I am numb

( – promoted by Turing Test)

I am numb.  I have seen far too much human suffering brought on by humans after a natural disaster had uncovered their inhumanity.  

I am haunted. The view from the hinterlands of Burma is biblical in its scope and complete in its destruction.

I am exhausted.  I could not stay.  There was too much disease (cholera and malaria) and the powers that be in my life would not let me become exposed.  

I am rude.  I am writing this as my lovely lady makes dinner and watches me out of the corner of her eye, worried at the darkness that has enveloped me, the depression she cannot shake me out of, despite her best efforts.  She’ll succeed eventually, but, for now, she is a comfort and for that, I am grateful, though I was rude to her earlier and feel ashamed.

Here’s what I know:  The junta has got to go.  They are the most openly corrupt regime I have ever witnessed and they don’t care who knows this because they have China desperate for their oil, just as the Sudan does not care who knows about Darfur – for the same reason.  

They are taking the limited supplies they are willing to let in and putting their own names on the packages and distributing them to cronies and their families or selling them in the Yangon marketplace at inflated extremes.  Ten USD for a bottle of water?  That was so yesterday.  Try twenty, thirty.  The unprivileged (aka those without connections to the regime) are streaming out of the capital, heading east to become yet more refugees.

None of that compares to the poor souls in the cyclone zone.  They have no food, no potable water, no homes, no prospects.  They will die, whether of disease or starvation or both.  They will die in the hundreds of thousands or more.

There has been talk of more crimes.  The destruction of the mangrove forests by the regime to make room for rice paddies.  That did happen.  The sale of rice by the regime outside of Burma while their people starve.  I don’t have proof, but I believe it.  The loss of a Red Cross boat that tried to navigate the river bloated with trees, bodies and disease.  The survivors (the people on the boat did survive; all the supplies were lost) will now need every vaccination ever created and that is the only water the neglected and forgotten of Burma now have to drink.

The frustration of the U.S. Marines, who I now think are GOD, and whose ships are sitting off the Burmese coast with every supply the people would need, two score helicopters to ferry it in and the damned, damned junta won’t let them in their airspace.

I have found a new reason to love my two countries (U.S. and U.K.).  Even Bush, who I can’t stand, has pleaded with these Myanmar bastards to let them in.  The EU is now openly condemning them.  I hate war.  I believe it should always be the last resort.  But, if the only way to save upwards of two MILLION people is to violate the airspace of such total assholes, I say go for it.  But then, I’m not the one who has to consider if that will kick off a war with China because they need the oil there and will back the bastards against us.

I’m numb and angered.

One of our contributing writers on THE ENVIRONMENTALIST is going to post an expose about several of John McCain’s campaign personnels’ lobbying connections to the Myanmar regime.  I’ll post a link here when it’s available.  

For now, I’m numb.

UPDATE:  A new cyclone is forming off the Burmese coast.  It is unclear where it will hit, but it’s on path for Yangon.