Burma Death Toll estimated at 22,000
polaris
Posts: 3,527
so many topics all filtering into one small country
here we see how the poorest countries are affected most by severe weather (whether you want to say this is climate change or not) - this is an example of how an increase in extreme weather events will play itself out especially in low-lying coastal countries ... also, the Junta's response of finally accepting help is a measure of the devastation as they did not want any during the tsunami ... the military is not doing nearly enough to help with the clean up and fixing roads to help the affected ... how long will this Junta last?
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http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/421877
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar state radio says the death toll from last weekend cyclone soared above 22,000. A broadcast on the government-run station says 22,464 people are now confirmed dead in cyclone Nargis.
Thousands more are missing.
The hurricane tore through the country's heartland and biggest city of Yangon early Saturday.
Relief efforts for the stricken area, mostly in the low-lying Irrawaddy River delta, have been difficult, in large part because of the destruction of roads and communications.
The first assistance from abroad arrived today from neighbouring Thailand. Canada has said it is setting aside up to $2 million in humanitarian assistance for storm victims.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, state radio reported that the government was delaying a constitutional referendum in areas hit hardest.
Myanmar's Information Minister Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Hsan confirmed at a news conference that some 4,000 people had died in Yangon and the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region. He added that another 10,000 people could be dead in the delta.
Kyaw said tidal waves killed most of the victims in that region.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win was quoted by state-run television as saying that more than 10,000 people had perished in Irrawaddy while a smaller number died in and around Yangon, the country's largest city.
"News and data are still being collected, so there may be many more casualties," he said.
It was not known why the two ministers presented different death tolls.
The World Food Program, which was preparing to fly in food, added its own grim assessment of the destruction: Up to one million people may be homeless, some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out.
A state television report gave two different numbers – 59 and 130 – for the dead in what is known as Yangon division. It did not explain the differing tolls.
The country's ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, urgently appealed for foreign aid at a meeting Nyan Win held with diplomats Monday in Yangon.
Ottawa pledged $2 million in humanitarian aid on Monday and called on the Burmese authorities "to provide full and unhindered access to humanitarian organizations to allow them to assist with the relief efforts."
The UN's emergency relief co-ordinator said Tuesday the government had indicated it was ready to start accepting international aid. The UN, Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing supplies in preparation for shipping them to the country.
Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.
A military transport plane flew from Bangkok to Yangon Tuesday with emergency aid from Thailand while a number of other countries and organizations said they were prepared to follow.
Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid, said Yangon's airport is the closest to the region hardest hit.
"For those places accessible by land, there will be cars and trucks from those areas to meet at the halfway point with vehicles from Yangon," he said. "For remote areas, assessment teams and assistance teams will need to go by helicopters and boats."
The delta is riddled with waterways but Horsey said they are not easily accessible, even during normal times.
Based on a satellite map made available by the United Nations, the storm's damage was concentrated over about a 30,000-square-kilometre area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines – less than five per cent of the country.
But the affected region is home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people.
Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.
"More or less all the landlines are down and it's extremely difficult to get information from cyclone-affected areas. But from the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," said Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, in a statement.
State radio reported Saturday's vote on a draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 townships around Yangon and seven in the Irrawaddy delta, which bore the brunt of the killer storm.
It indicated that in other areas the balloting would proceed as scheduled.
The appeal for assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of the international organizations and have closely controlled their activities.
Foreign governments were poised Tuesday to rush aid to the devastated nation.
The United States, which has slapped economic sanctions on the country, said it likewise stood ready. The U.S. Embassy is providing $250,000 in immediate aid from existing emergency fund. But first lady Laura Bush said Monday the U.S. would provide further aid only if one of its own disaster teams is allowed into the country.
The European Commission was providing $3 million in humanitarian aid while the president of neighbouring China, Hu Jintao, promised $1 million in cash and supplies.
The government had apparently taken few efforts to prepare for the storm, which came bearing down on the country from the Bay of Bengal late Friday. Weather warnings broadcast on television would have been largely useless for the worst-hit rural areas where electricity supply is spotty and television a rarity.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
here we see how the poorest countries are affected most by severe weather (whether you want to say this is climate change or not) - this is an example of how an increase in extreme weather events will play itself out especially in low-lying coastal countries ... also, the Junta's response of finally accepting help is a measure of the devastation as they did not want any during the tsunami ... the military is not doing nearly enough to help with the clean up and fixing roads to help the affected ... how long will this Junta last?
*************************
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/421877
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar state radio says the death toll from last weekend cyclone soared above 22,000. A broadcast on the government-run station says 22,464 people are now confirmed dead in cyclone Nargis.
Thousands more are missing.
The hurricane tore through the country's heartland and biggest city of Yangon early Saturday.
Relief efforts for the stricken area, mostly in the low-lying Irrawaddy River delta, have been difficult, in large part because of the destruction of roads and communications.
The first assistance from abroad arrived today from neighbouring Thailand. Canada has said it is setting aside up to $2 million in humanitarian assistance for storm victims.
In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, state radio reported that the government was delaying a constitutional referendum in areas hit hardest.
