Burma Cyclone Relief

[Agentm]

time to open the pockets up and tip in..

this one is getting bigger by the hour, and each hour a life needs our help..

do what you can, and consider contributing in some way..

hearing deaths of 250,000 is considered here!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/05/2236143.htm

 

[Julia]

It would be good to see Burma's own military getting in and doing something about helping their population and cleaning up the chaos. The government has still not agreed to allow aid organisations access to all the areas involved.
Last I heard they have refused aid from the USA.
Good to know the military junta cares so deeply for its people.

 

[numbercruncher]

"The United Nations is asking the Burmese government to open its doors. The Burmese government replies: 'Give us money, we'll distribute it'. We can't accept that," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told parliament.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23658581-952,00.html


Erm wouldnt asking for Food, Medicine ,tents etc be more appropriate ?

 

[Pronto]

Like the Tsunami disaster, Australians will give generously to Myanmar.

But I sometimes wonder how generous the recipients would be if the boot was ever on the other foot, and we needed help...

 

[numbercruncher]

Like the Tsunami disaster, Australians will give generously to Myanmar.

But I sometimes wonder how generous the recipients would be if the boot was ever on the other foot, and we needed help...

Maybe they would offer 20 million heavily armed soldiers to assist with the cleanup ?

 

[robert toms]

It would be good to see Burma's own military getting in and doing something about helping their population and cleaning up the chaos. The government has still not agreed to allow aid organisations access to all the areas involved.
Last I heard they have refused aid from the USA.
Good to know the military junta cares so deeply for its people.

I do not believe that the US aid was to be given in good faith ,with no strings attached.
I believe it had to be accompanied by military personnel.
The mind boggles...kidnap a few Burmese officials...shunt them off to Guantanamo ....torture them to see how much oil,if any, Burma had...and then attack Burma....just being fanciful.
However the Burmese obviously do not trust the US...and you cannot blame them for that!

 

[Superfly]

I do not believe that the US aid was to be given in good faith ,with no strings attached.
I believe it had to be accompanied by military personnel.

There is a US carrier group within two days sailing of Myanmar, and if you want any aid to get to people in need you will need transport of the helicopters that the US Navy will provide...

The mind boggles...kidnap a few Burmese officials...shunt them off to Guantanamo ....torture them to see how much oil,if any, Burma had...and then attack Burma....just being fanciful.
However the Burmese obviously do not trust the US...and you cannot blame them for that!

Anti-Americanism shinning through again, even when the only real hope for thousands of soon to be sick from lack of clean drinking water survivors is the US Navy, thats right RT, US Navy help....

China is such a great friend of this Monk murdering regime, would think that they would be all over this, more than the limited help offered so far....maybe the regime is more afraid of the Chinese on their soil than western powers... how many Guantanamos do the Chinese have hidden away RT....

 

[Superfly]

I do not believe that the US aid was to be given in good faith ,with no strings attached.

Good faith to who ?.. the kind locals of Burma who are in real trouble and President Bush is wanting to help.... or the murderous military regime..

I believe it had to be accompanied by military personnel.

Really, who do you think is going to fly the helicopters, drop food aid and give medical treatment... not the teenage soldiers of the Burmise regime...

The mind boggles...kidnap a few Burmese officials...shunt them off to Guantanamo ....torture them to see how much oil,if any, Burma had...and then attack Burma....just being fanciful.

Have you ever even been to Burma... its poor, real poor... try finding an ATM or a good hospital... this is another crime that China has its finger prints all over.

However the Burmese obviously do not trust the US...and you cannot blame them for that!

You are talking about the regime in control of Burma (some thanks to China), not the average Burmise, who would love to be able to live like the US backed Thai's do next door....
These poeple have no time for your anti-Americanism RT, they would love to live in the US backed west.. why dont you ( RT ) go and live in a non-western country and see how much you hate the US then....

 

[Julia]

I do not believe that the US aid was to be given in good faith ,with no strings attached.

Can you explain what strings are attached and how you know this?

I believe it had to be accompanied by military personnel.

Well, of course. Obviously can't depend on the Burmese military to unload the planes and distribute aid, not to mention flying the planes etc.
Heard an account on ABC Radio this evening where one load of aid which did get through was hampered by no forklift being available. The entire load had to be moved shoulder to shoulder by individuals. Whatever else you may say about the US military, they are highly organised.

However the Burmese obviously do not trust the US...and you cannot blame them for that!

So they prefer to allow their people to die?

 

[numbercruncher]

Maybe if the USA stopped providing so much aid and help to the world (via taking on more debt), people might appreciate them more ? They pretty much provide as much food aid to the world each year as everyone else combined.

 

[robert toms]

Julia,I am a great listener to overseas radio services,so that I get a view other than the guff that we are fed here in Australia.I think that 'strings attached" info came from German news services,very early in the piece.I doubt whether you will here anything like that from Australian news services.
Let their people die ? What the state of play is in Burma we would have to know more than we get from Australian news services,
I feel that in the collective SE Asian memories, is the lack of concern that the US showed for people in Laos,Cambodia and Vietnam....I am sure that you can see why US intentions,whether fair dinkum or not,are treated with suspicion.What is the real agenda?That is maybe what the Burmese are asking.
All of us are judged by our past actions.

