Myanmar mess

[Mizzougrad96]

My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a 15 year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims, like he invented the question mark. Sometimes, he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy - the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical: summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring, we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds. Pretty standard, really.

 

[Stoney]

The coverage I've seen has focused on things like the junta and Al Gore. There's been shockingly little describing the scope of this and what an extraordinarily huge event it is.

Katrina was covered like the greatest natural disaster of our lifetime, and to a great extent justifiably so. But the total death toll caused by Katrina in all states was around 1800. This will be more than 250 TIMES larger than that, but hardly anyone's ackowledged it.

 

[Bubbler]

A lot of that can be chalked up to the junta not allowing anyone in.

But it's true, the human scope of the tragedy seems secondary.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

OK...

What's a bigger mess, print journalism or Myanmar?

Discuss...

 

[expendable]

A lot of that can be chalked up to the junta not allowing anyone in.

But it's true, the human scope of the tragedy seems secondary.

Since the junta isn't letting anyone in, any media can't put a face on the disaster. I feel badly for those people. Many of the survivors will die longer and more painful deaths than those swept away in the storm surge. I wouldn't be opposed to US-led humanitarian aid drops (no matter what the junta thinks about it), but the pressure to let foreign aid workers in will have to come from China. By then, if it's not already, it will be too late.

Sad. Just one more reason that despite its faults, I thank God I live where I do.

 

[Lyman_Bostock]

If they won't let us in, what are we supposed to do?

Maybe China can help them out.

 

[hondo]

It's Bush's fault. Don't you people know that?
Everything is Bush's fault. Everything is America's fault.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

If they won't let us in, what are we supposed to do?

Umm...go in anyway?

And one has to wonder what the global effect of all this disease and death will be. By ignoring this, we could be very well be providing a fertile ground for the massive launch of something like the bird flu or some other kind of plague.

 

[User 1019]

The classic Catch 22.

We should go in, with force, and give these people the help they need.

If we did go in without permission, we are opening the doors for a country like China to amp up nuclear weapon production because if we just go where we please, then they feel the need to protect themselves.

I don't think there is an answer for this problem.

Nope. Already tried that. See Somalia, Mogadishu.

 

[Lyman_Bostock]

That's rich.

Indeed, see Somalia, Mogadishu.

If they won't let us in, what are we supposed to do?

Umm...go in anyway?

And one has to wonder what the global effect of all this disease and death will be. By ignoring this, we could be very well be providing a fertile ground for the massive launch of something like the bird flu or some other kind of plague.

 

[deskslave]

The rest of the world laughed at us when 9/11 happened...

**** em...

Can I play too?



As for Myanmar itself, I wonder if the junta has the ability to shoot large planes out of the sky. And if it doesn't, and I suspect it doesn't, why not load up a few C-130s and just start dropping food? It would annoy them, and it would probably annoy the Chinese, but I doubt the Chinese would shoot the planes down. Some of the food would doubtless get to the wrong hands, but at least some of it would end up where it needed to. Seems like a better idea than waiting for permission.

 

[old_tony]

The rest of the world laughed at us when 9/11 happened...

**** em...

Can I play too?



As for Myanmar itself, I wonder if the junta has the ability to shoot large planes out of the sky. And if it doesn't, and I suspect it doesn't, why not load up a few C-130s and just start dropping food? It would annoy them, and it would probably annoy the Chinese, but I doubt the Chinese would shoot the planes down. Some of the food would doubtless get to the wrong hands, but at least some of it would end up where it needed to. Seems like a better idea than waiting for permission.

Because when one of those crates under a parachute landed on a little kid, the world would blame George W. Bush.

 

[BTExpress]

Because when one of those crates under a parachute landed on a little kid, the world would blame George W. Bush.

So?

That consideration hasn't stopped him from doing about 23,549 other stupid things.

 

[Football_Bat]

The cyclone hit

An oppressed place

It left them with

a smoother face

-----

Burma Shave.

 

[Birdscribe]

It's Bush's fault. Don't you people know that?
Everything is Bush's fault. Everything is America's fault.

Um, unnecessary. Really unnecessary.

Nobody was bringing him into the dance until you chimed in, Hondo.

And for once, he got something right, imploring the tinpot dictators running that country that they should let us come in and provide aid. They ignored him, then started confiscating the aid that evil, abhorrent body -- the UN -- sent in.

 

[TrooperBari]

The domestic coverage of this has been a disaster. Are they even covering it?

Reason No. 91,863 I listen to the Beeb on XM.

What little is being mentioned here is more than they're getting in the country itself. Reports from people on the ground said state-run TV was showing an opera instead of anything mentioning the cyclone.

And just to back up Birdscribe's last point:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/10/cyclonenargis.burma

The junta to the rest of the world: Thanks for the aid ... now GTFO.

 

[Stoney]

You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me.

The cyclone hit

An oppressed place

It left them with

a smoother face

-----

Burma Shave.

Instead of sending money to Asia, I think we all should get another stimulus check...

At risk of sounding a bit sanctimonious, it strikes me how many saw fit to respond to this with lame jokes.

I'm certain you wouldn't have seen that levity on threads in the wake of 9/11 (death toll around 3000) or Katrina (death toll around 1800). But a much larger natural disaster that kills around 500,000 foreigners is percieved as something completely different far less worthy of concern.

 

[MileHigh]

The domestic coverage of this has been a disaster. Are they even covering it?

Reason No. 91,863 I listen to the Beeb on XM.

What little is being mentioned here is more than they're getting in the country itself. Reports from people on the ground said state-run TV was showing an opera instead of anything mentioning the cyclone.

And just to back up Birdscribe's last point:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/10/cyclonenargis.burma

The junta to the rest of the world: Thanks for the aid ... now GTFO.

Yup, they're taking the aid and distributing it themselves and taking the credit. Latest from AP:

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts still were being barred entry.

Despite international appeals to postpone a referendum on a controversial proposed constitution, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country. With voters going to the polls, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals including junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/asia/11myanmar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The focus for the military junta was on the referendum for a Constitution that is designed to legitimize and perpetuate military rule. Residents said the vote followed a campaign of coercion mixed with propaganda. The military appeared to be diverting some resources from cyclone victims to the referendum. A resident of Yangon, speaking by telephone, said that refugees seeking shelter in schoolhouses were evicted so they could be used as polling places. She said refugees had also been evicted from other buildings. In Datgyigone, a farming village 35 miles north of the capital, a precinct captain burst into laughter when asked if he thought most people would vote for the Constitution. “Everyone will vote yes,” he said after he had controlled himself. “Of course yes. Hundred percent.”

Small groups of residents in the main city, Yangon, banded together to distribute aid, but one of them said the authorities were sometimes confiscating their relief supplies. The Yangon resident said that some victims had taken shelter in Buddhist monasteries, which had been a target of the government during the violent suppression of protests, led by monks, last September. Monks cooked and distributed donations of fish and rice.

These poor people need food and water. They also need M-16s and rocket propelled grenades.

 

[beefncheddar]

I'm certain you wouldn't have seen that levity on threads in the wake of 9/11 (death toll around 3000) or Katrina (death toll around 1800). But a much larger natural disaster that kills around 500,000 foreigners is percieved as something completely different far less worthy of concern.

You've been here how long? See that button up there with the letters S-E-A-R-C-H in it? How about giving that a punch or two and then get back to us.