stupidity continues.

Conditions in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis are growing more desperate, according to sources inside the country. The official government news agency has raised the death toll sharply, saying 78,000 are dead and 56,000 missing. Other sources place those numbers even higher, however, with the Red Cross setting the death toll at 128,000 and British officials sayingit may already have surpassed 200,000.

An estimated 2.5 million people are struggling to survive in the delta, and heavy seasonal rains are hampering relief efforts. The military government still refuses to admit large-scale outside relief, and relief organizations believe the body count could still rise dramatically. Reports are filtering out of desperate survivors mobbing aid shipments.

Visas for relief workers are still hard to come by, says Jeff Palmer, BGR executive director, and humanitarian organizations are exploring informal networks for getting relief into the country.

"Our Oklahoma team in Bangkok is designing disaster response and water purification modules to train Burmese nationals who will be taking the information and skills back with them," Palmer said. "We have opened a number of ‘fronts' for funneling aid materials into the most needed areas."

Details about the informal channels into the country cannot be shared publically because of the danger they would be shut down as a result, Palmer added.

"We have some in-country, on-ground resources helping with initial relief efforts and feeding us information," he noted. "They are helping us make more contacts and establish other channels for more aid to go in."

xenophobia challenged!!!

"The people here are survivors and have taken the initiative to clean up on their own. A few food stores have begun to open but I hear shelves are beginning to empty. There are few materials to repair the damage and what is around has doubled and tripled in price. "




if there was one phrase to describe the situation in burma today, it might be "xenophobia challenged". as the oppressed asian country sits with estimates between 50-100,000 dead and over 1 1/2 million "severly affected" by the disaster, somehow the government is still taking it's time to decide if foreign aid is necessary from all willing countries. the cyclone hit and devastated parts of this country on saturday and still a week later the problem hasn't been seen by foreign eyes. yes, pictures and videos can be found on google, youtube, and bbc news--but article after article lists the same common problems. aid workers aren't being granted visas. and meanwhile, people continue to die in burma.

"100 year old trees came crashing down." "our journalists are hiding in rice paddies, trying to cover this story. the myanmar government won't allow us to be here."


the facts tell us the following information:
*121 mile per hour winds roared through the city and irrawady delta
*thousands of people are dead, but not from this wind power. the deaths accumulated through a tidal surge that drove inland from the sea.
*the junta government has done very little to assist in clean-up and allocating of resources. most of the work being done to clear the debris is by monks and burmese people.
*relief planes are being flown and i refused entry to the country, having to turn around and go back to their home.
*there is widespread flooding, allowing no access to remote areas where the damage and death is the highest. roads are too impassable.

the internet reports that the aid of certain asian countries has been warmly received. china and india have gotten aid in. banglades sent 35 metric tons of high energy biscuits (= to 1/2 million biscuits), 7 tons of clothes, 3 tons of noodles, 1 ton of dry potatoes, 1 ton of water purifying tablets. laos apparently sent $20,000 US dollars ( i found that funny! ). Thailand, SIngapore, the list goes on and on.
and as laura bush and condoleeza rice slam the burmese government for failing to open it's doors to US aid, the junta stands on the other side of those doors, closing them more and more. as an american citizen i find the international relation tactics of our leaders to resemble a 2nd grader fighting with a classmate rather than a strategic, mature plan of action. our country, with the most aid and assistance to give, is making the distribution of that aid impossible.

meanwhile, volunteers like my friend ME (name not disclosed to protect her identity) are going 90 miles a minute to repair homes, factories, and structures destroyed by the cyclone. ME happened to be the manufacturer of very handy water purification pots made from the reddened clay of burmese soil. her other endeavors include scabies and lice soap, also useful after a flood. although her factory was destroyed in the city of yangon, she has her mind set on rebuilding in within the next few months and distributing these pots to families and villages, hoping to save a few lives. she also hopes to establish other factories in remote areas of myanmar so that this message of love and help comes to those the furthest away from the source.
(TO SEND SUPPORT DIRECTLY TO ME, CONTACT (800)999-3113, OR EMAIL WORLDHUNGER@IMB.ORG AND ASK HOW YOU CAN DONATE TO HER WORK. ALL YOU GOTTA SAY IS SHE WORKS IN MYANMAR AND SHE'S WITH THE IMB. THEY'LL BE HAPPY TO FIGURE IT ALL OUT FOR YOU).

