Never Give Up Hope
From time to time I think we all begin to take a cynical view of the world and see others as nothing more than opportunistic creatures bent on following their own self interests. It’s not a healthy attitude and one I attempt to avoid but I do admit succumbing to it on occasion. What brings me out of such a funk are stories like the one below.
While the Burmese junta drags its feet over whether or not to accept millions of dollars in aid people who already were living in a pit of poverty are starving and dying of disease in cyclone hit areas. Several reports suggest that the government is diverting for their own use much of the small amount of aid they’ve allowed to get into Burma. It would be easy to forgive your typical Burmese citizen unaffected by the tragedy to say a prayer or two for his fellow countrymen and go on with his normal oppressed life.
But many are not sitting back and waiting on the government. Many Burmese are taking things into their own hands and trying to provide food, supplies, and medical assistance at great personal cost. Even while their government sits back and coldly ignores the needs of its people regular Burmese have found themselves unable to do the same.
I recently read a similar story about the earthquake victims in China. Middle-class Chinese were using the power of the internet and SMS to organize and get into heavily impacted areas and provide aid and relief. The author of the piece suggested that this was a mixed blessing for the Chinese government because on one side it plays out well in the press that the average Chinese citizen is ready to lend a helping hand to his tragedy stricken brothers and sisters but on the other these people are quickly becoming very adept in coming together and organizing which is not something that makes a government that rules by force sleep soundly at night.
I’m not sure there’s a point to this post other than it made me feel good to read this article and know that even under the most difficult of circumstances there are people out there willing to take it upon themselves to come to the aid of others.
Burma’s citizens take up aid burden
By Andrew Jack in Rangoon
Published: May 26 2008 23:36 | Last updated: May 26 2008 23:36
While the world’s attention has been focused on the tussle between Burma’s military regime and the international aid agencies, ordinary citizens are taking up the task of providing relief to the regions worst affected by the cyclone that has already claimed 130,000 lives.
Resigned to the junta’s inability to safeguard its own citizens, a disparate network of individuals, businesses and religious groups are braving their own hardships to organise convoys of supplies, food and medicines to send to the Irrawaddy Delta.
Every day dozens of convoys leave Burma’s main city, ferrying supplies to the hundreds of thousands of victims. It is still meagre in comparison to demand, but in many villages beyond Rangoon and along the affected coastline private relief appeared to outnumber official aid operations.
Kyaw, a telecoms executive from Rangoon who trained as a doctor, is typical of those who have taken the initiative. For the past three weeks he has put aside thoughts of work and of the damage to his own home to oversee medical support.
Within two days of the cyclone at the start of this month, Kyaw tapped the skills and contacts acquired during his training as a doctor to help survivors. “I really wanted to help, so I gathered up my classmates and eight of us went down,” he says, as he oversees the despatch of boxes of plastic sheeting for shelter, packets of medicines and sacks full of rice, from his office in the centre of town.
His mind is now on preparing a fourth rotation of a dozen doctor friends to head into the most affected areas, where they stay for several days treating injuries including infections, dehydration and diarrhoea.
His story is far from isolated. Many within and outside the country have criticised the inability of the ruling military junta to cope in the aftermath of the cyclone, and have emphasised the significance of non-governmental organisations in co-ordinating relief efforts.
“The government is doing something, but it really isn’t sufficient,” says Zow, a freelance tour guide, who returned late last week from a trip with his friends to bring supplies by car and boat to Labutta in the centre of the Delta.
“Many of the people [we saw] were middle-class farmers. Now they have nothing, and they are living in dirty camps.”
Other volunteers have worked with local businesses, as well Buddhist, Christian and Muslim groups, some of which have established links to national and foreign aid organisations keen to help those who can reach the remoter areas.
But even these selfless efforts can encounter official hurdles. Some report having to bribe policemen or surrender goods to patrolling soldiers.
Many others with less specialist skills are helping out, making contributions despite their own meagre income and possessions. “None of my relatives are in the Delta, but I’m a human being. I could not just stay here and drink beer with my friends,” says Thin, a local man.
“The big towns have got enough food, but in the villages there are many who have not received anything.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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