Guy Mandude

There is something terribly biblical and tragically human about this natural disaster. In addition to the horrific loss of life, a portion of the nation's rice crop was destroyed. Untold thousands have died though officials had prior knowledge.

On May 8, 1902, just days before an important election, the city of Saint Pierre on Martinique was destroyed by a volcanic blast from Mt. Pelee. The pyroclastic blast down the volcano wiped out 28,000 people almost instantly, destroying even the ships and passengers anchored in the harbor. The mountain had started erupting days earlier, so why didn't the people leave?

Government officials BLOCKED the people from leaving Saint Pierre, with the media downplaying the dangers of the clearly active volcano, just so that an election could take place on May 11th. The election never occurred, the entire population asphyxiated and incinerated in an instant the morning of May 8th.

What did the Burmese military junta have to gain from downplaying the dangers of this recent cyclone?

Almost immediately after the destruction of the World Trade Center complex on 9/11, Christine Todd Whitman (under some pressure from prez Dumbya) confirmed that the devastated area was safe so that thousands of disaster aid workers could continue search and rescue and clean-up efforts. We've learned since that thousands of people were exposed to toxic fumes particulate matter, dooming many more thousands of people to incapacitating breathing disorders and lung disease.

What is the lesson to be learned about GOVERNMENTS and the way they CONSISTENTLY fail to protect their citizens from disasters, both natural and man-made?

tomcat

The lesson: they have something to hide.

__________________
Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd....

zehner

Burma death toll could reach 100,000

· Relief workers wait as regime restricts access
· Red tape thwarts delivery of food and medical help

• <LI class=byline>Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok <LI class=publication>The Guardian,
• Thursday May 8 2008
• Article history

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This article appeared in the Guardian on Thursday May 08 2008 on p17 of the International section. It was last updated at 00:32 on May 08 2008.


A girl drinks water in Konegyangone township, Burma. Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AFP/Getty Images

Fears were growing last night that as many as 100,000 people may have died in the catastrophic cyclone in Burma, even as the military junta continued to restrict access to aid workers waiting to enter the country.
The top United States diplomat in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, confirmed the figure and said as many as 95% of all buildings in the affected area may have been demolished. Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said there was a very real risk of disease outbreaks as the crisis continues. "There may be over 100,000 deaths in the Irrawaddy delta area," she told reporters.
The new toll came as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called on the junta to open its borders to aid workers and the US urged Asian countries such as China, Thailand and India to put pressure on the military regime. International frustration is mounting as disaster management experts fail to get the necessary visas to enter the country. Satellite pictures yesterday showed the bulk of the Irrawaddy delta - where most died - still under water. Planeloads of stockpiled supplies are on standby awaiting delivery to desperate victims, who have been living in water for five days. Delays in getting help to the survivors could spark a second humanitarian crisis, with an outbreak of waterborne disease in the tropical climate.
"Time is of the essence," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UN children's fund Unicef. "Children are highly vulnerable to disease and hunger and they need immediate help to survive."
Visa delays are to be raised by Ban Ki-Moon, who is to seek a meeting of officials to resolve the matter speedily. Documents leaked from a UN meeting in Bangkok revealed little sign of a solution.
Even after the Burmese junta gave permission for the UN to fly in a planeload of supplies, emergency teams were still awaiting travel documents to enter the country. The World Food Programme has 15 logistics experts and technicians in Bangkok awaiting visas, ready to fly to Rangoon at a moment's notice.
The difficulty mirrored smaller aid agencies such as World Vision, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Save the Children, whose teams have yet to get entry permits even though they have staff already working on the ground in Burma.
World Vision, which has worked in Burma for 30 years and has 582 existing staff there, has 40 tonnes of supplies sitting in Dubai awaiting approval to fly.
"We have warehouses around the world pre-positioned, ready to go and emergency response teams who can move at a moment's notice, all for such a disaster," said Pamela Sitko, of World Vision. "Our office in Rangoon has been in negotiations with the social welfare minister since shortly after the cyclone hit."
World Vision has also been seeking visas for "less than 10" technical and logistics experts. Save the Children has applied to send four staff and MSF only one so far.
"It's a dreadful situation," said Sitko. "Time is critical. There's real risk of an outbreak of acute diarrhoea, dengue fever or malaria, even cholera. We remember from the tsunami all the pain and suffering."
Aid agency staff already operating in the country have been given a relatively free hand to assess the scale of the disaster and distribute whatever emergency supplies they had stockpiled, though it is nowhere near the huge amount needed.
"The UN has managed to get some assessment teams into the field, but we need the floodgates to open," said Mark Canning, the British ambassador in Rangoon.
France has urged the UN to invoke its "responsibility to act" clause to break the logjam and deliver aid without waiting for the junta's approval. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said the clause, that allows aid delivery to citizens if their government failed, even if it breached national sovereignty, was being discussed at UN headquarters in New York. The French navy has ships with helicopters sitting off the worst affected areas of the Burmese coast and help could reach the disaster area in minutes, he said.
But while the world waited survivors who have seen little aid stormed the few shops that opened in the Irrawaddy delta. With reports of hundreds of bodies along roadsides and in rice paddies the fear is that failure to dispose of the dead will pose a health hazard to the living.
Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children Burma country director, said at least the regime had begun assisting in distribution of the emergency aid already in place using 16 military helicopters, though it needed a great deal more help.
But the diplomat, Villarosa, said: "This is a very paranoid regime ... the longer the delay, the more victims are created."

