Burma is on the threshold of its most important political event in two decades, and the indifference is palpable... "The sidewalks of downtown Rangoon look, as they have for as long as anybody can remember, as if they?ve just been struck by an earthquake. Slabs of concrete, broken into jagged pieces, jut out at all angles, in places exposing holes large enough for a grown man to fall into. But the sad state of Rangoon?s pavement, and of the city as a whole, is more a result of the grinding forces of time and neglect than of an episode of seismic upheaval. Likewise, Burma?s political landscape has been shaped less by eruptions of popular unrest than by a decades-old war of attrition that now appears to be close to achieving its goal of crushing any remaining hope for real change. That, at any rate, is the impression one gets as the country moves towards its first election in 20 years. Grim resignation, rather than great expectations, is the order of the day, as the ruling regime does everything in its power to quash any attempt to turn the election into a meaningful expression of Burma?s long-suppressed democratic aspirations..."