NPR,
All Things Considered 08:00 PM EST
December
1, 2011 Thursday
Whether
'Burma' Or 'Myanmar' The Root Is The Same
MELISSA
BLOCK: why, to this day, there is confusion over whether it's Myanmar at all or
Burma.
The
country became the Republic of Burma when it won its independence from Great
Britain in 1948.
Then,
in 1989, the current military regime took power and dropped Burma, preferring
Myanmar.
The
U.N. went along with that decision, so did the New York Times. But the
Washington Post and the BBC did not; they have stuck with Burma.
GUY
RAZ: NPR chooses to split the difference, using Myanmar on first reference,
along with a reminder that the country is also known as Burma. At the core of
the confusion is a difficult, politically charged question: Does a military
junta, known for repressing its people, get to decide a country's name?