Burma death toll could reach 100,000 | World news | The Guardian

__________________
Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

Guy Mandude

So the military regime will wait until AFTER the election to do anything just to ensure the vote goes their way.

Mr Pants

I don't think it matters whether the vote goes their way or not. Constitution or no constitution there's no way the junta is going to give up their power. Their "road-map to democracy" is a joke.

tomcat

^^The vote will go the Junta's way, whether it does or not.

__________________
Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd....

zehner

'They have nothing to eat'

AFP, Labutta, Burma
Published on May 8, 2008

Survivors of Burma's devastating cyclone recount the tragedy amid stench of death






Thousands of shell-shocked survivors of the Burma cyclone emerged yesterday, desperate for food and water after trekking for days through flood waters littered with the bodies of the dead.

An AFP reporter who reached the remote southern delta hardest hit by the storm, which left more than 60,000 dead or missing, said there was virtually no food or fresh water in this ruined town blanketed by the stench of death.
The grim accounts of survivors came as the United Nations said the country's reclusive military rulers, under pressure to let in foreign aid workers, had approved an emergency flight five days after the tragedy.

Homeless and starving

"They have lost their families, they have nowhere to stay and they have nothing to eat," one witness said in the town of Labutta after Cyclone Nargis washed away entire villages in one of the world's poorest nations.

Another said: "We can't sleep at night, because we can hear people shouting at night. Maybe these are the ghosts of the villagers."

Those who had the strength to do so spent days picking through murky water strewn with the festering and bloated dead, desperate for shelter, food, water and medical care after one of the world's worst natural disasters.

Witnesses said Saturday's storm, packing winds of 190 kilometres per hour, had left the region submerged under six-metre waters higher than the tree-tops, and countless corpses rotting in the tropical heat.

After days of criticism aimed at the secretive generals who have ruled Burma for nearly half a century - and who have hesitated to let in foreign relief workers - the United Nations said experts were on the way.

The news was a welcome development for international aid agencies who had bitterly complained that time was running out for the millions facing the risk of disease and starvation.

Pledges of cash, supplies and assistance have been pouring in from around the world but the junta - wary of any foreign influence that could weaken their tenacious control - have kept foreigners away.
Residents told AFP that the regime had not yet set up emergency shelters here. "We need emergency rescuers," said a local doctor, who warned many here were suffering from diarrhoea because of the miserable sanitary conditions. "Assistance hasn't reached them yet and they are dying," said Andrew Kirkwood of Save the Children.
XTRA


Compact Size....Concise News

__________________
Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

Boonmee

Or maybe it won't, like in 1989, but they'll just ignore that minor detail and decide that they've changed their minds about democracy; they don't even need to lie about it, they're such cunts.

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ธัมมัง สะระนัง คะฉามิ
สังฆัง สะระนัง คะฉามิ

rogerman

Wednesday Afternoon


The military government accused of holding international assistance operations

Burma outside aid: some progress
United Nations officials say the authorities in Burma have given permission for a UN aid flight to carry emergency supplies to help survivors of the cyclone that ravaged the country last week.
A spokeswoman said a small team of relief experts would be on the plane along with twenty-five tonnes of aid.
Burma's ruling generals are facing growing pressure to give greater access to foreign aid workers.
They're reported to have put a minister in charge of assessing their visa applications.

The bodies of dead people and animals litter the flooded fields
Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Burma, and about a million left homeless by last week's storm.
Reports from the devastated town of Luputta speak of haggard, hungry refugees congregating there, amid the stench of dead humans and animals.

Thursday afternoon


United Nations aid has begun to arrive.

Burma says workers must pass constitution
Five days after the devastating cyclone in Burma, international relief agencies are still finding it difficult to get official permission to bring in supplies for an estimated one million people who've been made homeless.
Burma's military rulers have allowed aircraft from friendly neighbours including Thailand, India and China to send in relief.
And reports say an aid flight organised by the Italian government has landed in Rangoon.
But three UN planes loaded with relief supplies are still on stand-by, awaiting permission to enter Burma.
And the United States says it's still not been given approval to send in its military aircraft carrying emergency aid.

Burmese survivors' desperate plight

Aid is now getting through to some parts of the Irawaddy Delta but still not to the most remote areas.
A BBC journalist who's managed to reach the worst affected area, the Irrawaddy delta, has spoken of the terrible trail of destruction wrought by the cyclone; he says some villages have been wiped off the map.
With little or no food and water supplies that have been contaminated, many desperate survivors are forced to scavenge for anything they can get.
Our correspondent says many cyclone-hit areas remain inaccessible and the risk of disease is increasing

__________________

Guy Mandude

Sometimes people don't starve to death quietly.

DontTaserMeDude

Burma is a fairly backward country like the US, with an "every man for himself" mentality. Thousands died when that hurricane hit New Orleans. Cuba gets hit by hurricaines nearly every year. How many die in Cuba? Nearly none.

Bandini

Say, that should generate some good-natured unbiased discussion!

Boonmee

Come on - it's not exactly as if the Junta's not used to mass protests against it, is it?
It has its very own way of dealing with that sort of situation.

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