another cool idea is giving to world vision. as of thursday, they were granted permission by the myanmar government to enter the country w. extra humaintarian help.


so...what will you do now? will you go back to your life, home, kids, work, and allow this information to blow in one eye and out the other, or will you act. cause here's the p.s. on my letter: the India Meterological Department (IMD) is recognized by the World Meterological Organization (WMO) as the regional specialized meterological centre. they are required to send out specific advisiories to all south east asian countries about storms such as this. and one of these was sent to myanmar, describing the location, severity, and movement of the storm.
the government did nothing with the information. AKA--the myanmar people had NO IDEA that cyclone nargis even existed, much less that it was heading for their doorsteps.

how would you feel if this happened to you??? what would you do???
to be honest, i'd be angry, hurt, sad, afraid, cold, wet, hungry, confused. but those things wouldn't really matter cause no one has time to care about how i feel. all we'd have time for is action. soooo, that's what i'm calling you to:

ACTION!!!!!


so, go and take action! hold hands with myanmar. believe you can make a difference. as peter said, "finally, ALL OF YOU, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble."

thanks for reading. i send this out of love for you and for god and for myanmar. excuse my drama! it's how my mind works :)

ashley!!!

i got all my info from the following websites:
New York Times: "A Challenge Getting Relief to Myanmar's Remote Areas." 7 May 2008.
*BBC: "Will Burma's leaders let aid in?" 6 May 2008.
*India's Economic Times: Indian meteorological department advised junta 48 hours in advance , 6 May 2008.
*BBC: "Disaster tests Burma's junta." 5 May 2008
*Times Online: "Aid workers fear Burma cyclone deaths will top 50,000." 6 May 2008.

the land of oz.

the emblem of/the land i love/ is changing from a temple to a tragedy.

the country of myanmar, formerly burma, where i lived for nearly one year, is seeing devastation of all kinds. "the saffron revolution" which occured late last year showed us that what we thought we understood about this country was beginning to change...that the untouchable, venerable monks in robes who lined the city streets and provided the people with wisdom of the buddha were no more immune to the corruption of burma's brutal military regime. day after day monks were taken from their hostels and forced into the most excruciating of circumstances..being starved and beaten, and some even killed. that core commitment to buddhism that these men had began to wane, and their commitment to their country quickly died. injustice was rampant.
for years the people of this country have been denied their basic liberties, their basic "rights" as we call them in the west. democracy loomed on the horizon for half a century but still seems so far off. what damage this has done to the soul of this nation will only be seen in time.

but last week, tragedy of a new kind entered the area. natural disaster whirled, slammed, and pounded through the country. with a death toll rising by the day, no clean water to treat the injured or revive the thirsty, and no electricity to insure some means of communication or survival, the people face ever-increasing challenges. pictures haunt the internet of children needing hospital treatment, communities needing comfort and sustenance, chaos reigning again in the city streets. this chaos seems to be a more frequent presence in the lives of myanmar's people.

once a country sunk into the recesses of our world's mind, myanmar is now surfacing into our consciousness. and a government that never seemed to care for it's people is now saying it needs help to sort this problem out. this is a HUGE defeat of satan's army. as the doors to this nation begin to creep open, pray god floods in with power. i know this is our chance to make him known in one of the world's darkest corners.

do anything you can to help this situation. pray. give. send people. don't let yourself remain untouched by this reality. although it is not yours, it is someone's. and as god's people we are called to action.


for pics and other stuf go to --http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354088,00.html