Aid for Myanmar may have secondary benefit
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The overriding reason the United States and other countries should help those stricken by the cyclone in Myanmar is purely humanitarian.
The death toll from the deadly cyclone has soared past 22,000. More than a million people are believed homeless. If food and water aren’t delivered quickly, more will die.
A secondary reason providing international aid is that the effort could prepare the way for lasting reform for the oppressed Myanmar people.
Myanmar is ruled by a military junta that keeps the outside world at bay. Last year its rulers launched a bloody crackdown against protesters, who included thousands of Buddhists monks.
The limitations of the dictatorial regime were exposed by the cyclone, which swept from the Irrawaddy delta northward to the city of Yangon (formerly Rangoon) on Saturday.
Myanmar’s rulers apparently failed to use the state-run media to warn residents that the cyclone was coming, despite 48-hour advance notice from Indian officials that the cyclone would strike.
Rescue and aid efforts organized by the government were feeble or nonexistent. Even after the cyclone struck, state-run television continued to show opera, sources inside the country told The Guardian newspaper in Great Britain.
Initially there were fears that the military junta might not permit international aid, but those fears dissipated when the rulers made an official request to the United Nations.
The cyclone’s 120-mile-per-hour winds created a storm surge that Myanmar officials said was 12 feet high. As the wave swept across low-lying land in the delta it destroyed entire villages. In addition to the official death toll, authorities said that more than 40,000 people were missing.
As the magnitude of the disaster became clear, international organizations ramped up efforts to deliver emergency supplies.
The poverty-ridden country has poor roads and communication, which will make rescue and aid efforts more difficult.
“Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself,” Caryl Stern, head of the United Nations Children’s Fund in the United States, told the International Herald Tribune.
Meanwhile critics of the repressive Myanmar military regime were mindful of natural disasters in other countries that resulted in long-term improvement on human rights and movement toward democratic reform.
After the 2004 tsunami, for example, the Indonesian government signed a peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement. Relief efforts in the wake of earthquakes have improved relations between Greece and Turkey.
That sort of welcome change should be viewed, however, as a matter of natural consequence, rather than a product of political calculation. People in the disaster area are surviving on a day-to-day basis. Immediate aid should be offered without strings attached.
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Sean wrote on May 7, 2008 11:46 am:
Untold aid sent to India and Pakistan. Two countries with large populations struggling to develope infrastructure and viable economies. Both countries (ironically the Indian/Hindu government in particular) have spent billions in developing nucelar weapons instead of feeding their own people. So much for the "all life is sacred" thing.
Last but not least. After years of economic partnership and favored trading status China is still one of the most repressive governments in the world. Anything realllly changed since Tianamen Square or the recent crackdown on Tibetans for the glory of Olympics? Did the Chinese suffer anything more than a little embarassing press? They were more concerned when the volume of their imports was threatened by the publicity surrounding tainted products.
The Junta in Miyanmar stone walled it through the crackdown on protesting Bhuddist monks with no ill effects. For all the bucks and groceries you send now most, if not all of the aid they'll keep for themselves or to maintain their large standing army as occured in the Somalian debacle.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, other than an uprising in these places is going to change the status quo. Problem is that historically,the "freedom fighters" who wind up replacing the original monsters are even worse.
Here's a hint: save your money. "
Dano wrote on May 7, 2008 2:19 pm:
I am tired of supporting failed governments and their armies, and the corporations that have interests in those areas as well. Time to start giving to my people locally first. "
Claire wrote on May 9, 2008 10:03 pm: