Who is international aid to Myanmar feeding?

The callous imagination of the Myanmar junta goes beyond one's cruellest imagination. Latest reports suggest that food aid to Myanmar is being confiscated by the junta, with some, at least, confirmed to have been sent to a military warehouse.

The high-grade nutritional biscuits that were sent, were kept for the military - and instead, low-grade "tasteless" biscuits made in Myanmar were distributed. Thus, the good food that is sent is ending up in military bellies (or intended to end up there) - and bad, even "rotting food", as witnesses described the rice that was being given out, is being distributed instead.

So, now the international community has an even bigger moral dilemma. Should food aid be sent at all if it is not going to reach the needy? To send food aid and have it feed the military is to do nothing for the endangered and will only serve to strengthen their oppressors. Here we have a situation in which the international will to help the hungry and threatened, is being perverted by their ruling regime to become an effort which will only bolster those who oppress them.

France, Britain and Germany are of the opinion that aid should be forced on the junta. That is, the international community has a moral imperative to ensure that the endangered are saved - even if this means going against the will of the ruling military junta.

I tend to agree with them: logic bids me so. If our mission is to save the 2 million now in danger from an unfortunate death, they must receive food and medical aid. The junta will not give them either food or medicine and will, in fact, confiscate both, for its own purposes. Therefore neither food nor aid should be given to the junta to distribute, nor allowed to fall into their hands. The only way these 2 million people are going to be saved is if the international community ignores the junta and goes in directly. Unless this intervention consists solely of air drops (which might be confiscated), any aid workers would have to be accompanied by armed escort, lest this effort leads to violent confrontation.

So, the options in the situation are limited. To continue to deliver aid without workers to distribute it is only to ensure that nothing gets done for the afflicted - and that the regime have fuller bellies. To continue to stand by and wait for the junta to wake up and grow a conscience is to ensure that people will continue to die by the thousand. There is, therefore, only one logical answer: to go in with aid irrespective of the wishes of the ruling morons, oops, elite. That latter option could lead to confrontation but given the backward nature of the society, I am sure that advanced powers would have little difficulty managing the junta's response.

It is interesting to note who favours forced aid: Britain, France and Germany - among the most advanced humanitarian democracies in the world. It is even more telling who opposes it: Russia and China - two countries most like Myanmar. Indeed, on a footnote, China is now opposing foreign aid workers who wish to assist in their earthquake disaster - the exact same response as Myanmar. It seems that repressive regimes the world over, simply don't want their people to learn that foreigners are a much kinder bunch than they have been painted. If they ever learn the equation that democracy=concern for others, their repressive regimes are doomed. They would rather their people die by the millions than that they should ever learn what free countries are really like.

I dearly hope that someone has the strength to take the strong decisions that need to be made, if 2 million people in Myanmar are not to fall to hunger, lack of shelter and rampant disease.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Taking credit for the goodwill of the world.

There is something odious about the regime in Myanmar that is quite beyond belief. The world has watched as Myanmar's ruling military junta have opposed the efforts of the world to help their desperate people (estimated to be up to 2 million people in dire need of assistance, in the most recent information on the matter). The junta is requesting that aid be delivered without any foreign workers being allowed to accompany it. They say that they will then distribute it.

When I first heard this, I was very suspicious of their motives. My interpretation was that they wanted to take the credit for providing aid to their people. Just think about it: if the man who gives you the box of free food and medicine is in a military uniform, from whom would you think the aid was from? To whom would you be grateful? By the simple expedient of preventing foreigners from distributing it the Burmese government could achieve two aims at once: they would prevent the oppressed Burmese people from learning that the outside world cares about them and is assisting them - and they would create the false impression that the Burmese government does, actually, care for its people and is doing something about it. To allow the Burmese government to distribute the aid is to allow two very big lies to be told, therefore.

Now, that is what I thought when I heard of their conditions. I did not imagine, however, how far the Burmese government would take their deceptive ways. According to a recent Associated Press report, the military government in Burma is handing out aid packages that HAVE BEEN RELABELLED. Stuck on them, in large letters, are the names of Myanmar junta generals. The cynicism of this deception is quite appalling.

I would like to give you the names of the generals who are relabelling food aid - but I can't. You see, one name was mentioned in the AP report, but when I checked back later, the name had been edited out of the online report. I find this odd. It seems to imply that AP have been contacted by the Myanmar government and told where to get off.

So, instead of being concerned about the 2 million endangered citizens of Myanmar, the generals are concerned about turning it into a propaganda opportunity.

All of this makes me wonder why the international community has tolerated this particular regime for the last 46 years. It seems to me that something decisive should have been done a long, long time ago, on behalf of the Burmese people. Yet, nothing is done - and I don't suppose anything concrete ever will be done. The people will just suffer on. The ones who don't die that is.

