Sunday, May 11, 2008

would a million lives be enough for the paranoia to end

Everyone's following the cyclone which hit Myanmar (formerly called burma) a few days back. According to latest estimates there have been 100,000 people dead and a million and half more at risk.

The military junta ruling Myanmar has always shared a tenuous relationship with the outside world. Aung san suu kyi's democratic movement and her nobel peace prize did not help reduce the suspicion with which the junta viewed everyone else.

However the natural disaster which hit myanmar hasn't reduced the mistrust. American, British and Indian aid ships are docked off myanmar still awaiting permission to dock. The relief dropped by the UN airplanes has been confiscated by the military prompting the UN to cancel any further relief operations. The smell of death and rot hasn't yet gone away but the aid hasn't yet reached the people most affected.

Agreed most of the wars fought in our lifetimes have been completely unnecessary and done more evil than intended good, but is the world going to look on and wait for a million people to die before taking action. Whats more important, pleasing the paranoid junta of an oil-bereft nation or take action before hundreds and thousands more people die.