Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses members of the 63rd General Assembly the United Nations, 23 Sep 2008Ban Ki-Moon will visit Burma again but won’t say when. (The UN must be feeling the pinch as much as the rest of the world, but they do say airfare prices are dropping soon):

Human rights groups say there are more than two thousand prisoners of conscience in Burmese jails. Mr. Ban told reporters following the closed-door session, that while he is ready to return to Burma to continue talks with the leadership on humanitarian and political issues, the timing would have to be right. “At this time it is not the right atmosphere for me to undertake my own visit there. But I am committed and ready to visit any time whenever I can have reasonable expectations of my visit to be productive and meaningful.”

Mobile phones, which mean unprecedented freedom* and access for many in the developing world, have long been inordinately expensive in Burma. But prices are comng down — just as prices for making calls are going way up. * (to say nothing of privileged teenagers in the developed world)

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