Cyclone hits Burma/Myanmar
 

Just a word in solidarity with all those who were hurt by Cyclone Nargis. Reuters has compared it to Katrina. ..

I am sure the Burmese disaster handling will be better than FEMA.

Yesterday they were reporting a few hundred deaths - look at the report today http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/200805...e-04b64de.html
Myanmar is certainly having a very difficult year.

"I am sure the Burmese disaster handling will be better than FEMA.'

Why would you say such a thing?

Very, very sad. Does anyone know if the junta is allowing foreign assistance from NGOs?

Surely they will have to allow foreign aid.

Sadly, you underestimate the junta in Myanmar if you think 'surely they will have to allow foreign aid'!

Hopefully, they will - although I don't know how far the grand sum offered by the USA - $250.000.00 - will go.

The Myanmar government is openly asking for assistance so I don't understand why most of you think that they will not ask? Today a lot of the ASEAN countries have started airlifting medicine, food and other aides to Myanmar.

degas,

The op made reference to Katrina and from what I remembered is that the rescue or relief efforts by the responsible agency was royally screwed up. I think the world has learned from the mistakes with FEMA and Katrina so I hope that is the case with this current event and so far it seems that the Myanmar government are doing all the right thing.

Hanuman, when I posted, the government was not yet asking for assistance. I am reassured now that they are. As you know, this government has not been known for its empathy with its own people.

I'll have to do some research on which NGO to give to for this.

Here are some of the ways you can help:

• International Committee of the Red Cross
• World Food Programme
• Save the Children
• World Vision
• UNICEF
• International Rescue Committee

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

Thanks, degas, for this list. I wanted to check and see if one of my favorite relief groups, the Mercy Corps, was working in Burma. Indeed they are, so another option is www.mercycorps.org

Kathie,

I can't help but make comparison to the Katrina disaster and I find it interesting that the US initially refused foreign help as well, from France notably, for several days after Katrina hit. It was only after several days of suffering for the unlucky people before the US allowed French aid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_...ricane_Katrina

I'm also happy to hear the the junta have open up the door to foreign aids and I really hope that there will be some independent aid distribution supervision so that it will get to the right people. I'm not sure how much autonomy the organizations, on the CNN list that degas posted, will have in aid distribution.

Katrina disaster was caused by a variety of factors to include having a major city located below sea-level, and slow response/bad choices by local, state and federal government departments. I doubt the Government in Myanmar will be anymore responsive. I hear the monks are taking an active role in the relief effort.

I am sorry for the Myanmar people and my heart goes out to them. Death and destruction and cleanup after a Cyclone or huricanne is a heart breaking night mare.

I have lived on the US Gulf Coast all my life, living through many storms includung Katrina and Rita. I have seen what these stroms can do.

But Hanuman- I must say this...
Katrina was awful, but the actions of the LA Governor and the New Orleans Mayor, who were the very people responsible to act, made the problems many times worst-if you will recall they did nothing to get the people out of harms way (shool buses all lined up and flooded in the New Orleans Bus Barn).

Then they did nothing while they had a turf war with the federal government before they would allow that help in the state. Do you remember the pictures of the Governor ringing her hands right after the storm hit, but she would not let the army in to start getting people out of NO for 48 hours of so.

There was a vast difference in the lead up to storms and clean up processes after the storms: in Miss, where the absolute destruction after Katrina was much worse; in Fla, where three stroms hit in one year and number of years ago when a storm wiped out the Homestead area; and in Tx, where Rita hit right after Katrina. Though the mass panic whipped up by the media was something to behold!

In the US, cleanup is a combined effort of the local, state and federal governmet with the local and state calling the shots in the first days.

I hope the Myanmar government will allow all the help offered into their country and as soon as possible. That is the key to getting started on the road to recovery

It takes many man hours of work from all sources- government, volunteers and locals to put things back together, plus, of course, lots of $$$$.

The aid issue between the US government and the French governmet in NO way affected the aid recovery efforts going on after Katrine.

There was plenty of help as soon as the local officals allowed the help in.

I do think most US citzens were touched that others would offer us aid and I know some was used. But here is no comparison in the two events.

degas stated it very well.

Hanuman, I understand and don't object to your comparison with Katrina. I hope the whole world learned from the many mistakes with Katrina.

