100,000 DEAD in Myanmar!

OK, i held my tounge for a few days.

The Militeristic Goverment of Myanar has got to go.

They are apauling, and their actions do not shed any good light on the Chiniese, who are the biggest supporters of this Goverment.

The Goverment left those people to die, and MANY more are deing as a result because these people are not accepting aid from the West.

Our C-130s should be droping supplies on this area as soon as the Storm had left. Instead, most of the money, and supplies, will be taken by the goverment of Myanmar...

Other nations in the Region of this Cyclone gave warnings well in advance. Yet, the people of Burma got shafted by their Goverment.

The Handeling of this situation couldn't have been worse.

If i were in charge, i would be doing everything to help these people, and if thier goverment tried to stop us, our C-130's would be droping sommethign else besides releif aid.

Millions of people are living in hell in this region.

Usually I get pissed off when I see multiple topics on the same subject on the same board, but this is one of the few things I don't mind it with. So many people dead...this needs as much attention as it can get.

Oh it's getting plenty of attention:

Al Gore is using it to push his "climate change" agenda.

The US government is using it to push it's pro-Burma agenda (in a fortunate timely manner).

People are engaging in that useless, petty pissing contest about foreign aid donations. (Again.)

The delta that this occured on was a large rice growing area. The cost of rice is already increasing exponentially. Couple this fact with a heavy handed military junta and you're facing a possible famine. The long term effects of the cyclone could be felt for a very long time to come. I fear this well could turn into an even bigger disaster than the tsunami.

yeah.....why would good mother nature pick on good old burma, what have they done thats so bad, nothing.

its clear as day for crying out aloud, Bush pig has really done it now. He will pay for his crimes.

natural disaster my ass

Only 100k?

I doubt it,

Notice that Burma is "Secretive Government,"
If I can recall (I also had this discussion at school),

- During the 2004 Tsunami that devastated Coastline of Burma and especially Thailand, The Burmese Government denied that they needed help...I think they didn't even notice any change in Burma

- Now 4 years later, A Cyclone hits Burma and the "Secretive" Government TOTALLY agrees that they DEFINITELY need help....

....Which means something has totally gone wrong.

They release a Death Toll, 100k? No, probably 10 or 15 times then that.
If you look at Burma news, they say that the Soldiers are doing what they can to help the citizens. But In western reports, they interview victims of the natural disaster and they say "where are the soliders? The only help we get are from the Buddhist monks..."
And Even with the recognition that Burma needs External help, They Won't allow any Foreign Vehicles (or was it actual aid or something), to enter the country. I think a day or two later they give World Vision a visa to enter the country.

I see footage of aid, but where is the aid-workers?

[edit on 8-5-2008 by 24threever]

I know it is horrible that so many people died, but i am in far more shock over Al Gore's response to it than the disaster itself.

He is USING THE SUFFERING OF THESE PEOPLE to further his own global warming agenda. I seriously can't believe this guy. Hows about he donates some of his small fortune to help these people out rather than using their plight to make another statement regarding his pet apocalypse theory.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

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The funny thing is that President Bush refered to it as Burma on a national press conference... So not everybody is calling it myanmar: well at least not one thick headed president but since you stated the thing about the monks maybe he did it on purpose to spite the government there? Wait a second he's not that intelligent, thats a little bit of deep thought I don't believe he's capable of. Also This death toll could easily extend over the half million mark by the time it's over, we're talking grass huts and otherwise poorly constructed project facilities. These people are devastated and are still cut off from the main land because of the continuation of rains. I would suggest making a donation to the red cross but who knows that the money won't be used to found our own financial problems *sigh* these people need the help though so might as well try. (red cross) I'm sure even with the tremendous drop of the dollar .50 cents would even help over there.



[edit on 8-5-2008 by Lokey13]

Official: UN plane lands in Myanmar with aid after cyclone



Source

Your dodging the question. How much have you PERSONALLY contributed?


Why should we? It just seems like every time we try to help, people think we are trying to take over the place. I am getting a little sick of getting smacked in the face rather than thanked for our efforts.


So would you support increasing our taxes so we can pay for all of these humanitarian missions?

reply to post by Telafree

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It's not just the way the houses were built - the removal of mangrove trees to enable industrialization on the coast is also suspected to have impacted on the situation. (Mangrove trees grow on the salt/fresh water barrier and provide excellent protection from hurricanes.)

reply to post by COOL HAND

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The first legit charity that pops up, like the Red Cross officially being allowed in, I will donate 1k.



