Grumpy Editor

Burma or Myanmar? Media still split on identification

Is it Burma or Myanmar? 

Media confusion continued this week in identifying the often-in-the-news southeast Asia nation, this time in connection with its government ending direct media censorship, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Labeling it as Myanmar were the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, among others. 

Going with Burma included the Washington Post and Associated Press. 

AP seems as confused in identifying the country as some other news outlets. 

That’s because AP adopted Myanmar into its 2006 Stylebook after weighing such factors as widespread international use and its recognition by the United Nations. 

The New York Times began referring to Myanmar in 1989, the year the country’s name officially was changed. 

Some media solve the country’s identification in news stories with phrases “Burma, also known as Myanmar” or “Myanmar, also known as Burma.” 

The country was a province of British India from 1886 to 1937, then a separate crown colony from 1937 to 1948.  After a military coup, the ruling regime renamed the country Myanmar in 1989.  Opposition groups in the country continued to refer to Burma.

U.S. old timers, war veterans and historians remember the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II.  The famous Burma Road was constructed to supply Chinese forces in the fight against Japan during World War II. 

The periodically-seen (on TV) 1945 movie, “Objective, Burma!” starring Errol Flynn, was a highly rated WWII thriller depicting a company of U.S. paratroopers assigned to wipe out an enemy post.

That film wouldn’t sound right as “Objective, Myanmar!”

$1 billion Ford complex to create 5,000 jobs --- overseas

The timing of a Ford Motor Co. announcement, while involving expansion and hiring of thousands of workers, may be raising some eyebrows rather than bringing cheers on a day when President Barack Obama focuses on jobs and the U.S. economy in an address before a joint session of Congress, notices Grumpy Editor. 

The Detroit-based auto maker announced it started construction on a $1 billion manufacturing and engineering complex that will create 5,000 jobs. 

Welcomed news? 

Not for the U.S. where the unemployment rate remains at 9.1 percent.

Location of the new facility is in India. 

The pre-Obama speech announcement may have some public relations folks blushing at Ford’s headquarters. 

The new plant in Sanand in the western state of Gujarat initially will produce 240,000 vehicles and 270,000 engines a year by 2014, said Ford. 

The complex highlights the auto maker’s plan “to aggressively grow the Ford brand in India,” said Michael Boneham, Ford India president. 

Ford has been expanding in India with a total investment there of $2 billion to date. 

The auto maker also operates a plant in Chennai, a south Indian city.

It has a capacity to produce 200,000 cars and 250,000 engines a year --- with plans to boost engine output to 330,000 by next year.