I'm glad the NGOs are already going into Burma to help.

cwn, are you sure most US citizens welcomed French help? I'm pretty sure, at the time, that we were in the middle of the Bush-sanctioned French Fry boycott. It was the age of the Freedom Fry then <sigh>.

Hopefully, Burma will open as many doors as possible for aid. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, given only a few short months ago, when, during the protests, they didn't want ANY unfamiliar eyes anywhere near their country.

Anyone really interested in Katrina should read David Brinkley's book, "The Great Deluge". I took it as a report that the people of the Gulf Coast were abandoned by local, state and federal governments.

I hope that Myanmar does not suffer that gross inefficiency.

cwn,

A lot of countries helped or tried to help after Katrina hit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...from_Countries

My point is that I hope the Myanmar government would have learned something from past disasters. The junta should accept help from both enemies and friends because the people are suffering. degas made a good point about the monks and perhaps that is one place people should try and donate to. After the Tsunami, several Wats in Thailand were inundated with refugees and dead bodies and they didn't have much outside help.

Hanuman,
I agree with you completely on the Myanmar government learning from past problems in the US and other places around the world and also about looking to the Monks for help in relief efforts. Governments are just not the best in relief sometimes. There are way too many layers.

For the people's sake and for the sake of getting the aid to where it is really needed, I hope the Myanmar government will listen to the people on the ground with the netweork, if any is already there, to get the aid to the needy quickly..

As far as the Katrina mess, if you did not live in the areas affected by Katrine, you shouldn't believe everything you heard or read about what really happened on the ground after Katrina. To say that "the people of the Gulf Coast were abandoned by local, state and federal governments," is totally "media hype". If you want to say the people of LA were abandoned by their local and state government that is true, but New Orleans keeps electing them, so....

I'm sorry, cwn, but on what PLANET did FEMA not fail the people of Louisiana?

I don't want to open a whole can of worms here as this is the Asia forum and not the Lounge, but calling a very astute and obviously true and factually corroborated statement "media hype" is mildly offensive to anyone of a moderate amount of intelligence.

No one's saying that the local government was innocent, but those of us who don't live there or didn't go through it certainly cannot speak to how the local government handled it. However, we sure as hell can speak to how our federal resources screwed up every possible opportunity to assist.

Don't worry, pandas are never offended.

My opinion comes from Brinckley's book, not media reports. The interesting part about that book is that he says Brownie was not the primary federal non-feasor. He suggests that that honor goes to Michael Chertoff.

Plus, my characterization of abandonment is irrelevant. Either the residents were well-served or they were not. One only hopes that there were lessons learned wordwide from Katrina.

Ok, let's get a grip on reality here. This is not a Katrina-type incident. In Myanmar, the folks are lucky to have electric power on a GOOD day. The area most affected - the southern coast, was drowned in a tsunami-like wave that killed thousands. The only access to this area before the cyclone was by boat - no roads, no airports. There is no fresh water, and the rice paddies in the area were wiped out - so there's no food either. Any relief aid that can get in is going to Yangon and not getting much further right now. The country is poor - residents can't afford to do the collections that we did to help our fellow citizens in Louisiana and Mississippi. My only hope is that the junta will move quickly to approve the visas of the outside NGO's that are ready and able to help. I would love to take a collection at my local Rotary Club. Any positive input on which organization would be most effective in the relief effort would be most appreciated. I need to know by Thursday night for my early Friday morning meeting (Avon, CT, USA).

Just watched a CBS report on Myanmar. The death toll is climbing and the Generals are providing photo ops. Hope the aid workers and the aid can get to the people soon. It is sad to watch.

Glad “pandas” are never offended as that was not my intent. Fortunately we are all entitled to our own opinions and to speak out if we don’t agree.

I too, hope there were lessons learned worldwide from Katrina.

Craig- Medicins Sans Borders (Doctors without Borders) may be contributing. An e-mail or phone call should inform.

Of course that Medicins Sans Frontieres.

Craig, the Mercy Corps is another option. They already (this morning) had an option to contribute to cyclone relief in Myanmar, so I expect they have people on the ground there.

I see the US has increased its aid relief offered. I only hope we don't get into strings attached by either or both countries!!

