UPDATE: 0870 60 60 900 is the DEC (MYANMAR) BURMA APPEAL. http://dec.org.uk
The initial estimate by the Burmese state was 351. They revised that by 10 x. Now Western diplomats are saying that Burmese officials are putting the figure at around 10,000.
“Utter war zone”
“It’s a bad situation. Almost all the houses are smashed. People are in a terrible situation.”
Read more Here.
I did a quick check of justgiving.co.uk - there is no charity doing anything. The Oxfam site is similarly devoid of any mention of Nargis. Christian Aid has labelled it as one of their 6 emergencies.. There is actually a Facebook group but it is not raising money.
6 Responses for "Cyclone Nargis - 10,000 victims and no charity appeals?"
1st Lady of US announced the help yesterday and UNICEF is about to go in too. UN has already provided some aid I believe.
Laura Bush used her intervention to rebuke the junta for their inadequate response. Burma has been constantly hauled over the coals by the US and quite rightly.
The agency you mention is a multi-lateral one. I just wondered whether local level charities were able to go in there at all and whether we could contribute. For any other place on this planet, with the exception of North Korea perhaps, that would have been the standard response. But Burma is different. I suspect members of the junta are a bit on the extra-planetary side.
Yes, that was also the thing that Ban Ki-moon said yesterday about local authorities not willing to co-operate and only agree to let in some of the help from UN. Clear stats are still unknown and there’s a lot that international audience is kept off from.
What’s strange about it, is the fact that in such a disastrous situation the government is planning the elections without a delay. The first democratic ones, they say. I guess, if there’s such a rush in it, it could be a way to get it done prior the international community is let in with the conditional economical aid to form a democrat government. Just to strengthen their backs.
No man - its a referendum on the draft constitution I believe. The junta have very kindly excluded everyone from drafting it and have been very good public servants and have done it all themselves! Not only that, they have made a bloody good job of it - its 194 pages long. And if you want to see what it says, again the junta has kindly made it available for purchase. And knowing the enquiring mind you have Ain, you must be wondering what the bottom line is in the document? Simple really - the junta want to keep being good public servants….and noone else need apply to take over because the junta will do it for everyone.
Something like that seemed most natural in that perspective. That is why the monks from there called everyone to saying No and spread their message even in Estonia…
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