Cyclone in Burma / Myanmar

College Confidential Community
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<p>“Anything less than 60 per cent destroyed is not being counted as a priority at this stage” - Save the Children, Rangoon</p>

<p>100,000 dead or presumed dead, one million people homeless.
- No electricity or water supply, estimated restoration time: “several weeks.”
- Estimated damage on par with South Asian tsunami in 2004.</p>

<p>Entire world knew the storm was coming, except the Burmese people.
- Indian Meteorological Department had given Burma two days' warning.
- No warnings given, no evacuation, no action at all.</p>

<p>Regime is not allowing aid in.
- 35 disaster teams from 18 countries have applied to help and are waiting to deploy but most are not being let in. Even the United Nations assessment team has not been given visas, 5 days after the cyclone struck.
- Burma has only accepted aid from China, India and Indonesia, its “old friends.”
- New visas are not being issued to relief workers, despite U.N. frustration.</p>

<p>[b[Multiple operational difficulties**
- NGOs, while setting up in Burma (before the cyclone), had to inform the regime where they would be working, and what they were working on, and must stick to it. They cannot do additional relief work even now.
- For example, an NGO, authorized to work in Pegu (Bago) Division for health care, is now allowed to work in health care in Pegu (Bago, not in other areas, not other kind of work.
- The delta was the hardest hit. Three million people live there, but with few roads and much water, transport has always been slow, relying on boats to travel the rivers and canals.
- Almost no NGOs signed up to work in the delta region for the above reasons.</p>

<p>Action
- France has proposed that the U.N. pass a resolution that forces the military regime to accept aid. We're hoping this passes.</p>

<p>I have several links to things that can be done, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links to external sites on here, so I'll play it safe. I just wanted to let everyone know about the gravity of the situation. I also have some personal links to Burma, so this really affects me.</p>

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<p>come on, they refuse aids from U.S
so what? That's their own problems. We are going to have a lot of problems in the future. We need to seek a solution rather than throwing few cents at them once a while.</p>

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<p>It is what it is. Nothing bad ever happens without government approval.</p>

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<p>The CC brand of libertarianism only goes so far. You think this doesn't affect you and you shouldn't care, but assuming this is "their own problems" won't help a million people.</p>

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<p>it is indeed their own problems. I think we should just stop aiding those countries, instead, we should send technicians and professors to teach them.. or they send students here to learn. The solution for their poverty is the provision of infinite knowledge. The sinew of humanitarian aid is not infinite money, it is good people like you and me.</p>

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<p>poverty has nothing to do with them getting their ass kicked by the cyclone...you think rich people were spared or something?</p>

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<p>I was checking out the Internet just now: their country has no place left to bury even the corpses literally. Just imagine surrounded by the sight, smell and sound of this situation. Just imagine the magnitude of this. This an emergency, and has become a global one. Like hell the world is going to sit by and let another 100000 people die. Yeah I read all about the "selfish gene" theory by Richard Dawkins. Hhmm, well I am glad the present human gene pool has not been completely invaded by this gene yet!
The stupid Burma government even now are thinking their own self-interest than their own people. Maybe they are thinking this a way to punish those people for going against the government or perhaps they don't want the foreign countries to come in when the crazy Burmese military is weak. Whatever it is, they have loads of that "selfish gene". Just look at the way they are making "rational" decisions (:.</p>

<p>The situation is bad now. I am not sure how the survivors are going to make through this.
And I also second what TheOneCurlyFry, Sheed, and SnoopyisCool have said.</p>

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<p>Considering your aid carries political weight. It maybe a weapon used by foreign countries to usurp Burmanese soverignity, that is the primary reason why Burmanese government has refused U.S aid.</p>

<p>It is very sad that in present time people stop think about the problems we will inevitably faced in the future. As if the history has stopped in Suburban americans, people here seemed to enjoy wasting their time in mowing their lawns than give few thoughts to our world's problems. They toss few cents around as if they mean something.. they are like opium!! and we are waging a new opium war on all poverty stricken country with our industrial might.</p>

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<p>pharmakeus01, who would care about college, education when he can't fill his stomach</p>

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<p>Pharmakeus01,
I don't think you get it what emergency aid relief means. Say you get into an accident, you need to be given first aid. Or do you prefer to leave an accident victim to die when you could have saved him? That is just a simple example. And Burmese people lost their sovereignty ages ago. The have recently only started standing up again against the Junta for their rights. </p>

<p>Burmese people right now need clean bottled water, medicine, doctors, EMTs, first aid kits, basic food packages, tents, make shift shelters, immunizations. With the body count hitting record high, it will seriously affect the clean water supply. Many types of infectious diseases will crop up. Again more body count will increase because of the irresponsible Burmese government. Cyclone has destroyed hospitals, houses, etc.
They need the UN desperately (:.</p>

