CYCLONE NARGIS

As we have witnessed elsewhere, it is not just the force of a natural disaster, but the inaction of government that adds to the problems. Cyclone Nargis hit Burma six days ago, but the damage assessment and relief supplies have been held up by an autocratic, self serving military junta. Estimates of the death toll is now believed to be over 100,000 people. The priority in these situations is to get help to the people affected as soon as possible. No doubt in the aftermath of this tragedy the danger of disease must loom.

Paul Danahar for BBC News gives an eye witness account:

A full six days after the cyclone slammed into this country, there is so much aid sitting on the borders; there are so many needy people. And the two are not getting together.

So the people who have survived are living with thousands of corpses, polluting their environment, polluting their water supply, and the risk of disease taking hold is getting worse and worse by the day.

What is uncommon is that it’s taking so long to get a clear picture of the challenge ahead. Normally three or four days after a disaster such as this, the numbers of casualties lurch upwards. But by now we should at least have a clear idea of the scale of the problem.

We still do not know because there are hundreds of thousands of people locked off by the broken bridges and blocked roads, and by a government which simply cannot commit to allow in outside help and assessment.

Nobody deserves a government as bad as the Burmese one appears to be, and certainly not the Burmese people. How is it that the rest of us have turned a blind eye for so long?