Which one's Goofy?

Bangkok Post - Thailand; Jul 25, 2001

A local researcher was looking for some information on the country next door - the one that the retired general who dresses up as our defence minister said wasn't worth going to war with over a stupid hill. He and his brother generals in Rangoon know best, after all.

Where were we? Oh yes, the researcher was trolling the Net for information on Burma's energy sector, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Government of Myanmar, as some people call it, had a reasonable amount of data on offer.

Some of its sites are maintained with help from the bizarrely named Bimstec - a latter-day talking-shop that also includes Bangladesh, India, Thailand and some other places, we think.

The Ministry of Energy site - www.energy.gov.mm/index.html - yielded some helpful stuff, and then it was time to check out some others. A click on "Useful Links" led to an Asean/Bimstec site and the Myanmar Official Government Site link.

Try it, and keep going until you get to the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control. Click and.. "Games, activities, and more! Vacation offer at Walt Disney World... Go Back to School with your favourite Disney characters!"

Call it an innocent programming error, but suddenly you will have arrived at Go.com, a Disney venture. For those who have long considered the Burmese junta's drug-suppression efforts Mickey Mouse, what could be more appropriate?

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