Myanmar's Information Minister Maj.-Gen. Kyaw Hsan confirmed at a news conference that some 4,000 people had died in Yangon and the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region. He added that another 10,000 people could be dead in the delta.
Kyaw said tidal waves killed most of the victims in that region.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win was quoted by state-run television as saying that more than 10,000 people had perished in Irrawaddy while a smaller number died in and around Yangon, the country's largest city.
"News and data are still being collected, so there may be many more casualties," he said.
It was not known why the two ministers presented different death tolls.
The World Food Program, which was preparing to fly in food, added its own grim assessment of the destruction: Up to one million people may be homeless, some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out.
A state television report gave two different numbers – 59 and 130 – for the dead in what is known as Yangon division. It did not explain the differing tolls.
The country's ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, urgently appealed for foreign aid at a meeting Nyan Win held with diplomats Monday in Yangon.
Ottawa pledged $2 million in humanitarian aid on Monday and called on the Burmese authorities "to provide full and unhindered access to humanitarian organizations to allow them to assist with the relief efforts."
The UN's emergency relief co-ordinator said Tuesday the government had indicated it was ready to start accepting international aid. The UN, Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing supplies in preparation for shipping them to the country.
Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.
A military transport plane flew from Bangkok to Yangon Tuesday with emergency aid from Thailand while a number of other countries and organizations said they were prepared to follow.
Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aid, said Yangon's airport is the closest to the region hardest hit.
"For those places accessible by land, there will be cars and trucks from those areas to meet at the halfway point with vehicles from Yangon," he said. "For remote areas, assessment teams and assistance teams will need to go by helicopters and boats."
The delta is riddled with waterways but Horsey said they are not easily accessible, even during normal times.
Based on a satellite map made available by the United Nations, the storm's damage was concentrated over about a 30,000-square-kilometre area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines – less than five per cent of the country.
But the affected region is home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people.
Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.
"More or less all the landlines are down and it's extremely difficult to get information from cyclone-affected areas. But from the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," said Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, in a statement.
State radio reported Saturday's vote on a draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 townships around Yangon and seven in the Irrawaddy delta, which bore the brunt of the killer storm.
It indicated that in other areas the balloting would proceed as scheduled.
The appeal for assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of the international organizations and have closely controlled their activities.
Foreign governments were poised Tuesday to rush aid to the devastated nation.
The United States, which has slapped economic sanctions on the country, said it likewise stood ready. The U.S. Embassy is providing $250,000 in immediate aid from existing emergency fund. But first lady Laura Bush said Monday the U.S. would provide further aid only if one of its own disaster teams is allowed into the country.
The European Commission was providing $3 million in humanitarian aid while the president of neighbouring China, Hu Jintao, promised $1 million in cash and supplies.
The government had apparently taken few efforts to prepare for the storm, which came bearing down on the country from the Bay of Bengal late Friday. Weather warnings broadcast on television would have been largely useless for the worst-hit rural areas where electricity supply is spotty and television a rarity.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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very true although modern day socialism isn't ruled by military force ... this is a military dictatorship ...
Ah yes, this isn't "modern day socialism". They must have a weird time machine over there. My mistake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar#Government_and_politics
it's a military dictatorship - not socialism ... definitely not the kind we talk about here in discussing issues such as gov't and healthcare ...
Burma is in many ways the kind of socialism you talk about here. Burma currently has a mixed economy, just like many advocate for here (they even have "free" healthcare). The primary difference is that they have had 40 years of heavy-handed socialism that turned one of the most prosperous nations in Asia into the poorest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Burma
the same people who advocate for socialist principles here also advocate for human rights ... burma is an example of elitist rule that coincides more with free economies where the select few harbour most of the wealth while the majority reap very little benefits ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Economy
Sometimes, yes. Typically, however, they fail to see the fundamental contradictions between "socialist principles" and "human rights".
You mean "free economies" like Western economies, wherein even the most poor have it better than the average Burmese citizen?
You may certainly pick and choose your examples. Norway too has an economic structure similar to that advocated by many here. However, I'm a bit frightened that your "preferred" economic system largely hinges upon the value of a single commodity. You might as well have posted this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Venezuela
those contradictions are perceived differently ...
yes ... that's what i mean ...
venezuela has it's own scores of problems that some would say originated from the influence of western policies ... and now it has another problem ... in any case - i don't subscribe to venezuela's socialism nor china's ...
Regardless of "perception", contradictions cannot be turned into reality.
I certainly don't think you subscribe to Venezuela's or China's or Burma's socialism. Subscribing to socialism is a matter of subscribing to ends, not means. And why would anyone who believes in socialism subscribe to places where the ends are so poor?
Regardless of my views on socialism or yours, the fact of the matter here is that there are now tens of thousands dead and millions more affected in Burma because of a lack of technology and wealth. I suspect that we can all agree in hoping that these events bring about some changes that will better the conditions for the tens of millions of Burmese living in poverty in what once was and still can be a very prosperous nation.
absolutely ... especially for such a resource-rich country ...
It will always be Burma. Just because an oppressive government decided to change the name to erase any sense of history doesn't mean that the rest of the world has to comply.
