.
MILITARY DICTATORS STILL STEALING FOOD
WHAT LITTLE THEY ALLOW IN, ANYWAY
ASEAN Nations Do Nothing; The West is Impotent; China Is Willfully Blind
"Let Them Eat Frogs"
It's been over a month now since Cyclone Nargis swept across much of Burma. Initial reports said tens of thousands of lives had been lost. Now it's hundreds of thousands. Not because of cruel Nature; because of far more cruel Mankind.
The corrupt, incompetent, brutal, repressive, violent, psychotic leaders of this Southeast Asian nation have managed to keep out millions of dollars, tons of food, clothing, housing & medical supplies, plus aid workers from just across their own borders and around the world, all while their people are dying en masse.
.
.
The talk-shop at the UN keeps yapping, but does nothing. They value the concept of sovereignty more than the lives of the millions of people entrusted to their care. "Geo-politics," as always, takes precedence over actual, miserable reality. Yes, the UN has the means to end the suffering. Yes, they have the money, the equipment, the skills to kick the door in and end the suffering in Myanmar today. But if they could do that to the Burmese Junta, why couldn't they do it to the Chinese Junta, who send children into unsafe school buildings, and then leave them there to die in an earthquake? Or the resurgent crypto-communist thugs in Russia, still slaughtering Chechens and other ethnic minorities? Or the mass-murderers in the United States, who have wiped out over a hundred thousand Iraqi's for absolutely no reason? None of these governments is legitimate. They steal and rig elections, stifle dissent, run roughshod over human rights. If you could change the regimes in Yangon, why not Beijing, Moscow or Washington? Well, that's why the UN does nothing. Because the UN is run by those regimes. That's "Sovereignty."
China did nothing when disaster struck their ally & neighbor. Then they got hit by an earthquake themselves. Schoolteachers in China hastened to save themselves without a care about their students, who died by the thousands. Can't expect much from them, in some other country's hour of need.
The U.S. and France took the opportunity of the Irrawaddy hurricane to threaten the Junta there. Apparently, they had neither the will nor the way to back up their threats, which only resulted in tighter closings of Myanmar's borders. Their mighty warships stood impotently off the coast, loaded with everything needed to save the sick and dying survivors of the disaster. Now, after four weeks of sabre-rattling and futile haggling, they are leaving. And the dying goes on, and on. Exposure first, then disease, and soon starvation, while the world watches. But sovereignty survives.
The UK, the former colonial power in Burma, tried quiet diplomacy, refusing to support the French & American efforts. That didn't work either. The Association of South East Asian Nations dithered on, jabbering about "Asian ways" and national sovereignty. Of course, most of them are good candidates for regime change, too, if it ever gets started. So nothing got done, the ASEAN way.
India & Japan, Pakistan & Australia, Egypt & South Africa, Brazil & Chile, Poland & Greece, Canada & Mexico, everyone tried to help. Everyone's help was rejected. The Generals want money, not help. Now they tell their own suffering people to go back to the ruins of their homes in the still-flooded areas, where dead human and animal bodies still rot, where there is no shelter, no food, no clean water, no medicine. "Eat the frogs," the Generals tell their people, "You don't need the foreigners chocolate bars!" The Generals provide no help at all, keeping donated supplies for the Army alone, doling out some as reward for loyalty to the Junta. Meanwhile, everyone else is dying. But no one does anything about it. No one in the world.
So, this sovereignty thing, which has allowed criminals and madmen to enslave and murder millions of their own people all around the world, throughout history, is it an idea whose time has come, and gone? Well, who is that up to? Do we live in a democracy? Or are we mere helpless subjects of these "sovereigns" who govern in our names? What are we going to do about this? What are you going to do about this?
.