Help the Burmese !

Last year, after the military Junta indiscrimately killed thousands of monks after they went on to the street to protest, I wrote a post “The Burmese Way to Facism”  in which I qouted an article from Fast Eastern E review. I received 2 emails from  Burmese thanking me for highlighting the problem and the post was also quoted on one of the Burmese forum site.

Burma used to be the rice bowl of Asia, and at around the time of our Independence, Burma was about on par with us. But with dictatorship and military junta ruling thecountry for decades, the country has become one of the poorest in the world.

There is a Chinese saying, if your roof has leaks, there will be heavy storms coming. True enough, cyclone NArgis swept the country and it is now feared that the death toll can be as high as 100,000.

While UN and many countires are preparing to help , providing necessary medical supplies and essential food stuff, the Military Junta is not cooperating. 

This is the latest AP report :

 Myanmar‘s refusal to give visas to relief experts is “unprecedented” in the history of humanitarian work, the United Nations charged Friday.

A spokesman of the World Food Program says the organization has submitted 10 visa applications around the world, including six in Bangkok, Thailand, and none of have been granted.

Spokesman Paul Risley said Friday “the frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts.”

Myanmar’s military government said more than 62,000 people died or are missing in a cyclone that hit the country’s Irrawaddy delta last Saturday. The junta says it needs international aid but not the foreign experts and staff to deliver it

Where in the world would a government behave in such a manner? It is their own people that are dying and suffering and yet the government seems not to care. They want the aids but not the experts, is it because they want to keep the food and medicine for themselves? Or sell it in black market?

These people have no feelings, and if they have no feelings, they do not deserve to be called human at all.

I pray with the Burmese people. They have really suffered enough. Hope that the day they become their own boss will soon come and hope that all of them can live a life of peace and freedom.

I will post some of the photos from Reuters :

aerial view of destruction

dead body foreground. Ten of thousands died

whole village gone leaving the dead

monks are helping to clear debris. Where are the army?

water water everywhere, not a single drop to spare. They need to queue for water.

houses were flattened

lucky to have home like this.

Poor children begging for food.

 

Help the Burmese!!!

 Read also this excellent report in the Economist