Burma is still its recognized name. I've been trying to get people to call me Mr. Awesome for many years and it hasn't worked for me either.
Change your screen name and then we can all be calling you Mr. Awesome.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7386695.stm
"She says the Burmese authorities were well aware of the threat from Cyclone Nargis, but failed to issue a timely warning to those in the path of the storm.
India's meteorological agency, which monitors cyclones in the Indian Ocean, says it warned the Burmese authorities 48 hours before the storm struck.
The agency says it told Burma where the storm would hit land and how severe it was expected to be. "
The economy has polarized to the point where the wealthiest 10% now own 85% of the nation’s wealth. Never before have the bottom 90% been so highly indebted, so dependent on the wealthy.
Seems like the Burmese government is dragging it's feet in allowing rescue workers into their country at the expense of the poor Burmese people.
better to rule with a big heart then a heavy hand no?
Just another fine example of how the military junta over there really doesn't care about it's citizens. I wouldn't be suprised if they figured that by letting the population die en mass they can diminish the opposition to their rule.
nice discussion you've got going,...
im curious, what changes do you think are truly being made in relation to the tragedies [emphasis of pluralization] having occurred in New Orleans, where wealth and technology are certainly not lacking...??
to dust i guess,
forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
i'm not too sure their motivations ... i'm leaning towards their desire to maintain an absolute iron fist that they are screening aid for propaganda material that might overthrow their rule ... not sure ... but the results are still the same ... mass suffering
In terms of direct response? Very little. The response to Hurricane Katrina seems to mirror that of the response to Hurricane Betsy -- in other words, lots of stupidity.
However, the very nature of American life and modernization helped minimize, to some extent, the death toll of Katrina. The fact of the matter is that "only" 1,800 people died when a Category 3 storm hit a major population center existing below sea level here, whereas the actual death toll from Nigris in underdeveloped Burma is probably around 100,000 (and potentially higher). "Only" is in quotes above because 1,800 is still a significant loss of life in absolute terms, but not necessarily in relative terms (depends on which perspective you choose). The major contributing factor to those numbers being different here than in Burma, aside from the fundamentals of the storm and the population densities, is individual access to technologies for storm warning, storm preparedness, and storm avoidance.
When we look at Katrina, for example, we still find that the major contributing factors to the loss of life there are 1) poverty and 2) the eschewment of preventative technology. The same can be said for Nigris, except just to a much greater extent. The sad fact of the matter is that people in New Orleans, as opposed to Burma, had (and have) little excuse for not constructing better levies and having better plans in place for evacuation. Burma, because of the fact that its socialist government has completely raped and pillaged its once-strong economy, had little hope of avoiding this tragedy.
Regardless, the difference between having 100,000 die or 1,800 die or 0 die is not really measured by how quickly government runs in to "save" people. Those differences are largely measured by how easily people can save themselves, with the help of others of course. Even in the poorest areas of the US (of which New Orleans certainly was one), most people have a radio and have access to transportation to get them to safety and have homes that can withstand strong forces. This is why serious natural disasters have relatively small death tolls here, whereas even small hurricanes and earthquakes in developing nations can have staggering death tolls.
In other words, if one wishes to minimize deaths from natural disasters, the first question should always be: what capabilities do the individuals in question have and how are we standing in the way of those individuals acquiring the capabilities they need? The second question can then be: how do we as a society help support those capabilities? Katrina, relative to other disasters within the US, provides a fascinating case of what happens when the two questions get reversed. And the same can be said for disasters like this that happen in a resource-rich nation that is in the vice grip of an oppressive and economically corrupt regime.
well, it's hard to complain when you don't have anything to argue about.
psychologically it's tough to know which is more saddening: the deaths of thousands of foreigners because of a Natural disaster or the deaths of thousands of americans because of a Natural disaster.. and at the end of the day, industrialization has been under way for at least a hundred+ years, and yet these sorts of issues have yet to become prioritized in the mainstream political processes around the world. are persons too busy worrying about other people to realize that that the true issues of importance are how we live in relation to Nature and the physical realities of our environments; or do you really think corruption is to blame? and if not corruption, must we then describe such phenomena as social-immaturity..??
to dust i guess,
forgotten and absorbed into the earth below,..
Do you think the US gov't has anything to do with the current state of developing countries?
Corruption of thought, yes. And with that comes a denial of our environment, its benefits and risks to human survival, and the tools it provides us to protect our survival in the face of its worst. In the case of Burma, you have a state that, even today, subscribes to the worst kinds of economic ideologies. And even when such things are done with purest intentions, the devestation to a nation's people is nearly immesurable.
I certainly wouldn't argue if someone described it that way, noting importantly that "immaturity" implies the possibility of its opposite.
Absolutely! The US has done much to push some nations into developing status, elevate others out of that status, and everything in between. But if one thinks the US is solely responsible for any nation's status as "developing", one is largely fooling one's self.
Burma, for instance, was destroyed by a socialist faction within its own borders. If you wish to blame a foreign power for Burmese misery, the Soviet Union and China would be well ahead of the US on the list. And despite the influence and actions of those three nations in addition to others, Burma's current status has much more to do with internal threats than external influence.