[LINK] Optus, SingTel and the Burmese military dictatorship

[Robin Whittle]

According to the Wikipedia articles:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optus
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Telecommunications

Optus is 100% owned by SingTel, and SingTel is majority owned by the
state "investment vehicle" Temasek Holdings.

The article in today's Age:

  Web of cash, power and cronies

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/web-of-cash-power-and-cronies/2007/09/28/1190486569946.html

Eric Ellis provides many details (I have no reason to doubt them) of
the involvement of the Singaporean government, and Temasek, in
supporting the Burmese military junta.  The support is military,
diplomatic and economic - in defiance of the trade barriers many
countries (not Australia) have erected.


So does anyone have any recommendations for companies other than
Optus who have a good deal on overseas phone calls?

Optus' 3 hours  to the USA for $5.40 or similar (I can't remember
the details, the the URLs in the Optus site are way too long and
unstable to quote here, even if I could find them) is a good deal.
But there's no way I want a cent of my money going to the people
like the Singaporean government - without whose support for the
dictatorship, Burma might now be democratically ruled and relatively
peaceful and prosperous.

  - Robin