Myan-marred
Myanmar, Burma, or whatever you want to call the country, it is controlled by a military junta. That's why the country was unprepared to weather a storm that might have killed 10,000. Capitalist democracies defend themselves against the natural disasters that regularly arrive. Building codes, sewers, drainage, fire protection, insulation, sound engineering, it all adds up to an infrastructure that can withstand a lot of abuse. But countries run by thugs experience massive tragedies regularly. Why? Because they are either too busy ripping off the country to provide for public safety or they are simply too stupid. The thugs running Myanmar are probably a mix of both.
Cyclone Death Toll Could Hit 10,000
Posted: 2008-05-05 12:05:43
YANGON, Myanmar (May 5) -- Myanmar's foreign minister says the death toll from the cyclone that ripped through the country could reach 10,000.
An 'Utter War Zone'
The death toll from cyclone Nargis in Myanmar could hit 10,000, according to the country's foreign minister. A state radio station said 4,000 were killed another 3,000 left missing in one town.
Foreign diplomats said Foreign Minister Nyan Win acknowledged the possibility of the high casualty figure at a Monday briefing given to them and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies.State radio earlier reported that the official death toll from Saturday's Cyclone Nargis had risen to 3,939 from an original count of 351. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors, said the foreign minister acknowledged 59 deaths in the country's largest city of Yangon.Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut electricity in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.
The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital, Naypyitaw, said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor communications and roads left impassable by the storm.
"It's clear that we're dealing with a very serious situation. The full extent of the impact and needs will require an extensive on-the-ground assessment," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"What is clear at this point is that there are several hundred thousands of people in dire need of shelter and clean drinking water," Horsey said.
At a meeting with foreign diplomats and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies, Myanmar's foreign ministry officials said they welcomed international humanitarian assistance and urgently need roofing materials, plastic sheets and temporary tents, medicine, water purifying tablets, blankets and mosquito nets.
Neighboring Thailand announced that it would fly some aid in Tuesday.Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, and water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand.With his home destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to those left homeless.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10."It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday. Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box. Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120 mph winds.Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.Airlines announced Yangon's international airport had reopened, but public transport was almost at a standstill. Vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights.
Cyclone Death Toll Could Hit 10,000
Posted: 2008-05-05 12:05:43
YANGON, Myanmar (May 5) -- Myanmar's foreign minister says the death toll from the cyclone that ripped through the country could reach 10,000.
An 'Utter War Zone'
The death toll from cyclone Nargis in Myanmar could hit 10,000, according to the country's foreign minister. A state radio station said 4,000 were killed another 3,000 left missing in one town.
Foreign diplomats said Foreign Minister Nyan Win acknowledged the possibility of the high casualty figure at a Monday briefing given to them and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies.State radio earlier reported that the official death toll from Saturday's Cyclone Nargis had risen to 3,939 from an original count of 351. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors, said the foreign minister acknowledged 59 deaths in the country's largest city of Yangon.Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut electricity in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.
The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital, Naypyitaw, said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor communications and roads left impassable by the storm.
"It's clear that we're dealing with a very serious situation. The full extent of the impact and needs will require an extensive on-the-ground assessment," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"What is clear at this point is that there are several hundred thousands of people in dire need of shelter and clean drinking water," Horsey said.
At a meeting with foreign diplomats and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies, Myanmar's foreign ministry officials said they welcomed international humanitarian assistance and urgently need roofing materials, plastic sheets and temporary tents, medicine, water purifying tablets, blankets and mosquito nets.
Neighboring Thailand announced that it would fly some aid in Tuesday.Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, and water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand.With his home destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to those left homeless.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10."It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday. Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box. Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120 mph winds.Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.Airlines announced Yangon's international airport had reopened, but public transport was almost at a standstill. Vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights.
posted by no_slappz at 12:28 PM
5 Comments:
You work with a very dull knife.
You said-That's why the country was unprepared to weather a storm that may have killed 10,000. Capialist democracies defend themselves against natural disasters that regularly arrive.
Breaking News- New Orleans was not defended. The floods of the southern illinois and Missouri-no defense.
