Our nation, and our world, would be better off if more people knew about Aung San Suu Kyi than about Tom Cruise's love life or Michael Jackson's legal troubles. On Sunday, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma's democracy movement, will spend her 60th birthday under house arrest. Former Czech President Vaclav Havel writes about her in The Washington Post.

Seemingly unshakable totalitarian monoliths are in fact sometimes as cohesive as proverbial houses of cards, and fall just as quickly. Continuing democratization of the whole region, together with growing dissent inside the country, must eventually have a positive effect. As Aung San Suu Kyi celebrates her 60th birthday, I wish for her that those changes will happen as soon as possible, and that my silly idea - to hand her a rose - becomes a simple and easy thing to do.

Burma is another major human rights violator, but without vast natural resources or nuclear weapons, it has little ability to blackmail or bribe the rest of the world. Therefore, it should be easier to force change there than in other places.

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