"Hey man! Guess what? I'm in front of history here. There's a protest!…It's awesome!"

That is what an excited passerby said on his cell phone while watching the Amnesty International Free Burma protest in front of the Permanent Mission of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) to the United Nations on 77th St. today.

First off, Burma or Myanmar? Which is it? The official name, according to both the United States and Britain, remains Burma. The current regime of military strongmen led by Than Shwe changed the official name from Burma to Myanmar. But since the US and UK do not officially recognize the regime of military strongmen as the legitimate government of the nation, that change is not officially recognized.

In reality the two words are, believe it or not, synonymous. According to BBC News:

The two words mean the same thing and one is derived from the other. Burmah, as it was spelt in the 19th Century, is a local corruption of the word Myanmar.

They have both been used within Burma for a long time, says anthropologist Gustaaf Houtman, who has written extensively about Burmese politics.

"There's a formal term which is Myanmar and the informal, everyday term which is Burma. Myanmar is the literary form, which is ceremonial and official and reeks of government. [The name change] is a form of censorship..."
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