Aid to Burma Not Equal?

It seems that the aid to Burma is not being spread equally:
Aid workers say they hope that this intensive effort in the delta, where only a small fraction of the country’s population lives, has opened up the possibility to expanded humanitarian operations at some point. But they acknowledge that for now the generous assistance in [...]

Zimbabwe and Burma

Things are getting a bit weird (yeah, I know, these countries have been weird for a long time) in Burma and Zimbabwe:

the ruling generals have built a new capitol for Burma:

The bamboo forests and sugar cane fields that once covered the gently sloping hills here have been replaced by hulking government buildings, roads so long [...]

US and China Defense Spending

I was reading about Defense Secretary Gate’s criticism of Burma:
”We have reached out, frankly, to Myanmar multiple times during this crisis in very direct ways,” the Pentagon chief said. ”It’s not been us that have been deaf and dumb in response to the pleas of the international community, but the government of Myanmar. We have [...]

Burma, Burma, and Somalia

Two countries on the extremes of central government control are showing how badly things can go:

Burma’s government, one of the most centralized, is not only responding badly because they care more about themselves than the people, but because they are amazingly inefficient:

When a domestic Myanmar Airways passenger plane crashed in 1999 only three miles from the [...]

Burma and China

China has a history of being secretative secretive, but they seem to be doing better with the latest disaster:
The earthquake on Monday shook buildings as far south as Thailand and set off another, smaller quake in the outskirts of Beijing, 900 miles away. The central government, which said it was spending $120 million on rescue [...]

Burma and Relief

Hmm, it seems the government of Burma cares more about their power than the population (I know this is no surprise). Let’s look at its reaction to this typhoon:

they don’t help the people prepare for the storm
they delay and set up rigid restrictions for relief
it says that it will accept aid, but will not allow [...]

Burma and Efficiency

One argument for a Totalitarian regime is that they are efficient (as in: the trains were on time under Mussolini). I actually think the opposite is true and Burma is the latest evidence:
“The infrastructure was degraded to begin with,” said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Dykes had collapsed, [...]

Burma

I haven’t written about Burma for a while, because not much has changed there–it still is a terrible place. Here’s a quick bit that shows it isn’t getting better:
The military government’s Press Scrutiny Board ordered the Burmese-language edition of the weekly Myanmar Times not to publish this week for having run an article that was [...]

Burma

Just a quick post to bring up Burma.  The crackdown continues.

Free Burma

I know this is a little early, but this way it will be here at the start of the day.
If you’re coming here from the free Burma site, you probably have seen the links but here are my posts about Burma:
one; two; three; four; five; six.

Burma and North Korea

Burma and North Korea have two of the most repressive governments in the world.  The latest news from them:

The latest news from North Korea seems to be a bit upbeat:

North Korea will provide a complete list of its nuclear programs and disable its facilities at its main reactor complex by Dec. 31, actions that will [...]

Burma?

There’s not a lot of movement in Burma. Here are a few bits:

The UN representative has ended his visit to Burma, talking to the military leader Than Shwe and imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. If this quote by the Burmese representative is any indication, not much will change:

U Nyan Win, said security forces [...]

Burma, Pakistan, Somalia, Darfur, …

October 4 is blog Burma day (see here for details).  Here are a couple more articles about Burma:

most rubies are from Burma and so are blood-rubies (90% come from Burma and most are controlled by the military)
this article notes that all countries aren’t united against the Burmese action:

The result was as follows: Russia and China vetoed [...]

More Burma

There’s not much news out of Burma.  The UN representative arrived today. China also went a bit further today:
“China hopes that all parties concerned in Myanmar show restraint, resume stability through peaceful means as soon as possible, promote domestic reconciliation and achieve democracy and development,” Mr. Wen said in Beijing, according to Agence France-Presse. The [...]