Magical realism and the Burmese cyclone
Part of the inspiration for Latin America's concept of magical realism was the screwed up governments that existed in the places where that genre was written. If the president told you life was great, you knew life was terrible; if they told you a handful of people died from a minor disaster, you had to ask how big the hand was, and believe the disaster was beyond comprehension.
In Burma, we're moving in that direction overnight. AP is reporting that according to state media, instead of 10,000 dead overall, 10,000 Burmese citizens died in ONE TOWN. The official Chinese media, ordinarily staid and good at broadcasting its own Confucian form of magical realism, is putting the numbers killed at "at least 15,000." (It's also reporting that, and I quote in magically realistic English, "A minor part of the daily life started to resume in Myanmar's former capital of Yangon Sunday, the first day in the aftermath of the deadly cyclone Nargis strike the country for 10 hours from Saturday night to Saturday noon.")
Estimates seem to be running that "hundreds of thousands" were affected and without clean drinking water and shelter, and it seems we're likely to discover that many, many more than 15,000 have died in one of the most awfully governed countries in the world. Mortality from the after effects of the disaster, and three days of inaction, while the psychotic tyranny of Burma continues to make up its disbelief-suspending mind about what it wants to admit to the world and how much access it wants to grant, will likely be off the charts, too.
It's great that First Lady Laura Bush took time out from planning her daughter's wedding to speak out agains the Burmese tyranny for failing to ease its people's suffering. Mrs. Bush really deserves praise for speaking so forthrightly and seriously in a way we have never seen her husband do in the immediate aftermath of disasters close to home (Katrina) and far away (the Indian Ocean tsunami). Of course, while Mrs. Bush let the press conference devolve at the end into a chummy discussion with the press about Jenna's wedding on Saturday, and failed to bring the oppobrium down on China that is required to get vital American relief into the country.
Mrs. Bush made a limp-wristed strike at Chinese gem buyers for funneling money into Burma, but when asked about what was necessary to get adequate relief into the country, said only that, "Certainly we hope that India, for instance, and other countries in the neighborhood can step up if they won't accept aid from the United States."
The "other countries" in the region who have any influence on Burma are China, China, and China. And China without question is sheltering the awful Burmese dictators as the people whose spirits they've attempted to crush are starving and succumbing to disease. President Hu Jintao blithely declared yesterday, "his belief that Myanmar would soon overcome the difficulties caused by the cyclone and restore normal life for its people under the leadership of the State Peace and Development Council." I.e. the international community should stay out of the awful Burmese government's way as it tries to decide how much wreckage it should acknowledge in the country.
By refusing to name China as part of the problem in alleviating the suffering of the Burmese cyclone victims, Mrs. Bush spoiled her opportunity to flex America's true moral authority. Until we publicly woodshed China and force them to use their authority to open the country's borders to extensive international relief not under the government's thumb, hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of Burmese people will suffer and have their lives shortened.
