When Continuity of Government is More Important than Relief Efforts

Technocrat

When Continuity of Government is More Important than Relief Efforts

zogger

Fri May 09 16:46:13 -0700 2008

Politics

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When Burma got hit by the cyclone last week, initial reports said damage was high, but the numbers of killed or wounded quoted were extremely low and highly suspect and speculative. Now that the true nature of the disaster is out, the world is presented with a paranoid military dictatorship that is more concerned with staying in power than to appear weak and accept outside aid in a righteous and effective and timely manner. This over emphasis on some delusional continuity of government and making sure they are "in charge and doing a heckuva job!" over doing the right thing and acknowledging reality is hurting those people immensely, and is a lesson to be learned for the rest of the world when looking at other governments-or their own, like with the US and the Katrina near debacle- and what they emphasize with their policies.

..""Not only don't they have the capacity to deliver assistance, they don't have experience," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country. "It's already too late for many people. Every day of delays is costing thousands of lives.""

ed.z.: the parallels with Katrina and the sheer arrogance and incompetence are too great to ignore, although obviously this latest in Burma is of much higher scale. But you can plainly see the priorities with the same sort of mindset, what is just more important to the goofballs in charge. "Sorry, local concerned volunteers, go home, we don't need thousands of boats when people are drowning, we are the official central government! We are all powerful! We can handle it! Security! Order! Now go away!"...nutz.. OK, that is merely my opinion, YMMV, but it is overwhelmingly what I am thinking about with this whole situation of disasters and governments. Like petulant little spoiled children who just can't admit when they are wrong or perhaps in over their head. Just *way* more important to them to stay in control than to actually do whatever it takes to get the job done. Skewed priorities, megalomania in action. Crazy people in charge.

The Katrina near debacle?

D. Hensley

Fri May 09 17:25:12 -0700 2008
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The Katrina Debacle.
There, fixed that for you.
And at that Burma did start allowing relief flights sooner then we did:
On August 30 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to President George W Bush, "Accept my sincere words of regret in connection with the natural calamity in the USA", Putin said in a message to Bush. He also stated that Russia was prepared to provide help if requested.
Up to four jets were placed on standby at the airport Ramenskoe near Moscow as early as August 30, including heavylift Ilyushin Il-76M(T/D)s with special evacuation equipment, medical equipment, a water cleansing system, a rescue helicopter BK-117 and two special cars; also passenger aircraft IL-62, which would bring 10 coordinators and 50 rescuers, as well as 6 tons of drinking water.
On September 1 Russian officials said that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency had rejected a Russian offer to dispatch rescue teams and other aid. [1]
On September 6 the Bush administration accepted Moscow's offer. Two Il-76s took off to the United States around midnight on September 7, Moscow time, and landed at the Little Rock USAF base at Jacksonville, Arkansas, where the Russian contingent was greeted by Brig. Gen. Joseph Reheiser.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
Just the top hit on a Google search about the subject.

You broke it, you bought it

Michael Smith

Fri May 09 17:50:07 -0700 2008
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...is apparently what Colin Powell told George Bush II before the start of the current gulf war.

So if we think these guys running Burma are so bad should we (Australians) gang up with the Thais, the UK, anybody else who will get involved and kick the military out? If we do that will we have bought the whole country? Will we have to pay to keep it running for the next hundred years?

This is true is a sense of East Timor. Because we helped separate them from Indonesia we have taken on a responsibility to keep them afloat.

The risk is that, like Iraq, there is something lurking in Burma which is actually worse than the current Government, and which the military dictators are keeping a lid on.

Maybe the lid needs to be kept on this one and hurricane victims left to die. Maybe not. In honestly don't know. How lucky are we feeling this decade?

When Continuity of Government is More Important than Relief Efforts

Kai Howells

Fri May 09 18:45:38 -0700 2008
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One of the major stumbling blocks to Burma accepting foreign relief is the way that foreign governments have been treating Burma in the past. China and India have both been heavily leaning on them as Burma has significant natural resources. Even further afield, the US, UK and Australia (at least) have also been applying gentle pressure fore regime change.
Add in the fact that Burma is politically isolated from the outside world - they don't have much of a hand in day-to-day dealings
This adds up to an extreme degree of paranoia on their part - they've been brought up their entire lives being told that just about all foreigners are evil and only want to take what's rightfully theirs. As a result, even if we are offering aid with all the best intentions, they're still extremely suspicious of what comes attached to the aid.
The parallels with Katrina are not as clear as they seem. In the case of Katrina, the US government sat on their hands and did nothing - this is sheer arrogance. In the case of Burma, they are refusing outside aid as they have seen what happens when other countries have been "rescued" and are very wary of any strings that may be attached.

When Continuity of Government is More Important than Relief Efforts

Uncle Entity

Fri May 09 19:15:12 -0700 2008
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You're talking about the military junta I assume.

The common folks want change as can be seen with monk's uprising a while back. I heard on the radio yesterday that's who is doing the majority of the relief work, the monks.

During the hour or so I spent in Burma 10 years ago (got on the wrong bus and needed to renew my Thai visa so had lunch while I was there) I didn't detect any outright hostility towards the foreigner.

Probably also doesn't help that the people getting the sound bites are members of groups that are actively working to change the system there—any ruling general that reads Technocrat will see an 'unbiased' quote from a pro-democracy activist saying how bad of a job they are doing.