BURMA CYCLONE

[nevets]

Will the Burma junta dig up all the money they have salted away over the last 50 years and spend it on the people affected by the cyclone ?. 10,000 may have died ( TIMES LONDON). Or will they take the money given by the disaster agencies.

[The understudy]

Hi there Nevets

A veery good question that the Times of London asked. I believe that the Junta will actually sspent a minescule part of the money for desaster relieve just do so much that no controversy show up in the International world. The rest of the money that's slated for long term for long term desaster relieve will dissapear into the coffers of the Junta.

Your's the Understudy

[nevets]

Thank you understudy, ill word it a different ,way the junta have made a lot of money from precious stones and oil and gas, that they have not put back in to the country and the people are in need of help.
And now they have a disaster on their hands 10000 could be dead, so will they take money from the rest of the world or spend their own.

[dtaai-maai]

so will they take money from the rest of the world or spend their own.

Word it how you like, nevets, the answer is still pretty obvious - yes and no.

The point the Understudy was making that most of the relief money they get won't be spent either - not on relief anyway.

[nevets]

dtaai maai , you and he are probably right unfortunately for the Burma people which is very sad.
May be someone has an other opinion on this.

[ozuncle]

An absolute disaster.
Minimum 10,000 killed.
100s of thousands homeless.
No electricity food or drinking water to most of Rangoon.
No mention of the number of injured, probably because there are no hospitals to take them to.
Western countries are mobilising to help as much as possible. One would hope that their major trading partner countries offer to help too.
The word is, that the junta run media didnt bother to advertise in time the fact that people should batten down and take care.

[nevets]

It is reported in one news paper that the junta do not care, and even going ahead with voting next weekend as its a good time to get the referendum through. This militery junta is small and has no real difence but the world powers do nothing because they have oil and gas and jems to bargain with.
"LEAVE US ALONE OR YOU CAN NOT HAVE THEM".

[The understudy]

Hallo there to Y'all!!!

Acording to german News Agencies The Jumta which has all the monopoly on TV and Radio Broadcasts have not gave out a severe storm warning to its People. They just found out aboot this Cyclone through VoA (Voice of America and RFA (Radio Free Asia). But the warnings came to late.
This shows that the Junta still doesn't care aboot its people. All that Jinta cares aboot is how to still hold an refferendum on a new Constitution.

H
you's The understudy

[redzonerocker]

it seems the death toll will be way higher than first thought,
just another failure of the burmese government.

thankfully, they have backed down from their original stance of not allowing outside help, albeit a bit late for some of the victims.

http://othernews.uk.myway.com/article// ... 158A0.html

[sandman67]

latest is 15,000 and rising.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7384858.stm

guess we should be thankful the mountains got in the way.....

[sandman67]

make that 22,000 and rising with 41,000 missing

http://www.axilltv.com/bkpost-2.php?newsid=320130

when this happens anywhere its bad, but Burma ..... the junta are dragging their feet about issuing visas to disaster relief teams. Madness.

seems China have stepped up with aid (surprise surprise as they prop the junta up).....

[huahinsimon]

the bad new is: Just heard the cyclone wipped out about 400,000 tons of rice,
M.mar will now have to import rice so stand by for more higher prices

the good news is: no olive trees were damaged

Si

[margaretcarnes]

Whether the Junta are willing to do anything or not seems irrelevant now. From what info is coming out theres simply no drinking water supplies or shelter over a huge area of the Irrawady delta. Rangoon is out of action and the capital moved to somewhere 400 k north. Some people estimate well over 45,000 deaths.
The Thai Visa forum has a lot of info and an eyewitness account.

[Chas]

Most disturbing, amid all this tragedy is the footnote that they are throwing dead bodies into the river, making a horrible situation even more horrible. The usual (and safest way) is cremation and in a Buddhist society, where cremating the dead is the norm, I wonder why they are not doing this.

I share the pessimism with regard to the military junta. They will reap big profits out of this. . .yet, in the back of my mind is the hope that the Burmese people may get so frustrated that they take this opportunity to somehow get rid of the junta.

[sandman67]

seems the junta had at least two days warning of Nargis and did nothing, not even warning the population it was coming:

India says it gave Burma cyclone warning two days in advance
By Deutsche Press Agentur
New Delhi - The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said it had given Burma 48 hours warning before cyclone Nargis smashed into the South-East Asian country claiming more than 22,500 lives.


The IMD had been monitoring the depression in the Bay of Bengal after it was first detected on April 26 and was issuing regular advisories to neighbouring Burma since then, cyclone director M Mahapatra said.

The IMD is a Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) which is mandated by the UN's World Meteorological Organization to issue cyclone warnings to Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman and Pakistan.

"The system had intensified into a cyclone on April 28. Forty-eight hours before it struck, we had informed about its landfall, movement and severity such as wind speed of 180 kilometres per hour, to the Burmaese authorities," Mahapatra said.

"We were more or less correct in our assessment and warnings. There was ample time to take precautionary measures to save lives," he added.

The Burma government has said that more than 22,500 people were killed after the cyclone slammed into the country on Saturday. Some 41,000 people remained missing in the aftermath of the storm, deemed the worst disaster to hit South-East Asia since the December 2004 tsunami.

The comments by the IMD come in the backdrop of US allegations that Burma's military regime failed to warn citizens of the cyclone.

"Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path," US Fist Lady Laura Bush had said on Monday referring to Burma by its former name of Burma.//dpa

The latest from BKK and New York is that the government still haven't issued visa waivers allowing disaster relief workers in, and comms are so bad even the Burmese embassy on NY is unable to get hold of someone in charge.....this would now put Burma on a par with N Korea as states who have significantly delayed the progress of international disaster relief teams.....utter bloody minded madness.