Most of the time, Burma is a tiny mole on the back of the world's conscience: we're aware that the country formerly known as Burma exists, but plenty of weightier issues clamour for attention, says the Nelson Mail in an editorial.
Every now and then, however, something happens and the public gaze returns. Five months ago, the country's biggest employer, the army, ordered that heads be cracked to suppress an uprising led by Burma's revered Buddhist monks. Condemnation was resolute and surprisingly universal - even China expressed alarm.
New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the whole world was watching the country's "illegitimate and repressive regime" and would hold it to account. The age of impunity in neglecting and overriding human rights was over, he declared. For the new leader of a country with a lingering interest in the affairs of the former colony it administered initially as a province of India, Mr Brown was talking tough. But, another day, another crisis, and the preoccupation with Burma soon waned.
Now, it is back in focus, in a very small way - at least in this country - after revelations that a state-owned business has enterprisingly landed a deal helping to build cellphone towers. Government broadcast and telecommunications business Kordia has almost completed an $80,000 deal with the pariah state's military rulers.
National's foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully suggests inconsistencies, given the Government's "tantrum" over Air New Zealand planes being chartered by Australia to carry Iraq-bound troops, and its imposing of some sanctions on Fiji after the latest military crackdown there.
However, business has no conscience, and Mr McCully would know well that New Zealand has no economic or trade sanctions with either Fiji or Burma. As someone who no doubt fancies his chances of becoming foreign affairs minister this year, is that what he will be pressing for? Would he draw up his own list of countries that New Zealand businesses, state-owned or otherwise, will be barred from trading with, outside of any United Nations hit-list?
Prime Minister Helen Clark says the contract is "probably" a positive force for democracy in Burma, because communication with the outside world can have an important role in ending repression. That assumes the use of the cellphone towers will be generally available to the public, which requires quite a stretch.
In last September's uprising, the military contained most of the damaging coverage within its borders, although some notable exceptions seeped through. In "normal" times, as Burma is supposed to be enjoying again now, the technology is unlikely to be used for much more than furthering communications among the military and its lackeys.
Backed as it is by China, Burma is cockily punching above its weight among Asean nations and has reputedly been the sole blocker of efforts to set up an European Union-style trading bloc among member states. There is some value in a position of relative neutrality in international affairs, even if this means dealing with some countries with abysmal human rights records.
Like it or not, New Zealand is no longer the conscience of the world, and its relationships with countries like Burma, North Korea and even China are likely to continue to be driven by pragmatism, whatever the colour of our next foreign affairs minister's tie.