Why the hell should we be thanked for humanitarian efforts?



If we donated 50 million dollars to 100million dollars it would still be less then .75 cents per citizen of this country.

If we donated 300 million or more in aid, it would still be under a dollar per person.

We donate more to tyrants and military despots then to the aid of Humans. I find it sad yout think that we should be praised for our charity.

Tell that to the folks in the military who will get even more time away from their families so that they can provide assistance. Don't you think they deserve your thanks?



I never said we should be praised, just that we should be thanked. There is a difference.

reply to post by COOL HAND

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I don't feel sorry for military persons that feel homesick. They know full well they joined the armed services, going out on missions shouldn't be a surprise. Especially humanitarian. We as tax payers don't pay them to sit in their bases and have a good time with their families. Of all the servicemen I know, the only complaint I have heard from them is the repeated tours in Iraq (I know a guy who's been there 3 times and has to go back). But then again, 5 years in Iraq is a little different then 5 weeks in a humanitarian mission.. no?

I take it that you never have served in the armed forces? Or had a close family member as a part of the military. At least I hope that is the case, and that you are not that ignorant of what the military does on a daily basis.

I can't stand international humanitarian missions. That is not what the military is for, isn't that what the UN is designed to handle?

Here are the before and after photo's from NASA

I fell asleep last night to coast to coast and during the first commercial break it said that there were medical supplies going out from california. Lots of medical supplies. Their main concern was getting sanitizing wipes and sprays, bandages and such for cleaning open wounds without the clean water to do the job correctly.

Someone is getting the news, they knew what was needed. This has been the worst media situation I have ever seen. Actually it is becoming the norm, to keep outsiders disinformed of the actual truths.

Why?

If global natural disasters are going to become the norm now, seems this would be the best and most positive way to bridge the walls that keep the different nations seperate.

We are all Earthlings. Our shared global enviroment is all of our responsibility.

When it is about resources we create divisions, it is the green flag for the dark agendas to flourish, but when something like this happens it is the open door for the light of all nations upon the world to shine as one, to come together as an organic whole to help eachother in times of crisis.

Myanmar is NOT in the position to stop any country from coming in to bring aid to its people. They are NOT in the position to tell the Global leaders not to help.

This goes beyond 'them' telling any of 'us' what to do, it is as if you find a defensless child being severely abused, you dont ask permisssion of the offending parent, you go in and take over the security of the abused child.

What the officials of Myanmar tell anyone, they are not anything but abusive parents and their people defenseless children. When a country makes this kind of decission on behalf of its people, something radical needs to happen.

One more thing, there needs to be overseer's for the aid going into the country, they have already proven that they do not have the best interest of their people at hand.

Let the Red cross international do the distribution, and have those services be directed by outside agency so that no chance of the goods and such be hoarded by the corrupt, but distributed to the people in need.

Let the media over see the entire operation so that the world can be part of providing aid.

Yes they are the same and yes, the numbers have more to do with the type on housing than the strength of the storm. Not that 120 mph is anything to sneeze at, especially with the storm surge.
Technically it was indeed a "super" storm. Here in the U.S. we call anything category 3 or higher a "major hurricane." Over there in the Pacific and Indian anything cat three or higher is a "super typhoon" or "super cyclone." But a storm of that strength is very survivable provided you have adequate shelter (and warning.) Tens of thousands dead, possibly over 100,000, is absolutely astounding.

Here is an obvious question:
Does NASA routinely take exact satellite snapshots like this? Is there a reason they took one of the exact place the storm would hit only a couple weeks before it hit? It seems very convenient that NASA had recorded this image only a couple weeks before the storm... All the source site says is that the NASA Terra Sat captured the image on April 15th, it doesn't state why. I can only hope that sat routinely mines images.

Anyhow, that is some horrible devastation in the after image.

edited to add: thanks QBSneak for providing the images, and since I have to get back to work, pre-thanks for providing more info below on why NASA might have had that snapshot ahead of time. This is still highly suspect to me though

[edit on 8-5-2008 by Ionized]

actually the Government of Mayanmar had asked the US for satellite images of the area. I remember reading this somewhere this morning. I'll post the link to it when I find it.