"ODDEST OF ALL":

Peter Hitchens: Inside Burma - the last ghost of the British Empire : The Mail on Sunday columnist infiltrates this sinister state and uncovers the Generals' secret new capital (Peter Hitchens, 12/14/08, Daily Mail)

In Burma the people are afraid of their rulers - and the rulers are so afraid of the people that they hide from them in a crazy capital city hundreds of miles from anywhere. The only open opposition comes from a lonely woman in a besieged villa and a troupe of comedians in a tiny back-street theatre, who are forbidden to tell jokes in their native language.

In the strange league of pariah states, where Cuba jostles with North Korea and Belarus for the title of most fear-ridden nation on Earth, Burma is certainly the oddest of all.

You step off the edge of the known world when you go there.