Myanmar - Cyclonic Devastation
Posted by StormWarning on 06 May 2008 at 09:08 pm | Tagged as: Current Affairs, Disasters, International Issues
The devastation caused by Nature in Myanmar is beyond comprehension. It is now estimated that over 22,000 people have died and more than 40,000 are missing. Thousands more have been displaced or injured. And at the same time, the military dictatorship is seemingly unmoved by the human tragedy.
An “eyewitness” (unconfirmed, but likely) reported:
“It looks like the end of the world here,” he shouted into the telephone when he finally got a call through to Singapore on Tuesday morning and could talk about the situation in Rangoon after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc on the city. “Everything is destroyed, we have no drinking water and nothing to eat. Tens of thousands must be dead. Hundreds of thousands are homeless.”
And what is the government doing in response?
“They’re clearing the streets in the rich neighborhoods,” the dissident said. Then the line went dead.
The phone lines are out…television and photographs of the destruction are inconsistently released. The military junta has no real control over the situation and clearly has no ability to deal with the disaster. At first, Myanmar refused help…they are essentially paranoid of outsiders. Now, it seems that the military dictatorship is willing to take help from their non-threatening neighbor, Thailand.
Whether or not the United Nations has any influence in this situation, or even if they will be effective, the UN has urged the junta to accept aid.
Updated reports now project as many as 60,000 people will fall victim to Cyclone Nargis. In addition, the United States has offered help.
“Let the United States come help you help the people,” U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday as he signed legislation lauding Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who is under house arrest. “We want to do a lot more.”
This is an emerging story. It will get worse before it gets better. The human tragedy in a country that is already one of the World’s poorest nations is simply horrible.
What is the difference between a hurricane, tornado and cylcone? More general information.
For “another take” on the tragedy in Myanmar, see Right Truth’s entry.
Cyclone Nargis, junta, myanmar
The devastation is great and we may never know the full extent. They are so far refusing help from the US, even though we have ships off shore fully supplied and ready to help. The devastation like this takes place when you have terrorist thugs running the country, when they don’t care about the people in the first place, when the people are forced to live in flood planes just to grow enough rice to survive…
No one can convince me that if this country were Democratic, with an economy and value for human life, that the devastation would have been minor compared to what it is now.
Mother Nature, doesn’t care about our political parties…frankly, I don’t believe that the jihadists will act differently either, although our responses might be different.
As far as I knew as of yesterday late afternoon the junta was allowing assistance to come in from the US (I’m buried under stuff right now so I may not have actually heard that).