Cyclone Nargis: The death knell of the military junta

Time to act

Just as nature abhors a vacuum the humanity of our tortured earth has to begin to abhor despotic governments that care more for entrenching their regimes rather than rising up to the challenge of the government they portend to run in service of their people.

This is no time to highlight the hypocrisy of America’s criticism of Burma having failed to perform when Hurricane Katrina struck, we should take the lessons from that event to realise that a quick response to disaster, calling on all resources available to the global community is the only way to alleviate present suffering.

No relief from suspicion networks

With a stranglehold on government for 46 years and a network of spies with a extremely paranoid aversion to foreign interaction, one would have thought that network serve any purpose in disaster relief but it really serves no useful purpose for succouring suffering.

It just beggars belief that the military junta are incapable of helping their people and would not relent in their obduracy to accept ready help from professional disaster relief agencies to help their people.

Referendum trumps disaster relief

100,000 people have probably died from effect of cyclone Nargis and we can expect a similar number to die from the tardiness to get relief to them – there are dead bodies floating in the water and on land and I do not think the people are anywhere near the point of organising themselves to start mass burials.

They must be smarting from the outrageous dereliction of duty of their government to address their predicament when their help and support is most needed.

The absurdity of it all is we have a disaster of epic proportions, the worst that has ever hit Burma and they have set their priorities for a referendum to take place today – the army has been deployed to monitor the referendum rather than do disaster relief.

Their end is nigh

The military junta has no doubt lit the fuse that would lead to their terminal decline, their referendum and stranglehold on government would not save them.

Having not ever learnt to mobilise their huge army for civil activities, they can never have the logistics to manage this disaster, where their visa offices should be running in overdrive admitting foreign aid relief professionals, they have been closed for public holidays not to resume till Tuesday.

Appeals falling on deaf ears

Meanwhile, the pictures on my television leave me amazed that there is no groundswell of utter condemnation from the so-called friends of Burma – where has the compassion of humanity gone?

This attitude leaves all disaster relief agencies in a quandary; their appeals are failing on deaf ears because no one believes their donations would get anywhere near the suffering Burmese because of those nasty generals.

Change and regime change

There is ever good deed in charging those generals with crimes against humanity and every good cause to engender regime change just as should be done for Zimbabwe and North Korea.

We cannot continue to countenance the suffering of our fellow mankind brought on my other men for their gain much as we should have the greater cause of ridding our world of all governments that lacked the expressly given mandate of the people they assert rule over.

The uprising that would sweep the military junta of Burma from power would be bloody but they will go so much for what they did by failing to do what they should – no people can allow such idle despots to continue to rule over them for much long, a year or maybe more, but they will go and good riddance, it would be.

These are no men of peace

What could have been

If it is true that in 2003, Iran offered the United States a deal that today might have helped quell the problems we see in Iraq and it was rejected outright, then we do live in unfortunate times.

It also means that all measures should be taken to bring maximum oversight and analysis to the proposed plan to escalate the battlefront or troop “surge” in Iraq as presented by President George W. Bush.

It is beyond belief that the two heads of the regime in America who in their youth, by every sleight of hand avoided serving their country in the thick of war are now the purveyors of the ignition to what might possibly be World War III.

There is no doubt that the consequence of rejection is the meat-grinder that Iraq has become, it is the graveyard of some who have unlike their leaders offered to serve their country in a war that no one wanted, at least, not I. On reflection, what America is asking Iran for now, is what Iran offered then, only this time, Iran does not have to care about responding.

Hating Iran with a passion

Surely, there must be something about the complete recalcitrance of these men that they just cannot deign to open diplomatic channels to either Iran or Syria, seeing Iraq, the country they have occupied since 2003 already has diplomatic relations with both countries.

It does not augur well for world peace that we cannot find men in leadership who can temper their belligerence with a modicum of restraint in view of the sacrifices they have demanded of others, that they themselves declined.

The question becomes, what has Syria or Iran done to George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney? Because every right-thinking person, would be left aghast at this new development.

Making up for the faults of youth

However, it may be that having been stung by the seeming “cowardice” reference most especially to Dick Cheney’s non-military record, or is it a record number of deferments from being drafted to Vietnam (for the record, none of the deferments were illegal), they now have to display a quality of bravado, braggadocio or worse still brigandage to make up for their follies of youth.

This chauvinism to military power and expedition leading to the plunder of life and peace in Iraq and its environs is of great concern, if indeed, this news is true, the personification of power corrupting absolutely has another two years in the White House.

Our war on terror would now be for the Congress to consider regime change.