Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.
Currently in the international spotlight is Burma’s Insein Prison where the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is believed to be held.
The jail is pronounced as “Insane Prison”, which seems to be an appropriate name due to the inhumane conditions and torture tactics.
More on the prison and the ongoing protests in Burma from the BBC.
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Actually, Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest.
Check out this ginormous complex, with golf course, moat, and major wall, just a few hundred miles up the road in Mandalay:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
“Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who appeared outside her house at the weekend, is said to have been moved to the notorious Insein prison.”
The thumbnail doesn’t do it justice. This is a central panopticon prison with 16 spokes. There’s farmland inside the prison for goodness sakes! The outside courtyard is 100 feet wide. There appear to be additional smaller compounds to the north and northeast.
duobt we’ll find any ground level mages…?
The Burmese military are building a new capital, Naypyidaw, in the middle of nowhere. You can see the outlines in Google Earth/Placemark: Maps / Google Earth and here’s Wikipedia/WikiMapia .
They certainly have some colorful roof-tiles in that new capital of theirs … never mind that the population is starving.
And this presumably is dictator Than Shwe’s home near Naypyidaw:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Look around the area and note all the highly secured buildings and houses, looks like the military junta isn’t too keen on visitors.
The pictures of broad empty streets and empty buildings of Naypyidaw (linked from WP) remind me of photos of Pyongyang, with its broad empty streets and huge unused sports stadiums etc. Potemkin villages are the favorite play-toy of repressive regimes these days.
Reminds me of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia
The asylum scenes in 12 monkeys were filmed there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_State_Penitentiary
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I’m so upset. She would take that gov’t down if she was out for one day!!! The world fears powerful women. There’s a piece about her detainment on “democracy now” online radio http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/27/1435255
learn and take the action appropriate for you!
They interview Ho tai - who was imprisoned in the INSANE prison. nam-myoho-renge-kyo - for peace in the world.
Suu Kyi IS in this prison, she was taken from house arrest several days ago, and was just produced for the meeting with the UN ambassador and then returned.
Sign a petition against the Burmese junta here http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php