Over here in the peaceful Malaysia, free from the volcano rings and twisters of Asia, the closest we ever came to a real natural disaster was the Asian Tsunami where the hardest hit places were mainly up north, which claimed 68 lives.

Of course, those figures paled in comparison to victims of “man-made disasters” such as rapes, snatch thieves, car-hijacking, murders (using C4 explosives and whatnot), but that’s not my topic for today.

Now, let’s fast forward and zoom in on the present day Myanmar. A cyclone named “Nargis” with the speed of 150 miles has just hit the country last Friday, mainly in the eastward area of the Irrawaddy rice-growing delta. For your reference, that’s like driving 240 kilometres per hour on the road, about twice the legal speed limit of an average highway road user in Malaysia.

But a military official in the delta township of Labutta estimated 80,000 dead there alone, and many families there told an AFP reporter most of their relatives had been killed.

“Houses collapsed, buildings collapsed, and people were swept away,” one man said. “I only survived by hanging on to a big tree.”

Around 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles) remain underwater, and more than a million homeless need emergency relief, a UN spokesman said.

Source: AFP: Grim fight for survival after Myanmar cyclone

The direct impact of the cyclone has left uncountable deaths. The cyclone’s aftermath could easily double or triple the figures, since you have to deal with starving vicims, contaminated waters, spreading diseases from unattended corpses. Not unlike the recent 2004 Asian Tsunami.

Compared to the tsunami, this cyclone couldn’t have chosen a better country to strike. The mobilization of assistance from various countries is already a hard enough, with volunteers speaking different langugages and practicing different emergency protocols. An obvious operational and executional challenge. And we have the juntas making relief efforts difficult for these victims.

The military leaders of Myanmar seized a shipment of United Nations food aid on Friday intended for victims of a devastating cyclone, declaring that they would accept donations of food and medicine but not the foreign aid workers international groups say are in equally short supply there.

The ruling junta continued to permit a small number of aid deliveries and promised to allow the first air shipment from the Pentagon on Monday, a significant concession because the United States has been Myanmar?? leading critic, imposing sanctions and lobbying for a United Nations resolution condemning the nation?? generals for human rights violations.

But the refusal of the country?? iron-fisted rulers to allow doctors and disaster relief experts to enter in large numbers contributed to the growing concern that starvation and epidemic diseases could end up killing people on the same scale as the winds, waves and flooding that destroyed villages across a wide swath of coastal Myanmar nearly a week ago.

The International Red Cross estimated Friday that the combined efforts of relief agencies and the Myanmar government have distributed aid to only 220,000 of up to 1.9 million people left homeless, injured or subject to disease and hunger after the storm.

??here are problems to get the aid inside, and there are problems to get the aid out to the delta area,?? the Danish Red Cross director, Anders Ladekarl, told Danish broadcaster DR. ??e are simply lacking transportation. There are almost no boats and no helicopters. This is really a nightmare to make this operation run.??

As foreign aid groups scurried to deliver relief, the generals who run Myanmar continued to focus on a separate priority: a constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday.

The junta?? plan to go ahead with the vote while restricting aid deliveries drew widespread criticism and concern that soldiers who could be rescuing survivors were likely to be sent to polling places instead.

??t is one of the best examples of the disregard for the people by the military,?? said Josef Silverstein an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University.

Fourteen years in the making, the Constitution is formulated to keep power in the hands of military officers, even if they change to civilian clothes. It would guarantee the military 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and control of crucial cabinet posts, along with the right to suspend democratic freedoms at any time.

But while the state-run newspaper urged people on Friday to approve the Constitution, little help was reaching them. To date, Myanmar has allowed 11 airborne deliveries of aid, which experts say is a fraction of the relief needed if the scale of the disaster is even close to what the Burmese government has claimed. Much of that has come from the United Nations World Food Program, which said Friday that the aid it had delivered ??and intended to distribute to hard-hit regions along the coast ??had been seized.

??ll the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated,?? said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program in Bangkok.

After initially saying it would halt deliveries, the agency said later Friday that flights would continue Saturday while the issue is worked out. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the Myanmar authorities to let aid into the country ??ithout hindrance?? and said the effect of further delay could be ??ruly catastrophic.??

His spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said Mr. Ban had been trying for two days without success to get in touch by telephone with Than Shwe, the junta?? senior general. ??e have been told that the phone lines are down,?? she said.

Myanmar?? military junta said in a statement on Friday that it was willing to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would distribute supplies itself rather than allowing in relief workers. Aid agencies want to coordinate and control their own aid.

Already Myanmar has turned away one fully loaded flight because the supplies were accompanied by disaster experts and press.

??yanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,?? a Foreign Ministry statement said. ??ut at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources.??

Even so, some agencies and nations were delivering supplies successfully. India sent two ships loaded with relief supplies, and the United Nations Children?? Fund said it was not meeting problems with its deliveries of aid.

A spokesman for Unicef, Christopher de Bono, said in an e-mail message that millions of water purification tablets had been delivered Thursday, and that although customs clearance could take two days, ??s far as we know there has been no indication of any problems so far.??

Via New York Times

And report from Irrawaddy.org says that UN has stopped all aid shipments…

The UN announced on Friday that it has suspended all aid shipments to Burma, following the junta?? seizure of all food and equipment of the World Food Program (WFP).

