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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have only just heard of Myanmar?

308 replies

staceybeaker · 01/02/2021 19:44

Watching the news about the coup there and I thought it must be quite a small country but now I've looked it up it's really not. Obviously I am embarrassed about my own lack of geography knowledge. Has everyone else heard of it or known much about this country before?

OP posts:
Ylfa · 01/02/2021 19:46

You might know it better as Burma?

IHateCoronavirus · 01/02/2021 19:47

I’m with you op. When did it stop being Burma?

SheRaTheAllPowerful · 01/02/2021 19:48

Yes known better as Burma, I know very little apart from the women with long necks!

Palavah · 01/02/2021 19:49

Yabu

Finfintytint · 01/02/2021 19:49

I knew it as Burma, where my grandfather suffered terribly during WW2.

saraclara · 01/02/2021 19:49

Since you asked...
Yes, I have and am really interested in that part of the world. But I can see why the name change might confuse people. Though it's been the country's name for a fair while.

Touloser · 01/02/2021 19:51

Really?! Wow...

NotFabulousDarling · 01/02/2021 19:52

Burma. It was in Rambo IV, I believe. It's also where the Burmese python comes from (e.g. the one in the first Harry Potter film... it was a boa constrictor in the book)

ErickBroch · 01/02/2021 19:52

Yes but I am not sure what your AIBU is? I dont think YABU for not knowing even though I did? Not an issue

RealLifeHotWaterBottle · 01/02/2021 19:55

The name was changed decades ago but the British media continued to use Burma for years afterwards because the change was part of a military coup.

Though it has been in the news LOTS over the last few years because of the suffering of the rohingya people (and referred to as Myanmar) so Im surprised you haven't heard this before.

Chicchicchicchiclana · 01/02/2021 19:55

Yes I know a little bit about Myanmar and it's history. I'm not particularly well read or across current affairs or recent global history.

Had you never heard of Aung San Suu Kyi and her very famous house arrest of something like 15 years?

Had you not heard of the terrible genocide of the Rohingya people since 2016?

I'm sure these have been covered fairly extensively in the news.

Tellmetruth4 · 01/02/2021 19:56

Oh I didn’t realise Myanmar and Burma were the same place !Blush

AgentProvocateur · 01/02/2021 19:56

Have you never heard of Aung San Suu Kyi either? Unless you know it as Burma, I think it’s quite unusual not to have heard of it before.

VladmirsPoutine · 01/02/2021 19:56

Are you generally clued up about world politics in a general sense?

Persephoned · 01/02/2021 19:56

Yabu

raspberryk · 01/02/2021 19:57

Never heard of it either until right this minute, I don’t care for the news much and avoid watching where possible.

Tellmetruth4 · 01/02/2021 19:57

I knew about Aung San Suu, the leader with the flower in her hair and about the Rohingya people but didn’t realise it was the place I knew as Burma. I thought it was a different country.

Ch3rish · 01/02/2021 19:58

I'm not sure how you can be unreasonable not to know something unless it is so blindingly universally known that you couldn't possibly not know it.

I know that Myanmar is what is probably still better known as Burma but I'd be quite surprised if it was that widely known

mmgirish · 01/02/2021 20:00

We went on holidays to Burma when our kids were 1 and 3. It was amazing. We travelled to
Lots of places. One of our favourite trips ever.

HelpMeh · 01/02/2021 20:00

I went there a few years ago before the more recent turmoil erupted, so yes I've heard of it.

Visited some wonderful sites and had some amazing breakfasts.

GrandTheftWalrus · 01/02/2021 20:00

I didn't know either op. I'm not into world politics etc. I barely know what's happening in English politics half the time. I'm Scottish.

CustardySergeant · 01/02/2021 20:03

@Chicchicchicchiclana

Yes I know a little bit about Myanmar and it's history. I'm not particularly well read or across current affairs or recent global history.

Had you never heard of Aung San Suu Kyi and her very famous house arrest of something like 15 years?

Had you not heard of the terrible genocide of the Rohingya people since 2016?

I'm sure these have been covered fairly extensively in the news.

Same here. It's not a subject that I've taken a special interest in or studied in any way, it's just that I haven't been able to avoid knowing about all those things.

I would have thought that at the very least everyone has heard of Myanmar and knows it used to be Burma so this thread has really surprised me.

I suppose if someone never watches/listens to the news or reads newspapers they wouldn't know.

Original poster
staceybeaker · 01/02/2021 20:03

I'm not sure how you can be unreasonable not to know something unless it is so blindingly universally known that you couldn't possibly not know it.

I guess that's what I was asking really yes. Thank you all, I hadn't realised it was Burma, which I had heard of.

OP posts:
BubblyBarbara · 01/02/2021 20:08

There’s a country called Eswatini as well that’s almost as big as wales

mammmamia · 01/02/2021 20:10

OP I think many people would have been confused by the name. The Times in its headline today still referred to it as Burma.

Surprised and a bit shocked TBH that people (not the OP) haven’t heard of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Rohingya genocide though.

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