With the suggested death toll flirting with a six digit figure from a Cyclone that ravaged parts of that country, it becomes hard to not take notice of the problems in Burma. Burma’s junta has once again polarized itself from what is right and wrong even on a humanitarian level by delaying visas of the people that want to help. With each minute that help is being deliberately delayed by the junta, more people suffer needlessly. The delay has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with some fear the junta has. The before and after satellite photos tell of the true magnitude of this catastrophe. As the situation is continuing to unfold, what is said today could very well be different tomorrow.
In the very first post of this blog it was suggested that greedy and corrupt governments would be the first to fall if the food shortage became extreme. It appears the stage has been set to test that theory in Burma. Much of Burma’s rice belt was damaged thus reducing this crop to near zero. Compound that fact, Burma’s junta is hindering international disaster relief aid, and additional sanctions have just been applied by the USA. All of this spells of pushing the Burmese people over the edge. There are already reports of fighting for food and other most basic needs and that is just the reports that trickle out. It goes without saying the suffering and death toll will be significant in anyone’s book.
From the outside there is little anyone can do short of routing out the junta with a military attack. The answer must come from within Burma with the people uprising to reclaim their country from the junta.
As the knot of hunger grows in the stomachs of the Burmese people, their fear of government retaliation will become less and less until it becomes the lesser of two evils. When that happens they will face the bullets of the junta setting the stage for what promises to be things nightmares are made of. The question is what will the junta do. Will they realize that the people are being driven by hunger and simply will not stop, or will the answer be something else.
Countries that associate with the Burma’s junta will start to suffer guilt by association causing their people to look at them in another light. Thailand is one of those countries, however Thailand’s ruling party is full of convicted criminals and the rest are under investigation. China also has some ties with Burma and you can see how they act when it comes to Tibet. There are other counties too but you get the picture. It seems burma only want’s to associate with governments that see eye to eye with them.
It is too hard to predict what the eventual outcome will be of this still unfolding tragedy, however whatever happens it will not be very good. The junta’s mentality seems completely out of touch with the majority of the world as well as common sense. It suggest a great fear they have that they are only just holding on to control as shown by the extreme violence on protestors last year, or that of a trapped animal not seeing a way out. No matter how you look at it this evil junta seems to be starting to strangle itself.