 

[Superfly]

Julia,I am a great listener to overseas radio services,so that I get a view other than the guff that we are fed here in Australia.

That does not get you of the hook for the anti-American bull*hit that you tried to pedal..

I think that 'strings attached" info came from German news services,very early in the piece.I doubt whether you will here anything like that from Australian news services.
Let their people die ? What the state of play is in Burma we would have to know more than we get from Australian news services

Well I'm in SE Asia now, not far but far enough from were this is all being played out and it is as bad as what you hear, even the birds are trying to eat the food left waiting to be moved, dead bodies everywhere, hard to get food to people when everything is under water, or blocked by downed trees, also the military is mainly made up of a couple of tribes, who hate many other tribes and so help who they like....

I feel that in the collective SE Asian memories, is the lack of concern that the US showed for people in Laos,Cambodia and Vietnam

More b/s...
Trying to widen your arguement about the US... well out of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand which one has a better standard of living for the past 20 years... Thailand.. why.. because of the US...

....I am sure that you can see why US intentions,whether fair dinkum or not,are treated with suspicion.What is the real agenda?That is maybe what the Burmese are asking.
All of us are judged by our past actions.

Ask the Burmese !!! will say again... the starving Burmese mother and her children are not concerned with your anti US agenda RT, they would love to have food & water just to live now...

The government is nervous about ALL aid, not just the US as you are RT....

 

[numbercruncher]

Im wondering if RTs agenda is actually just Anti-Western ?

He claimed in the Anzac Day thread (of all places) that Aussie soldiers were running about skiting about how many Iraqis they had killed, citing a vanished newspaper article as evidence

 

[tigerboi]

I do not believe that the US aid was to be given in good faith ,with no strings attached.
I believe it had to be accompanied by military personnel.
The mind boggles...kidnap a few Burmese officials...shunt them off to Guantanamo ....torture them to see how much oil,if any, Burma had...and then attack Burma....just being fanciful.
However the Burmese obviously do not trust the US...and you cannot blame them for that!

Ah yep didnt take long for the anti USA stuff to start makes me wonder how many would put their hand up to defend this country if we where being attacked as was the case in ww 2...5th columnists at work everywhere...tb

 

[roland]

well, at 7PM I heard on the news the Burmese Govt decided to allow a US Military aid aircraft to come in, just now at 8:30PM they just announced in a news flash that the permission had been recinded.

 

[2020hindsight]

Ah yep didnt take long for the anti USA stuff to start makes me wonder how many would put their hand up to defend this country if we where being attacked as was the case in ww 2...5th columnists at work everywhere...tb

were you ever in the army tb?

 

[Julia]

Julia,I am a great listener to overseas radio services,so that I get a view other than the guff that we are fed here in Australia.I think that 'strings attached" info came from German news services,very early in the piece.I doubt whether you will here anything like that from Australian news services.
Let their people die ? What the state of play is in Burma we would have to know more than we get from Australian news services,
I feel that in the collective SE Asian memories, is the lack of concern that the US showed for people in Laos,Cambodia and Vietnam....I am sure that you can see why US intentions,whether fair dinkum or not,are treated with suspicion.What is the real agenda?That is maybe what the Burmese are asking.
All of us are judged by our past actions.

And I suppose all the photographs and television pictures are manufactured, not the real thing, just some old stuff recycled to fulfil the propaganda machine from the evil West?

And Tim Costello et al from World Vision, and the doctors from Medicine San Frontieres (?sp?) are all also part of the great Western spin?

And the military junta in Burma is a caring, sharing government whose only mission in life is the welfare of its people?

 

[Happy]

I think that UN should have mandate to step in fast during such times of crisis, but sit on hands for years soft spine organisation will probably miss the human tragedy alltogether, not the first time.

 

[Superfly]

Aid plane landed in Burma... all supplies seized by the military when unloaded.. now enough food to feed thousands of people sits on the tarmac...

 

[juw177]

Can you explain what strings are attached and how you know this?

I can't really say exactly but I do know Burma gets a lot of crap from the west:
-unfair sanctions (does the UN ever talk about Israel as a rogue state?)
-downright biased news coverage where the government is seen to do no right

This sort of stuff does not happen unless there is an interest in that country. You just need to look at all the puppet governments all over the world. What do they get in return for funding rebel groups in other countries? It is the same thing as when they send in "humanitarian aid" to tell people how to run their own homeland.

I believe the people that go and help are doing out of the goodness of their hearts but the organisation itself involves a lot of foreign policy politics and PR (often to defame the other country). I am highly skeptical of any organisation that rides into a country on a white horse to tell them they are morally superior. Why don't we see stories about how humanitarian aid not being able to help the thounsands dying in Iraq from the American occupation? But there are gorilla funds in Africa to protect gorillas from poaching by displacing native tribes.

I am all for helping the Burmese. But I can understand why their government is acting this way towards foreigners.