Truthdig - Ear to the Ground - Cyclone Death Toll ‘Tops 10,000’ in Burma

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Cyclone Death Toll ‘Tops 10,000’ in Burma

Posted on May 5, 2008

The Burmese government prepared for an influx of international aid Monday as the death toll from Saturday’s cyclone passed 10,000, according to Foreign Minister Nyan Win. That number suggested a far greater disaster than the 351 deaths reported earlier that same day.

BBC:

Thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drinking water, power and communications.

The United States offered to increase aid offered if Burma agreed to allow a US team access to assess the situation.

First Lady Laura Bush, who takes a special interest in Burma, urged Burma to accept $250,000 (£126,000) already allocated for emergency aid, and said more would be available if the team was allowed into the country. ...

Expressing his sadness at the scale of the disaster, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed that UN officials were meeting Burmese government representatives to discuss how to help.

If the toll is confirmed, Nargis is now the world’s deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India killed 10,000 people.

Read more

TAGS: asia ban ki-moon burma cyclone death toll disaster foreign minister international myanmar nyan win un

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By mister_god, May 6 at 8:10 am #
(6 comments total)

I totally agree with Tim Kelly and Cyrena. However, when i heard about the “250G” --"with more to come”—i laughed my head off. Those morons really have a sense of humor. How much more, another 250G? --which totally is the equivalence of half of a Manhattan condo, or something like that. Ha ha ha ha ha ......ack ...ack....(choking).

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By P. T., May 5 at 6:18 pm #
(774 comments total)

Another New Orleans

Bush must not be allowed to do to Burma what he did to New Orleans.

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By Douglas Chalmers, May 6 at 4:23 am #
(2932 comments total)

Re: Another New Orleans

Uhh, its already been done by the Burma military junta, PT.

They have very recently squandered billions in building a new capital city inland (Nay Pyi Daw) and are quite happy to abandon Yangon (Rangoon) and its people to the vicissitudes of nature.

The military not only don’t give a damn but they are quite happy to leave all the anxieties and the worries to the foreign aid agencies who are stupid enough to run after them. They know that there are plenty of foolishly naive Western do-gooders to exploit......

But the real culprits are the political and business leaders of the ASEAN countries and the USA who have been actively engaged in supporting and financing the construction of the new capital whilst ignoring other urgent essential infrastructure needs in the country.

Starting to sound like a mirror image of New Orleans in more ways than one.........!?!?

But how do you give “aid” to 15,000 or 30,000 dead people??? Obviously the lessons of the Indian Ocean tsunami have never been applied to hurricane tidal surges which create a mini tsunami too.

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By Tim Kelly, May 5 at 3:44 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

According to Naomi Klein, we should be extremely vigilant for rapid action by the World Bank and other neocon ideologues towards imposing “Shock Doctrine” onto Myanmar while they are in shock.

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By cyrena, May 5 at 5:36 pm #
(4172 comments total)

Re:

I agree Tim Kelly, which is why I got an odd chill down my spin at the immediate ‘deal/offerring’ proprosed by Lady Bush...some money now, with more to come, if a US ‘team’ is allowed in to ‘assess’ the situation.

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