Things have gotten so bad in military-ruled Myanmar, that electricity blackouts are now lasting upwards to 20 hours each day. But as one would expect in such poor economic conditions, thieves are trying to make the best of it. In the former Burma's main city, Yangon, crooks are now taking advantage of the long power outages to steal copper power cables, according to police who spoke to Reuters.
"The thieves are risking their lives as it is impossible to know exactly when the power is going to be restored. It's just like playing Russian roulette," said one Yangon police officer who did not want to be named. "I've seen a few cases in which thieves were electrocuted. In April, a 16-year-old boy was found dead, holding a broken cable from a lamppost. Only God knows for sure whether he was a thief or not."
Innocent passers-by are also falling victim--in one case, a broken cable left by a thief dangled into a puddle and a woman jogger was killed when she stepped into it.
Despite having large offshore natural gas reserves and a once-thriving rice export industry, four decades of incompetent military rule have turned Myanmar into one of Asia's biggest basket cases.
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