What Can One Do?

I have been watching and listening to the news coverage of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a heavy heart. 134,000 people dead or missing and over 2 million people without homes, food, clothing, and shelter. To take it a step further, the military dictatorship in charge has refused to allow aid or aid workers into the country. The level of this humanitarian crisis is mind boggling and horrific, yet the government does not nothing and contributes to the murder of its people on an enormous scale. The flooding and loss of homes was only the first blow of a potentially lethal battering. Now the focus needs to be on sanitation, burial of the dead, and prevention of disease amongst the masses of people struggling to survive. It is also critical to assist in getting rice planted, so survivors do not starve in the coming months after the world's attention has moved on to the latest disaster of the month.

What does the world do in these situations? As has been the case in recent history, nothing. The world sat back as genocide occurred in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Darfur, and we continue to do so now as the lives of millions of people are in jeopardy. What part of us as human beings can justify this? Moreover, as citizens of the most powerful nation in the world it seems unthinkable that we are not able to come up with some sort of compromise to provide aid to people in need. Is military action the answer? Should the world join together to forcibly occupy a country with the intention of saving innocent civilians? Or in doing so, would we create more chaos than good?

It is clear that misguided good intentions are not the answer to the problem. (Anyone remember the food drops into Afghanistan at the beginning of the war? Shockingly, Afghans don't eat pop-tarts and spam on a regular basis. No, really...) A while back, my brother thoughtfully bought me a copy of Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) which documents 3 U.N. workers stories and experiences in Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, and other war zones of the 1990s. It mostly illustrates the incompetence and frustrations of the United Nations organization as it does not have any real power, authority, or military might to enforce its peacekeeping missions. It would seem that organizations such as the International Red Cross/Red Crescent or Medecins Sans Frontieres should be allowed entry to any country as they are strictly humanitarian organizations, but as always it comes down to politics.

There is a part of my white liberal thinking that would like to believe that a difference can be made. On the flip side, there is the resignation that life is a crap shoot and some people are a lot luckier than others as far as the cards they are dealt. In any case, my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Myanmar and I am hopeful that some sort of deal will be struck to bring them aid.

Cuidate.