A woman drowned while giving birth, her dead child half-born

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Title – A woman drowned while giving birth, her dead child half-born
Source – The Times
Date – 11th May 2008

How appropriate this subject is to a travel safety and cultural awareness blog may be debated by some, but even if there was no link I would still feel compelled to write about it. If even one person reads it and is informed even slightly more than they were before it has been worth it and if even one pound more is donated to the Disasters Emergency Appeal (www.dec.org.uk) then it will be doubly worthwhile.

No one can be ignorant of the scale of the initial disaster in Burma, talk of 100,000 dead from the cyclone alone and many many more sentenced to death through the sheer criminal neglect of the Burmese ‘government’ and the weak response of the UN and other world ‘powers’. It seems no one has either the will or the authority to do anything about it.

The stories that are filtering through are horrific and more and more will trickle out over the next few weeks, months and years. The one which should haunt every one of us, is the very real possibility that if nothing changes and this time next year the predictions of Oxfam who yesterday said the death toll could potentially rise to 1.5 million will become a reality. That is a death toll twice that of the Rwandan genocide and about equivalent to the Khmer Rouge murderous regime of the 1970’s. Put another way it is the equivalent to the death of every man, woman and child in Birmingham and Liverpool combined; and we are talking about a slow death through suffering brought on by starvation, thirst and wholly preventable disease.

The cyclone that started this was a terrible natural disaster; it was exasperated by the lack of any credible warning by the Burmese government and by the poverty in which they have held Burmese citizens for nearly 50 years. The fact that more than a week later they are still refusing to let in aid to help their own people, is not just mind blowingly disgraceful, it is no better then them taking to the streets as they have done so many times before and shooting innocent people, but on a scale never before witnessed.

There can be no defence for what is happening, if they think the world is interested in invading their country they are wrong, besides we all know we are tied up in so many other conflicts around the world we hardly have troops left to carry out the odd ceremonial duty at home. Organisations like the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, Save the Children and so many other have proved their NGO status over and over, saving lives all over the world. There are few in the world who would not cheer at the juntas collapse, but that is for another time, now all that is important is the people, the people dying every day; the people who will die in greater numbers every hour that the Burmese military government procrastinates.

I have on this blog many times before debated the merits of tourism to Burma and have advised against it on the grounds that it supports the military government’s oppression of its own people and that stance has not changed. If any proof were needed that the Burmese people need our support and solidarity against their own regime, then the inaction of their own government when they need them most is the clearest indication yet that the average Burmese life is worth nothing to their generals. Now it is time for the world to stand up and demonstrate that every Burmese life is worth as much to us, as any other life anywhere in the world.

Now more then ever tourists should avoid Burma. Travelling to disaster areas, places a burden on local resources that many can not handle. Burma certainly can’t but they will direct any resources they have away from those who need it in order to take hard currency off tourists, please don’t be a party to such crimes.

If you want to donate to help the people of Burma then please visit www.DEC.org.uk. Your money will make a difference and save lives, it may take much longer than it should but the aid agencies are the only ones who will persist in trying to save the lives of the ordinary Burmese and they need your support.
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