Thoughts on Myanmar

The people of Myanmar are overdue some sort of break. Only half a year since peaceful protests over fuel-price hikes sunk daily budgets in an impoverished country, a cyclone tore through its rice delta region in the south this week, perhaps taken half as many lives as the tsunami three years ago. I was there only in January -- mid-way between these events -- and once again it's hard to fathom the level of destruction we see in snippets.

A friend in Yangon, which saw the cyclone in a still-powerful yet diminished strength, just emailed me this:

"There has been big damages at homes. The storm was indeed terrible. I and everyone in town are not yet recover from the shock. We were very scared. It will take so much of time for the areas to get back to normal. There are many casualties, people homeless and there are many more problems await. Ninety percent of the infrastructures is down. Reconstruction everywhere is extremely slow as the damages are enormous."

Visitors to Myanmar often see how much the locals look out for each other. In January, I went to remote corners of Rakhaing State with a guide, who brought along simple medicines to give to villages cut off from roads, running water and electricity. He never asked for my money; it's just something he normally does. My friend in Yangon is similiarly trying to help the parts of Yangon and surrounding villages that were hit the hardest by the storm. He's formed a team to help, but has been cut off by roads 'blocked with big trees and lamp posts and wire cables and big signboards.' It's takes very long to go even small distances in normal times, and now it's worse.

The xenophobic military in power are reluctant to grant visas or allow foreign aids groups access to the country -- particularly as the first national elections in years are due this Saturday (and still going forth) -- but I hope western aid groups will overlook this and try to get aid in by any means possible. Even if it means handing over supplies for the Myanmar military to distribute.

It's certainly been interesting seeing Bush smirk at the Myanmar government, considering the USA's own hesitation at helping victims in New Orleans.