Rangoon

Hey all, 

I know I have been promising to update this blog forever, so for those of you who stuck it out and checked in every once in a while, here you go.  I will post all the stuff I wrote for the Partners blog page, as well as some other stuff as well.  Heres the first bit, more to come soon.  

Well, I am back from Rangoon, a few weeks older, a few years wiser, and a lot more determined to keep standing up for truth in this hopeless situation.  Rangoon city itself was great, but it was excruciatingly sad to see how extensive the abuse and mismanagement of the Burmese military junta really is. We have confirmed reports of Burmese military personnel demanding bribes to allow aid to reach the affected, rape, and forced labor in the delta areas.  One friend I met there had a meeting with the Minister of Disaster Response, and was told that there was a bank account in Singapore, and if funds were deposited, the necessary clearance to visit the delta would be granted.  Even while people starve to death, these overly rich generals and businessmen are cashing in.  (My friend refused to pay)

Villagers, mostly ethnic minorities, are being forced to build army camps in exchange for small amounts of food, and in some areas ethnic minorities are being ignored altogether.  There are also many reports that the army is forbidding people to bury or dispose of the dead left after the cyclone over a month ago.  The idea I guess is that they want the people to leave the area and move on, although one thing I have learned here is that it is futile to try and figure out why crazy people do the things they do.

And even while over a million go hungry amid the death and destruction left behind by Cyclone Nargis, this bunch of pompous generals are still launching attacks against the ethnic minorities along its borders.  Just last week the military attacked Karen villages in Papun district, forcing over 1000 civilians into hiding in the jungles.

Overall, I spent two weeks working with an organization in Rangoon that shall go unnamed for their ongoing security.  These guys are doing a great job of dealing with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, even though they are hampered at every turn by the government.  We were able to train and equip a group of over 30 Burmese nationals, consisting of doctors and nurses to go out to the affected areas where no foreigner is able to go. These teams were able to provide and are still providing necessary medicine, food and shelter to thousands of victims of the cyclone and the oppression of their own government.  By far the real heroes of this tragedy, the Burmese people themselves have pulled together and are doing the best they can to help the 1.5 million people affected.  I was just happy to be a small part of helping them do a great job. 

The majority of my time was spent writing stuff for reports and publication, as well as helping in the office with IT stuff and training, and any other jobs that needed doing.  As a big white guy, I was never able to actually reach the delta area where the need is the greatest.  Our international staff were confined to the city, no one was allowed past the first army checkpoint.  The possibility to get smuggled in was open at one point, but in the end, I felt it better not to go this route, as I would only get deported, whereas anyone caught helping would be arrested and imprisoned. 

It was a great to see how things work in a situation like this, and seeing the way the Burmese junta works was a real eye opener.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to have gone, I learned so much from those brave people on the ground in Rangoon.  These incredible people impressed me every day with their ability to deal with the terrible situation with grace and empathy.  The sad fact is, they have way too much practice, they have been dealing with the callous evil of the junta for fifty years.  One young woman that I will never forget lost her sister and family to the cyclone, yet she was on one of the first of our teams to leave and bring aid to the survivors.  Everyone from these areas had lost someone, mothers, brothers, sons, friends.  No one was spared, but what got to me the most was the attitude of those left behind.  No one waited around for outside help; perhaps they knew that it wouldn’t come.  They simply went about the daily tasks of finding food, shelter and water.   

I could share with you a hundred stories of survival, of loss, corrupt government officials, of destruction.  But the fact is, although those things happened, and are still happening, the harsh reality is that these people are on their own, and they know it.  But they don’t quit, they don’t complain.  They get on with life, they survive.  I admire that.  I am glad I got the chance to meet them.