So, we now have a curious situation in which the world is in a double bind. If the world stands by and does nothing, the people of Myanmar will suffer and die (for their "masters" will do nothing to help them). However, if the world sends aid for the people of Myanmar, their masters will take the credit for it, reinforcing their stranglehold over this choking people - and so they will suffer on. Either way, the people of Myanmar will suffer.

Not to send aid, is to watch the Burmese die. To send aid, is to reinforce the Burmese regime. What a situation.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar: the true danger.

Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy delta, in Myanmar, killing a confirmed 22,500 people, leaving 41,000 missing and hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry.

That seems bad enough and is assuredly a terrible humanitarian disaster - but what is, in fact, the greatest danger to the people of Myanmar: a cyclone or the state itself?

There is a greater danger, here, than might be apparent, at first. Myanmar's military junta is famously secretive and famously uncooperative with the international community. Yet, now, at this time of great need, they need to drop their usual ways - they need to open up and cooperate with the international community. What will happen if they don't? Well, those hundreds of thousands of people without food and shelter are presently roaming an area filled with rotting corpses lying randomly about devastated fields that once grew rice. The danger of disease - of malaria, dengue, cholera and untold other infections is very present. Without assistance, the death toll for this disaster could dwarf its present total. Indeed, more people could die from the consequences of the cyclone than directly from the cyclone itself. This is the danger of Myanmar's style of government - for they are behaving, to an unfortunate degree, in their typical style. Aid agencies are reporting that the Burmese government is attempting to attach too many conditions to any incoming aid. Basically, they are telling aid agencies: "Give us money and we will distribute it." Yeh, right, sure they will. A government that wants to be aided with money, rather than food and medicine is a government that has another agenda other than the security of its people. That money, unless exchanged for useful goods and equipment, in the situation, is utterly useless. It can, however, enrich the wrong people if it is not, in fact, distributed (as no doubt it wouldn't be).

The government of Myanmar is doubly culpaple in this disaster. Firstly, they failed to warn their people of the incoming cyclone - something any state could and should do. A simple warning could have saved many lives. Secondly, they are not cooperating in an optimum manner with aid agencies - they appear to be trying to use the situation to benefit the ruling elite in other ways, rather than directly assisting the endangered people.

It is abundantly clear, that the present government of Myanmar does not have the best interests of its people at heart. Perhaps more of the people of Myanmar will realize this now that they see the behaviour of the government in its biggest crisis in many years.

There is a price to be paid for a closed society. A society which is not truly open to the wider world is also more vulnerable to any disaster that might befall it. It is a more fragile and brittle society. Myanmar is discovering that in these trying days. I only hope that the Burmese government begins to think of its people and allows the aid agencies free and unimpeded access - and that it drops aspirations of cashing in on the situation.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Kenji Nagai, APF videojournalist in Burma.

Burma, sorry, Myanmar, is not so far from Singapore, where I live. I have even known a few Burmese people living in Singapore - and so recent events have drawn my attention.

I am not a fan of repression, wherever it occurs and so I have watched the recent confrontation of the military junta and the revered monks, of Burma/Myanmar, with some trepidation. It seemed likely that, at some point, the government would lash out, once more, at its own people.

That violent action has begun. People are dying in the streets and being rounded up to be taken away to God knows what fate. Many of these people are monks.

One figure though, in all these events of the past few days, stands out, for his reaction to his fate. Kenji Nagai, the Japanese APF videojournalist, covering the Burmese unrest, on the ground in Burma, was shot, apparently at point blank range as he lay on the ground (according to video footage taken by another journalist). The Myanmar government blamed a stray round. Well, the video suggests otherwise: that was a round that strayed only a few feet from the gun.

What touched me, however, was Kenji Nagai's reaction to his own impending death. He had just been shot. He must have known that he could be dying. So what did he do? He pointed his camera in the most interesting direction and continued to take pictures. That makes him a hero, in my book. How sad that a man with such a dedicated, committed attitude to his work, should die by the bullet, at the hand of some gun-wielding government thug.

Kenji Nagai may not have come to our notice before - but in the manner in which he conducted himself, in his dying minutes, he certainly distinguished himself as a heroic personality. It is a pity that he did not survive.

As for the soldier who shot him. His action is that of a murderer - for one thing must have been clear: the man with the camera was not a native of Myanmar, nor a participant in the unrest. He was clearly a journalistic observer - for extraordinarily few native Burmese could possibly afford a camera. The soldier shot dead a man he knew to be a journalist. The question is why? Are soldiers on the ground in Myanmar under instruction to kill journalists, as witnesses to their repression of the population? I hope not - but if so, then all the more reason for the world to take a good look at Myanmar.

My condolences to the family of Kenji Nagai, Japanese videojournalist - and, undoubtedly, a hero to the last minute.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)