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Myanmar bloggers help build 'Budget Huts' in delta
Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm, when the junta turned back most foreign relief workers. After pleas from the U.N., the junta agreed to international aid, but it still limits foreigners' activities.
Nyi Lynn Seck said most of the $30,000 received by the group came from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia but money also was sent from as far away as Europe.
Myanmar's military government, which strictly controls all media including the Internet, blocks most blogging sites. However, they are sometimes accessible by using a server that masks the site's true origin.
Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information during anti-government protests in Myanmar last fall and the violent crackdown that followed. At least one blogger, Nay Phone Latt, remains in prison.
Nyi Lynn Seck's blog has in the past included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government.
Nyi Lynn Seck said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta's response to the storm — which killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing — was inefficient.
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Member Comments
Posted By: Suray B. Prasai @ 05/27/2008 12:26:22 PM
Comment: It is quite late for rescue and aid workers to do much after a two week lapse, after which the Myanmar government has allowed assistance to trickle in. Earlier when Mrs. Laura Bush had critiicized the Myanamar junta's efforts, she had also mentioned that the US was ready to assist with a bulwark of American humanitarian aid if a ground assesment of the cyclone victims' needs were allowed. it is high time coordinated international action take place to free Aung San Suu Kyi from her five year odl confinement, yet help in delivering much needed relief aid, so that the Burma can open itself upto to democracy and human rights as well.
Posted By: nyeinc @ 05/23/2008 11:46:24 AM
Comment: In case of another attempt at people???s power revolution from the part of regime opponents, politicizing the disaster and capitalizing the presence of foreign troops in the vicinity, that of international aid workers and the unusual attention of international media, the Burmese military government will immediately attempt, euphemistically speaking, to maintain law and order; they might succeed in so doing. The Burmese military government might also wait for a few days and may restore law and order only later as last year in Burma or as in Tibet. Even its earlier, less decisive, attempts might FAIL. The 2nd and 3rd scenarios would inevitably result in the withdrawal of its troops from some areas, as in 1988 in Burma, leaving the population (and the Asian aid workers) to face the Hobbesian dilemma to choose between the anarchy and Leviathan state. In anticipation of the 2ndand 3rd scenarios, the international aid workers are advised to seek accommodation in the high-rise hotels where the helicopter rescues are possible. Yes, it will cost forty or fifty dollars more than the small, family-run, motels which cost ten or twenty dollars per night. In order to be able to rescue the international aid workers out there in the field immediately, it is necessary for them to instantaneously update their location to the local authorities or even higher authorities, including the relevant ministries.
Posted By: nyeinc @ 05/10/2008 9:59:13 PM
Comment: Part II: Terrain is Quite Clear but One More Thing to Do
Now that the referendum is over, would the Burmese military government accept the international relief workers? More likely than before, but one more thing to go.
What do the regime opponents plan to do with the presence of international aid workers (and possibly media) in Burma? The regime opponents know that the draft constitution will be ratified because it is the only way out of the ongoing political gridlock and the public is going to vote for it so that they can move forward. If the regime opponents plan to take advantage of the presence of international aid workers, thinking that the Burmese military government would NOT dare to disperse the protestors as it did last year and in 1988, or that if it did, it is going to face the enormous global outrage and UN Security Council???s punitive resolution and pressure, then what would the Burmese military leaders do?
Of course, in the name of reason of the state and Hobbesian dilemma, they are going to order the army and police to disperse the protestors and to shoot if judged necessary. Legally, they can do so because the emergency law is imposed for a natural disaster and legitimately because the U.S National Guards and Police did shoot some people dead in New Orleans after Katrina. The Burmese military leaders are going to and have to take a decisive action, whatever it means, even if the international aid workers are there and if they have to face later the global condemnation and UN Security Council???s punitive resolution, falling into the trap of their opponents??? infamous but unpragmatic strategy of regime change by UN Security Council???s resolutions.