In the Irrawaddy, Alma Freeman has a nice interview with Thant Thaw Kaung, who heads both the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, and the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation’s mobile library project. Asked to explain why, at 95 percent, Myanmar has one of the most impressive literacy rates in the region, Thant Thaw Kaung gives this reply: “The literacy rate is high as a result of a few big campaigns that the government started in 1975 where volunteers and college students went to rural areas across the country promoting the value of reading and books. The government received an award for this campaign from UNESCO, and it has continued until recently.” I didn’t know about that – it modifies just slightly the generalized perception of socialist Burma as bleak, oppressive, isolated and incapable of constructive policy initiative. It’s the kind of raw material that’s just itching to be turned into a good novel or movie.