The next time anyone whines aboUt how bad they have it, (unless you too have suffered one of the many natural disasters to hit our nation recently) remember the Tsunami in Indonesia, and now this Cyclone that has devastated Burma:

http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/myanmar

I am willing to bet the Red cross, as well as our own religious orgs, are raising funds to help ease the terrible suffering.

According to what I read today, U.S. aid is still being denied. They're considering the option of air-drops (without permission).

Wow, cannot believe that many people were lost, tragic.

I heard they let 2 U.N. relief planes in this morning, but haven't heard an update since then.

What I gathered was that the U.N. arrived, but the Myanmar government is stalling on visas for their teams to actually enter and deliver the supplies; and the U.N. won't just drop stuff at the airport and leave.

Yes, now is the time for verifying Visa's just in case looters from the U.N. are coming in to steal....err...well, I guess at this point there really isn't anything there to steal.

Brilliant!

Huh? Theft & looting are not the issue. The conflict is strictly political: Myanmar has an isolationist, military government that is very paranoid about foreign influence (i.e. other countries meddling in their affairs).

And on the other side, I think the U.N. won't just leave the supplies because it doesn't trust the Myanmar government to deliver them those in need. (I heard mention that some residents of the devastated area are known to be in opposition to their military government.)

So there appears to be the standoff.

However, the article did mention that some aid is being delivered through Thailand.

As far as I'm concerned, if they don't want aid, then we should not feel obligated to find a way around their government's wishes. Instead, we should take those same relief packages and distribute them in Appalachia and Texas. Or maybe that sinkhole will come out in Myanmar and we can deliver it to both Texas and Myanmar from the center of the earth. Hot food only!

The only problem with that line of thinking is that it is the handful of cowards in power who do not want the help of the aid, not the actual people themselves who do need it.

Actually, they want the aid, but they just want it left unattanded at their doorstep.

so much for that global food shortage...

Becka, I was being sarcastic.

It didn't come across that way, MB. Sorry if I misread.

No prob. This entire situation is just horrible, but add the idiocy of their government, and it borders on the absurd.

I wish we could help the people who need it and starve out their idiot leaders!