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From Our Own Correspondent: Burma and Libya

Burma and Libya

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Burma and Libya

Pascale Harter hears from Lucy Hooker in Rangoon and Rana Jawad in Tripoli.

Insight and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world, with Pascale Harter. Lucy Hooker doesn't join in the rush for Burma's bling; Rana Jawad enjoys new voices and new liberties in Tripoli.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world, presented by Pascale Harter. In today's edition:

Jewels of the East

Only a few months ago it was extremely difficult for foreign media to get into Burma at all. But now not only is the Burmese government letting people in, it's also letting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi out to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. 

She has already warned business leaders of being too optimistic about the country, and this week violence has flared up in the west of the country. 

Human rights groups say the problems are deeply rooted in military rule, and Army repression of Buddhist and Muslim communities there. As Lucy Hooker found, despite the feeding frenzy under way in the hotels of Rangoon, Burma as a whole still has a long way to go.


"Civilized anarchy" - but can it last?

Our second dispatch comes from another country once considered an international pariah and subjected to sanctions, but one which has seen a faster and less well-planned change in governance.  

The revolution in Libya brought about the downfall of President Gaddafi, but it has not brought complete peace and harmony. At least not yet. The country is still awash with weaponry, militias and mutual suspicion. Fighting has broken out in several regions. 

Libyans have had to get used to a state of near-anarchy in some cities.  But Rana Jawad in Tripoli says many of them believe it's the price to be paid for liberation.

(Image: People look at books on display at a bookshop in a shopping center in Rangoon in April, 2012. Credit: Ye Aung Thu / AFP / Getty Images)

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