2 August 2012 Peter Farr - Visions of Burma

'Visions of - a country in transition'
Club member, Peter Farr was speaker at last week's meeting of the and Dunblane Rotary Club at the Westlands Hotel.Peter's illustrated talk was on 'Visions of Burma - a country in transition' and followed a trip Peter and his wife, Veryan, had made to earlier in the year. Peter described Burma as an 'enigmatic mystery' as he outlined the history of the country from the 7^th century when it ruled a large Indo - Chinese empire, through its conquering by Britain in the late19^th century, Japan during WW2 to independence in 1948 and the takeover by the military junta in 1962. is the second largest country in and is strategically important for its reserves of minerals, including rare earths and as a buffer between the major powers of and .Peter followed his talk with a fascinating series of photos, taken by Veryan, of the places they had visited during their tour.Following a number of questions from themembers, Lawrie Orr gave Peter a well deserved vote of thanks for his enjoyable and informative talk.Jim Gardner updated members on the situation with the Am-Am Golf which had been cancelled due to continuing weather problems. Thanks to the generosity of the teams, it was still hoped we could make a reasonable contribution to Strathcarron Hospice but details were still being finalised.