I said before i love how you use everyone elses writing to speak your piece but it is a by product of your limited reasoning ability. by sticking to an easy story your life becomes nothing more than a validation of what you beleive. Such as "Peak Oil". you defend absurdities which leads me to think there is angle to that . if i worked for a right wing think tank i would do the same thing.
I know you are not a person but you are an outdated ideology, a figment of a nightmare filled imagination. i bet your kids (if any of you have any) can't stand you. Wives-boyfriends too.
dbd,
As usual, you show your limited grasp of how things function. Even storms and storm preparations.
New Orleans, at least the segment that was most seriously damaged, is BELOW SEA LEVEL. Yet is has weathered serious hurricanes for a hundred years.
When Katrina hit and a barge smashed through one of the levees, severe damage followed and roughly 1,000 people died, many of them for foolish reasons and some for tragic reasons.
In other words, the death toll from Force 3 storms in the US is very low. Katrina would have inflicted the usual minimal damage if a barge had not smashed through a levee wall in the Lower Ninth Ward.
But you are among those who think that Louisiana, New Orleans and the Federal Government all went to sleep days before Katrina hit, resulting in the submersion of half the city.
The storm that hit Myanmar was also Force 3, yet it appears over 22,000 people are known dead.
What will the final death toll reach? Some say 50,000.
This idiocy happens in all countries with dictators who run nations with no public safety standards. Earthquakes like the two that hit California in the 1980s and 1990s killed a handful of people. When quakes of the same magnitude hit Iran or other well known quake regions, they kill 40,000, 50,000 people.
You can disagree with me at any time. But all your disagreements depend on your belief in fantasies and myths.
You write about subjects of which you have ZERO knowledge. As I've said, you have an obsession with events that occurred a century ago, and you believe they guide the minds of whites today.
You should check around. Your conslusions and projections are simply false.
Peak Oil is a good example of a topic about which you know nothing. However, you've soaked up the uninformed commentary by people who've crafted some stories that seem logical and believable.
Lowering oil prices is as simple as expanding drilling operations and building a couple of new refineries. But both are difficult and expensive due to POLITICAL opposition. NOt technological or operational limits.
Anyway, you base your arguments on emotion, not fact. That's a common problem with left-leaning people who have no comprehension of economics, finance and markets.
Holy Dumb Shit, Batman...This bears repeating.....
YANGON, Myanmar (May 5) -- Myanmar's foreign minister says the death toll from the cyclone that ripped through the country could reach 10,000.
An 'Utter War Zone'
The death toll from cyclone Nargis in Myanmar could hit 10,000, according to the country's foreign minister. A state radio station said 4,000 were killed another 3,000 left missing in one town.
Foreign diplomats said Foreign Minister Nyan Win acknowledged the possibility of the high casualty figure at a Monday briefing given to them and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies.State radio earlier reported that the official death toll from Saturday's Cyclone Nargis had risen to 3,939 from an original count of 351. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors, said the foreign minister acknowledged 59 deaths in the country's largest city of Yangon.Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut electricity in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.
The radio station broadcasting from the country's capital, Naypyitaw, said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country's low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor communications and roads left impassable by the storm.
"It's clear that we're dealing with a very serious situation. The full extent of the impact and needs will require an extensive on-the-ground assessment," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"What is clear at this point is that there are several hundred thousands of people in dire need of shelter and clean drinking water," Horsey said.
At a meeting with foreign diplomats and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies, Myanmar's foreign ministry officials said they welcomed international humanitarian assistance and urgently need roofing materials, plastic sheets and temporary tents, medicine, water purifying tablets, blankets and mosquito nets.
Neighboring Thailand announced that it would fly some aid in Tuesday.Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, and water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand.With his home destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to those left homeless.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10."It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday. Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box. Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120 mph winds.Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.Airlines announced Yangon's international airport had reopened, but public transport was almost at a standstill. Vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights.
Anyway, you base your arguments on emotion, not fact. That's a common problem with left-leaning people who have no comprehension of economics, finance and markets.
---posted by a man whose has no comprehension of writing an articulate sentence. Of course your arguements are well based on cut/paste, not fact. Who do you think you are kidding, anyway....if your comprehension of economics, finance and markets was so astute......you would be retired in Switzerland instead of sticking your head up your ass and writing about what you see
andrew,
Drop by any time. You seem to have a lot to say.
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