WFP officials said they have ??o choice?? but to suspend their aid efforts following the unprecedented seizure by the secretive military government.

The flag of World Food Program (WFP) is seen at the Asia Emergency Response Facility warehouse in Phnom Penh. The facility has offered mobile houses, generators and other emergency equipment to Burma. (Photo: Reuters)

As a humanitarian disaster grows in the Irrawaddy delta, the junta has drawn worldwide criticism for its foot-dragging in allowing humanitarian aid to reach the survivors of the cyclone that wracked the country last week.

Well-dressed Burmese army officers and soldiers were doing photo-ops on state media on Friday, shown delivering some basic relief items such as food and water to cyclone victims in a superior, condescending manner.

Meanwhile, perhaps as many as 1.5 million people in the affected areas are hopeless and helpless.

The junta and the UN have been in a standoff for the past several days with the UN and other groups wanting quick access and the junta adamant that it wanted relief but no foreign aid workers on Burmese soil.

A man looks at the damage in hard-hit Twantay township in southern Burma on Friday. The UN blasted Burma’s military government Friday, saying its refusal to let in foreign aid workers to help victims was ‘unprecedented’ in the history of humanitarian work. (Photo: AP)

In the wake of devastating Cyclone Nargis, the humanitarian situation in Burma is growing and there?? a real danger that an even worse humanitarian tragedy might unfold if urgently needed water, food and medicine isn?? distributed quickly, the United Nations said in a press release on Friday.

The junta?? mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, said on Friday that it will accept relief supplies, but no foreign aid workers or rescue teams. The top generals in Naypyidaw have accepted aid mainly from countries that are not critical of the regime.

The junta first accepted aid from Thailand, India and China. They also accepted aid from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Observers said that the distribution system by the junta is poorly managed and largely ineffective.

While Snr-Gen Than Shwe and the top generals selectively pick and choose what aid to accept from foreign nations, they are stalling on issuing visas to the UN and other international aid workers.

Sometimes, you have to agree that too much politics, power can really drive you nuts. What is wrong with these juntas? Do they realize that their fellow countrymen is dying by the seconds, and here there are filtering organisations by their political stands. Hello, these are aid relief organisation, not army batallions. What has their country of origin got to do with sending food and essential items that could save the lives of your fellow countrymen?

Makes me wonder how come these generals are not carried away with the cyclone…

Anyway, back to the issue and reality, if you are a Malaysian like me, here’s how you can help out:

Here’s a list of the most wanted items.

o Tents
o Platstic sheets, bricks and zinc roofing sheets
o Household nails
o Medicine
o Instant food
o Clothes and blankets
o Communication equipment

Source – http://www.reliefweb.int (Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Grant McCool)

1) Write cheques payable to “Mercy Malaysia”. At the back of the cheque, Write “Myanmar Relief Fund”, your full name and mailing address so that receipts can be issued. Cheques can be dropped or sent to the following address:

Myanmar Relief Fund
Star Publications (M) Bhd
Menara Star
15, Jalan 16/11
Petaling Jaya 46350
Selangor Malaysia

For inquiries, call: 603-79671388 ext 1121.

2) Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia (presently collecting funds only)
Donation may be sent by post to Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia, 123, Jalan Berhala, 50470, Kuala Lumpur. Donors are advised to make all contribution by cheque only made payable to “Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia.” Please write “Myanmar” behind the cheque.

3) Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia (presently collecting funds only)
All cheques are to be payable to “Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia”. Please indicate “Myanmar Relief Fund” at back of the cheques. Donors may bank in the cheques to YBAM Public Bank account: 3063802219 and send the bank in slip for our record at YBAM Secretariat, 9, Jalan SS25/24, Taman Mayang 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

4) Subang Jaya Buddhist Association (collecting funds & material)
Lot PT 12593, Jalan Kewajipan, SS 13, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor D.E.
Please donate dry foodstuff (noodles, biscuits, etc), canned food, mineral water, medicine etc. at SJBA for us to send to Myanmar. Cash donation is also welcome.(Tel: 03-56315299, e-mail: sjba@streamyx.com)

5) Siri Jayanti Association , Sri Lanka Buddhist Temple, (collecting funds & material)
Ven. Saranankara Nayaka Maha Thero says that if sufficient amount of items can be collected to fill a container, then it will be personally sent to Myanmar. Otherwise, the collection will be consolidated with items from SJBA to be forwarded to Myanmar.

Meanwhile Tzu Chi Malaysia said that nine of their relief workers are planning to leave for Myanmar this Saturday for ground assessment. If successful, this will be the first batch of Tzu Chi team to make it into Myanmar.

Members of the public who wish to make donations to Tzu Chi are advised to bank in directly into their account:

International Disaster Relief Fund
MBB A/C: 004067500119

6) Online Donation: http://www.brelief.org/cyclone/cyclone_relief.html

7) Online Donation: http://www.journeyswithinourcommunity.org/

Transparency International last year ranked Myanmar as the most corrupt nation in the world along with Somalia. This could also be one of tne reason why assistance from the outside world finds it hard to reach the rural part of the country, where the damage is most seriously done.

Yup, I would like to remind all fellow Malaysian not to take our rights and state of peace for granted. At the same time we are grateful to be spared of such natural disasters, we should also never get too comfortable with what we have now.

It’s our rights to have a better Malaysia, for every single rakyat.

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