Report from Burma - Cyclone Nargis update

Below is the latest news out of Myanmar-Burma. That's why we get our feathers in a bunch over their shitty behavior. That, and killing monks, imprisoning the Nobel Peace Prize winner and assorted other problems. Please - if you want to help, follow the link below and help them.

Hi everyone,

thank you all for your messages of concern and good wishes. sorry i went all quiet on you all for a couple of weeks back there things have been quite manic!!

I did manage to get the visa and funding and make a trip to Burma (before the embassy in Bangkok suffered a mysterious fire). I flew to Rangoon on the 23rd and came back on the 8th of this month.
It was my first visit to Burma so I am not in a great position to say what conditions were like before the cyclone hit but I can tell you what I saw on this trip.

I was restricted to Rangoon and was not allowed to travel to the Delta area to help the team distribute supplies or collect information. it was 3 weeks after the cyclone hit that i managed to get my visa and even after this time when i arrived in Rangoon most of the city was still without power and nearly all phone lines were out of order. from what i saw in Rangoon i would estimate that 2 thirds of all of the trees in the city were felled by the storm.

There are a lot of restrictions on foreigners and many Burmese organizations try to minimize contact with foreigners to avoid unwanted attention from the authorities.

News and information is also restricted but for people who have seen the devastation with their own eyes and experienced the cyclone for themselves, they do not believe the reports in the Burmese press that everything is fine and that people in the delta are "self sufficient" the national newspaper proclaimed;
"There are vegetables growing by the roadside, fish in the rivers and an abundance of frogs.....our people are self sufficient ... they do not need chocolate bars from foreign agencies"
They know because they have been and seen for themselves that there are STILL people out there in the delta who are hungry and have not received any help from anyone.

I mainly worked to identify projects and allocate funding.

In many areas, aid is now trickling through but it is inconsistent and uncoordinated for the most part. Private donors and concerned citizens are making a truly heroic effort at great personal risk and are still making trips out to the effected areas to deliver food, clothing and medical supplies to those who are cut off and in need. These donors face intimidation and arrest form government authorities who have in some cases been demanding that donors hand over aid to them for "distribution". I know of one case where a local volunteer was followed home and intimidated in her home by an unknown man asking her questions about what she was doing and why she was going to the Delta area.

you can read comprehensive reports on the situation compiled by staff on the ground by clicking the CYCLONE NARGIS REPORT link in red on the right side of the ghre website home page. www.ghre.org

the names of those involved in writing and compiling the reports are withheld for safety reasons.

For those who have asked if there is a need for foreign volunteers to help with the clean up, of course there is, but the crazy cruel xenophobic morons in charge are not letting anyone in. Foreign volunteers, especially those who are not connected to any organizations would sadly be counter productive and could endanger local people who are doing relief work (people who associate with foreigners draw attention to themselves and their activities. Many of the smaller Burmese run NGOs prefer not to have foreigners working with them as it brings too much attention.) my experience; i was sometimes not able to acknowledge the local staff if i ran into them in public.

Now some specialist teams are being allowed in. MSF, UNICEF, Merlin, Save the Children...... but many of their international staff have just arrived in country and have never worked in Burma or encountered the bureaucratic nightmare that is operations and logistics in Burma. so, even those who have been given access are still being obstructed.

Progress is painfully slow and although the situation has fallen off the international news agenda, it is still a crisis for hundreds of thousands of people who are still struggling to survive day to day.

The reports will continue to be updated on the GHRE website.


Similan Diving - When you dive with us, you make a difference