A plea for Burma

I will be updating shortly about our recent travels to Paris, but right now, because it weighs heavily on my mind, I want to provide you with some information about the cylcone aid crisis in Burma. My friend Thelma posted a heart-wrenching piece today about the current situation on her blog and it deserves mass distribution. I'm not sure if I merely feel out of the loop here in Spain or if there actually is as little coverage and widespread outrage regarding this tragedy--devasation on the scale of the 2004 tsunami--as I sense there is. (Thelma and company are obviously outraged and doing everything humanly possible to lobby important decision-makers about this--brava).

For those of you who may not know, Burma (called Myanmar by the junta dictatorship) has been in rough shape for a while now because of its thwarted attempts at democracy and human rights repression. The stituation started to get more press coverage with the monks protesting in fall 2007. And now, not only has the island been hit with a massive cyclone, but the junta's cruel indifference--no, willful neglect--is exacerbating the people's suffering. As you can read on the U.S. Campaign for Burma's main Cyclone Nargis information page, hundreds of thousands or millions of people are now at risk for death by starvation and disease because the government won't sanction foreign aid.

Their estimates already show 100,000 dead, 220,000 missing, at least 1 million homeless and at least 2 million more in desperate need of help. "A natural disaster is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions in significant part because of the malign neglect of the regime," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

People and goverments need to take action on the scale they did after the December 2004 tsunami. But the trouble is not just donating, because supllies are already piling up. More vitally needed is the political willpower from the UN and the US to insist that food and medicine break through the military checkpoints. Thelma's organization has a handy-dandy list of ways you can help now. It includes:

1. Donate for Cyclone Relief

2. Host an event for the Global Day of Action, May 17th

3. Urge the UN to force Burma to accept aid

4. Pledge to Not Watch the Beijing Olympics

I don't know what else I can say, but here you have the information about what is happening and what action you can take within your sphere.