Myanmar Cyclone 22,000 dead and rising.

This is not a political diary.  This is a humanitarian diary.    In this political day, I wanted to pause and think of all the people dead and displaced in this huge disaster.

It boggles the mind as to the extend of loss of life and heartbreak that these people face.  

22,000 are reported dead so far, since the cyclone hit on Saturday.  41,000 are still missing.  The loss of life is astounding with the potential to go much higher.

Almost all of the deaths occurred in the Irrawaddy river delta region, where more were killed by the tidal wave than the cyclone itself, Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told reporters in Rangoon."The wave was up to 12ft (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," he said. "They did not have anywhere to flee."

Some 95% of the homes in the city of Bogalay in the Irrawaddy delta were destroyed and most of its 190,000 residents are now homeless, he added.

As human beings we should all be thinking of the people suffering.  I sometimes think that we have lost our connectivness with other human beings in what is becoming more and more of a selfish world.  Events like these remind me that we are all indeed humans, no matter the color of our skin or which country we live in.  

I have donated $25 dollars to the link below.  I hope others do the same.
http://www.worldvision.org/...

•  Tip Jar...

  by GlowNZ on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:53:31 AM PDT

•  great cause, a great need

  as diaried here

  by voila on Tue May 06, 2008 at 09:55:00 AM PDT

•  doctors without borders has

  begun setting up emergency response. This is a remarkable organization, please donate if you can.

  MSF Response to Aid Myanmar Cyclone Victims

  www.doctorswithoutborders.org

  by tbird on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:02:40 AM PDT

•  Climate change is real and here and now ...

  ... when I first read Albert Bates' Climate in Crisis in the early 1990's it all seemed so distant and impossible.   We would end up warming the earth so much that huge natural disasters would become commonplace?  The polar ice caps would melt?  We would fight wars for water?  These kinds of warnings seemed outlandish and extreme.

  But now that terrible vision has been realized and we are seeing the manifestations.  If you have not yet seen The 11th Hour do so now.  It is a brilliantly produced wake-up call.  Wake up!

  It astounds me that the nation has not yet understood the gravity of the environmental challenges we face ... none of the candidates are discussing this issue at all.  I only hope that once in the White House, a real initiative is created ... we need to stop waging wars and begin to heal the earth instead.  

  by shakti on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:09:05 AM PDT

•  Satellite Images

  The storm closing in:

  http://www.aviationweek.com/...

  Before and after:

  http://english.aljazeera.net/...

  by HeartlandLiberal on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:12:59 AM PDT

•  Climate Crisis - the new official meme.

  According to Gore.

  Are we motivated yet, or do we still think that Other Things are more important?  (Like, say, petty hyperpartisan politics?)

  Fight Global Warming.  Fight Climate Crisis.  Or else.

  by Fabian on Tue May 06, 2008 at 10:19:18 AM PDT

•  In a lot of ways,

  this cyclone could be the best thing to happen to Burma. Of course, the loss of life is tragic, but the magnitude of this disaster has forced the repressive military junta to open up to NGOs. They've even let in people from the United States to places that they've closed access to from foreigners.

  Pray for the people of Burma.

  by dsharma23 on Tue May 06, 2008 at 11:12:43 AM PDT