A perfect storm
The psychotic government in Burma (known to some as Myanmar) is now acknowledging that the death toll from the cyclone that hit the country over the weekend might be as high as 10,000 people. It's a staggering loss of human life in a country where it's valued so little. Photos like this one at left won't come close to capturing the true impact of the devastation - a few felled trees in a national capital probably compare in no way to what we can't see in the hinterlands where peripatetic photojournalists are not allowed to go.
Now, how to respond to help the survivors and traumatized victims is going to be a tough decision for the international community to make.
In 2004 when a tsunami killed hundreds of thousands in the Aceh region of Indonesia, it was difficult to know at first what the precise death toll was. The military of Indonesia was still fighting a vicious civil war against Acehnese separatists, and there was a cordon sanitaire around the region. For too many dangerous days after the tsunami, the real cost of the disaster wasn't clear. It wasn't until the Indonesia military was forced to come to grips with the scale of the tragedy that it opened Aceh up to the international community and let in a coalition of the willing led by the US Navy to help the survivors. Now there's peace in the country.
In Indonesia, the was a corrupt government, but one that has proven itself capable of implementing complicated development schemes at some level. Burma, by contrast, ranks at the bottom of Transparency International's corruption index, alongside Somalia, which has no coherent governing institutions. TI warned in an October 2007 declaration that, "Corrupt governments do not respond to the basic needs of their citizens, nor do they respect their human rights, including the right to equal treatment before the law."
With such estimations, it's not difficult to conclude that any money flowing into Burma's dictatorship is going to be shred apart by corruption. One wants to give to help the victims, but then one wonders how much of each dollar will actually make it to seeing to the needs of Burmese citizens who were lashed by the cyclone. And with Burma so sensitive about its sovereignty, as most psychosis-style tyrannies are, it's difficult to imagine regional military powers with adequate capability (the United States and India) coming in to make sure the relief effort is ably put together.
For the moment, it's difficult to imagine what to do. Pray for the people of Burma, and that their awful tyrants will move out of the way and let help come from where it is available to those who need it.
