A trip scheduled for October to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, has undergone changes because of controversy surrounding the nation’s human-rights abuses.
The WAA will no longer promote the trip and will not add any more people to the four who are planning to make the trip. Information regarding the trip will no longer appear on the association’s webpage, according to Cheryl Porior-Mayhew, vice president of marketing and communications.
The WAA also “no longer plans to sponsor any trips after this trip, unless the situation improves,” Porior-Mayhew said.
UW junior Sarah Nehrling said it has been proven that the entire travel industry in Myanmar is supporting a government that is run by a military regime.
“I think it’s horrendous that they’re aware [of the situation] and are still willing to pack their bags and make a fun tropical vacation out of it,” Nehrling said. “Their going supports a horrible government.”
Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Asian country’s efforts against a military regime in power there, has called for a “total boycott on tourism” because it threatens democratic efforts in the country, Jeremy Woodrum, director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said in a phone interview last week.
“We had no idea the extent of how people feel of what’s going on in Burma [before planning the trip],” Sheri Hicks, director of alumni travel, said in a phone interview Sunday night.
Kimberly Jacobson, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee alumna and former coordinator of the Burma refugee relief coalition, said the changes the WAA made aren’t enough.
“It’s hard for me to think of people going after hearing stories of torture and inhumane conditions,” she said.
Jacobson said she has sent two-dozen petitions to the WAA from students and alumni outlining the conditions in Myanmar and people’s objections to WAA members traveling there.
“To send people from a university who says they believe in education is irresponsible,” Jacobson said.
Others said they agreed, Porior-Mayhew said.
Porior-Mayhew said several messages the WAA received from people who were “very concerned and helped to educate us of [the situation in Mayanmar]” spurred the changes.
Porior-Mayhew said they called other organizations that also planned trips and got ideas of how to best handle the situation.
“We talked about all of our different options and decided this was the right thing to do,” Porior-Mayhew said.
Jacobson feels traveling to Myanmar right now is comparable to touring Iraq.
“There is a civil war happening right now. People are being murdered in the streets, and tourism gives more money to the people doing the murdering.”
Several major tours of the country have already been cancelled — including trips originally offered by the American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and Asia Society, according to a USCB press release.
