chances are, you haven t been to this place. chances are, this is a place you ve never seen. other than maybe blurry cellphone videos, old black-and-white newsreels from world war ii. chances are, bad things were happening in the footage you saw. myanmar. after 50 years of nightmare, something unexpected is happening here, and it s pretty incredible. in yangon, capital city of myanmar, it s dark. blackouts are frequent with the ancient power grid. what sources of light there are in the street cast an eerie, yellow-orange hue. for almost 100 years under british rule, this was rangoon. in 1948, after helping the british fight off the japanese, and with a new taste for self-determination, the country gained independence. after a decade of instability, however, the military consolidated power and never let go. elections, they came and went. the results ignored, opposition punished or silenced entirely. burma, now myanmar, where orwell had once served as a colonial policeman