Hamburger Hill

VIA Gaurav’s World comes this list of countries safe from the terror of McDonald’s.

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Dominica, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Gabon, Gambia, the Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, the Holy See, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Wikipedia even has a map! But with snowballing development rapidly chasing Cambodia into  the 17th century, how long can it last? Cambodia’s resident Technical Assistant to Culinary Capacity Building, doesn’t equivocate:

To make a bold statement, I’m willing to bet that both a Burger King (whose Thai franchise is run by the same crew that own The Pizza Company) and a McDonald’s will be open in Cambodia by year’s end.

Phnomenon doesn’t quite get around to saying what, exactly, he is willing to wager, but a case of beer and some dried fish sounds more than okay.

Paging George W. Bush

From the nation’s leading news source comes this:

Lao Airlines has decided to increase the number of its direst flights to Cambodia to bolster tourism, local media reported on Thursday.

The Airlines’ Deputy Director leuy Bounbandit was quoted by the Cambodia Press Review as saying that the airline will offer two additional flights per week starting in October …

On first blush, it’s hard to know whether the Laos are trying to keep their people from leaving, or the Cambodians are trying to stop them from coming.

On second blush, the man’s got both the words ‘luey’ and ‘bandit’ in his name (luey is the Khmer word for money).

On third blush, two flights per week is not much bolsterin’.

And on fourth blush, what’s up with quoting the Cambodia Press Review? That’s not even a real anything.

All of which adds up to inspire shockingly little confidence in Moneybandit’s operation (and AKP’s, for that matter). But maybe the ‘Air America’ experience is what they’re after.

If only they could find some down-and-out pilot with a sketchy flight record, a bad attitude and a history of drug and alcohol problems.