Well, I would certainly take your direct observations as gold, Michael.
I guess I don't undestand why the folks who posted replies to my query on
the Thorn Tree site would say otherwise.
Since it's a site for world travelers to help each other with questions and
issues, I assumed the posters were recent travelers to Burma, themselves.
Ah, well ... let the confusion begin! ;-)
Cheers,
Ezra
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 8:09 AM
Subject: [USMA:39765] Re: Burma still using English units, it seems
This contradicts my direct observation while I visited Burma in 1997,
speedometers in cars I drove in were km/h and speed limits were (according
to my driver) km/h but written in the local Burmese numerical script which
was undecipherable to me, I asked out driver what the speed limit was, he
told me the answer as ** km/h. I did see a Gas (Petrol) station with very
old pumps that displayed in Imperial Gallons. The Burmese just seem to
accept what's thrown at them, I doubt they import vehicles exclusively
from the US, we have sanctions, so they come from neighboring countries
which are exclusively metric, would not do much good to have mph speed
limits when every car in the last 30 years has only km/h on the
speedometer. If some piece of equipment comes from the US despite
sanctions, they'll probably accept it as is. Fact is sanctions by the US
against Burma are probably leading to less US units being seen there on
any equipment.
Michael Payne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ezra Steinberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, 25 November 2007 06:15
Subject: [USMA:39764] Burma still using English units, it seems
USMA folks:
I posted a couple of queries on a well-known travel site (Thorn Tree) that
seems to get a lot of traffic from Europeans.
I asked about the metric vs. Imperial situation in Burma (Myanmar) and
Liberia, the two countries often cited aside from the USA as still using
mostly Imperial.
No replies about Liberia (and I may not get any), but I got several quick
replies about Burma. These confirm that on road signs and in the street
Imperial is used exclusively.
Not earth-shattering news, to be sure, but at least it's up-to-date
first-hand information from recent visitors there.
Ezra
