said, Dan. Now I feal rather mean spirited.

Espescially since you are going to make the London Boat Show worth visiting again! (A request - please bring back the amazingly good wire splicing expert whom you had along before, and let him give classes!)

But, if you really hanker after the "Hello" magazine circulation and editorial pay packet, I fear that we messers about in old boats may not be the ideal place to find it!

Anyway, well said, and my apologies for going over the top with severe sense of humour failure.

Andrew