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<p>This whole visa stuff is such bull****. Can't they just get over it and realize that they've got thousands of people dying before their eyes? Sometimes people need to set their priorities right...</p>

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<p>What do you mean by the phrase the "Burmese people?" It's such an ambiguously hazy phrase that is often thrown around carelessly- like "democracy", "the American people", "justice"- by politicians and others just to prove their own points. Do you mean the farmers? The middle class? The college students? Are not the individuals working in the government or that are in the military considered part of the "Burmese people"? Clearly there are some "Burmese people" that support the Junta, otherwise it wouldn't be in power for so many decades.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I don't get how the 0.5 million man army blindly follows the government when their friends and family are dying.</p>

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<p>What's the difference between Burma and Myanmar?</p>

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<p>Short story: same thing.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Considering your aid carries political weight. It maybe a weapon used by foreign countries to usurp Burmanese soverignity, that is the primary reason why Burmanese government has refused U.S aid.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is true. It may seem like insanity to us, but it is. The Junta and the rest of the government and the military believe that accepting aid will not only taint their sovereignty over Burma, but portray them as weak to their people. Without showing their "strength" in the situation (which they have been asserting for twenty years) they believe there'll be absolutely no way to maintain any support throughout the public. If they show that they are weak in not being able to control the situation, it's believed they will succumb to some sort of overthrow. Yes, I know they don't have copious amounts of public support at the moment, but they are still in power. I know that doesn't mean much to us, and I agree with everyone here that it's ridiculous not to accept the aid, but you've just got to see it from their perspective.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
What's the difference between Burma and Myanmar?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Long story:</p>

<p>It used to be named Myanmar, then the British named it Burma. The current military regime changed it back to Myanmar, but a lot of countries do not recognise the junta, so it's still called Burma. However, Burma has over 150 ethnic group, and the word "Burma" means "land of the Bamar", which is just one (but the major) ethnic group, and Myanmar is more politically correct.</p>

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<p>The Junta have been prevented any form of fair elections from being held because they knew they don't have any support from the people. The regime refused acknowledge the last election results in 1990 when the National League for Democracy won.
They don't have the citizens support if not they wouldn't be dragging their feet to have tht long overdue election.
How does any military dictatorship stay in power? By money, the power of psychological fear over the people, and brute force.</p>

<p>Well, hey I think it is good news that Aung San Suu Kyi has survived and is alive during this tragedy. Without electricity and a roof in pitch black it seems but this is still good news.</p>

<p>Throwing money at Myanmar isn't going to help because the money will enter the pockets of the regime not in helping people. That is why the UN must get in there to make sure proper medical and disaster relief can be administrated. Blankets, medical equipments, clothes, tents, food: that is what the cyclone victims are in dire need of. If "Burmese" people is too ambiguous, maybe I could backpedal and say cyclone victims, those people who voted in those elections and still had their voices stifled, those thousands of street demonstrators together with the monks who called for reforms in October and got their butt kicked by the regime, those are the some of the people I am referring to.</p>

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<p>How does military dictatorship stay in power? By people's mutual consent, and what causes this consent? Dictators' power to influence by utilizing instruments such as economy, violence, and indoctrination. So long as people consent that military dictator as the sole legitimate ruler of the nation, the military dictator is justified to be the leader of his nation.
Think in this way, how does our president stay in power? By people's mutual consent, and what causes this consent? President's power to influence and convince.
The former form of control consists of fear and oppression while the latter consists of a willing agreement by many. Both are methods of achieving legitimacy.
If we want to change the nature of burmese government, we must start with their people instead of their leader. UN's humanitarian assistance is based on the fact that Burma is a member nation of UN and that Burmese are legal human beings who have a nationality, and whose national leader is a cruel petty pervert. </p>

<p>Lastly, I want to critique the obsession of westerners in dividing nonwestern countries into infinite envelopes of ethnic nations rather than viewing those nations as a whole. I think westernes in present age instead of imposing colonialism on nonwesterners, they are imposing an attitude that all should be devolved and follow the European model of nation states. </p>

<p>And I hate monks participate in politics, do you want christians to march in Washington DC and demand political and ethnic regulation over the government? Hell no.</p>

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<p>at Afruf23
If they have no army, soon the gangs and drug dealer would boom inside this chaotic country. And Burma, with its great natural resources, will quite possibly become another "ethnic autonomous region" of people's republic of china or a military base for USA. :)
The world is cruel, you have no standing army, you are dead.
That's why Russians are keeping their missiles working while having a shabby economy.</p>

<p>Real politics, real politics, it's all about politics, not about morality.
Sending more aids imply more nation building and less domestic spending which equates to larger foreign debt.
We must cut foreign aids! Stop nation building! Stop policing the world! and vote for RON PAUL!
:)</p>