According to pictures and comments on CNN (online) the junta is getting its 'own' taken care of first. I really don't see the Myanmar junta as being focused on impoving or providing for the citizens and absolutely do not see them as caring about 'learning' anything from other governments.

However, they are back in the world spotlight and I hope they rise to the ocassion and do what is best for the people. Life was soooo hard there before this. Kathie, why do you favor the mercy corps?
I'm just unfamiliar with them.

Hanuman, I like the idea of giving to the wats (and monks) but fromt the US, I don't know how to do that.
If you know a way from here, tell us how.

I just attended a USAID taskforce meeting on getting aid to Burma (as a concerned individual: I'm NOT a government employee).

The situation is similar to what happened in the aftermath of the tsunami in Aceh. The problem is not just aid -- e.g. food, money, medicine; the problem is LOGISTICS. Getting supplies to these people is a task that few organizations, despite their fund raising capabilities and goodwill, are equipped to handle.

The most affected parts of Burma can't be reached by traditional land based trucks on roads. You need air and sea transport.

And what organizations are the best at logistics in difficult situation -- the military of course!

Say or think what you want about the US Military. They and the Australian military were the first on the ground in Aceh after the disaster, and believe me, the Indonesian government wasn't delighted with the prospect of invited a foreign military force onto their sovereign territory.

Foreign military is the only organization equipped to get water, blankets, and medicine to the millions of survivors in the farflung areas of the Irawaddy delta and the US Military is the nearby, ready and trained. The Burmese government should do what's right for their people and allow the US to help on the ground.

I agree with you Marmot but from the news I saw yesterday the nearest US warship will take 4 days to get there if they were given the green light. By the time everybody agrees to a relief plan the people who could have been safe will be gone! I don't know if giving Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal at the same time as offering help to the junta was good timing or not?

I talked to the pilot of the Thai air force who flew one of the first relief flight into Yangon and he said that Yangon did not look that devastated. As you've said the problem areas are far away and will be very hard to reach.

I'm not a military tactician but if I remember correctly the first relief in Aceh came via helicopter.
"Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said two aircraft carriers — the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Nimitz — as well as the USS Blue Ridge, are also within reach of Myanmar. The Essex, an amphibious assault ship, has 23 helicopters aboard, including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well as 1,800 Marines"

I agree the award to ASSK seemed a bit of a poke in the eye. Was it previously planned or was it deliberately paired with the aid offer?

I haven't been in Burma for over 20 years, but I truly love that country. The people were destitute at the time and I doubt that things have much improved. What a sorry situation.

22 000 dead. Over 40 000 missing.

wintersp, there are many fine aid groups. I do like Mercy Corps for several reasons. It's a home-grown Pacific NW NGO, based in Portland, and it has a very high percentage - 89% - of donations that go directly to the programs (as opposed to being spent on administration or fund raising).

I have done a little research on the the two charities, Doctors without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Mercy Corps. Both are excellent organizations with high orgazational efficiency ratings. In this particular instance, I am leaning toward Doctors without Borders as they presently have people on the ground in Myanmar while Mercy Corps is just passing donations along to partner agencies:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org...le.cfm?id=2656

http://www.mercycorps.org/topics/emergencies/2150

Craig, thanks for the info. Doctors without Borders is another excellent organization.

Here's a good update on progress (or lack thereof):

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/wo...yanmar.html?hp

The London newspapers again seem to have the most comprehensive reports, some with their own correspondence in Myanmar.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1811
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...uraldisasters4
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...ne-822139.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3883123.ece

Does anyone know of a good charity that definitely will provide services or supplies <u>only</u>? I fear that a good part of whatever aid is provided would be swallowed up by the military rulers there, enabling them to keep their hold on power. Corruption is one thing, but helping to prop up a brutal dictatorship is something else.

Sad as the situation is, hopefully there's a silver lining. With the world's attention focused there and the government's weakness so openly exposed, now is an excellent time for the people of Myanmar to demand change.

baaj, If what you are looking for is a charity where the government is not a go-between for the money/supplies. I believe Doctors without Borders would fit the bill.

Here's the latest press release from Doctors without Borders:

http://tinyurl.com/46eh6y

Seems that although they have 38 people in the country, they are ready to send more (with supplies) if the government will let them in.