From CounterCurrents.org by Li Onesto.
.. The areas hit by the cyclone make up half of the irrigated farmland in Myanmar—which had produced 65 percent of Myanmar’s rice. Millions of people who survived are now facing hunger, disease and lack of shelter.
There is tremendous wealth, resources, and technology in the world that could be used to respond to this disaster. There is no shortage of people with skills and compassion that could be mobilized to help. But clearly, this is not happening.
To understand the situation in Myanmar today you have to examine two interpenetrating contradictions. One is the relations between the world imperialist system and Myanmar as a poor country oppressed and dominated by global capitalism. The other dynamic is the geostrategic importance of Myanmar to imperialism and the rivalry between different capitalist countries in the region. These larger factors have deeply influenced the extent and character of the destruction caused by the cyclone, as well as the rescue and relief efforts.
Natural disasters do not “discriminate”—people all over the world are hit by tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes. But different people and different countries are not affected equally.
We live in a hugely lopsided world where a handful of rich, imperialist countries dominates the rest of the planet. The U.S. sits at the top of a global capitalist system driven and shaped by the maximization of profit. The majority of people live in poor countries oppressed and dominated by imperialism and by social-economic structures that reflect and reinforce the interests of local elites who are subordinate to imperialism. Development of these countries has been stunted and distorted by imperialism. And all this profoundly affects the capacity and ability of governments and people to respond to a natural disaster.
As Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Brussels, said: “The villages are in such levels of desperation — housing quality, nutritional status, roads, bridges, dams — that losses were more determined by their condition rather than the force of the cyclone.”
The official storyline says: Myanmar is run by a bunch of dictators who chose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world.
Reality: Myanmar society is repressive and relatively closed off from the outside world. The reactionary military regime seeks to maintain power and control society through brutal force and by limiting contact with the rest of the world. But this is not why the U.S. criticizes Myanmar.
What the U.S. really means when it says Myanmar has “isolated” itself is that Myanmar has not fully opened its doors to U.S. imperialism. The military regime has not been completely pliable, compliant, and subservient to the United States. And now it has refused to accept aid from the U.S. that has all kinds of conditions and potential “strings attached”—such as Bush’s insistence that Myanmar open its borders to U.S. officials, aid workers and military personnel.
U.S. sanctions on Myanmar (that began in 1997 and have since been extended) ban new investments in the country and prohibit imports into the U.S. from Myanmar. The U.S. says it maintains these sanctions because of human rights abuses. But in fact, this U.S. “isolation” of Myanmar is aimed at undermining and destabilizing the government and creating conditions to bring to power a regime more subservient to the United States.
Historically and up to today, Myanmar’s development has been conditioned by its integration into and subordination to the global system of imperialism.
Myanmar has the world’s tenth largest gas reserves. It has been producing natural gas since the 1970s. Today, gas exports are Myanmar’s most important source of national income.
In the 1990s Myanmar granted gas concessions to foreign companies from France and Great Britain. Later Texaco and Unocal (now absorbed into ChevronTexaco) gained rights to Myanmar’s gas as well.
In 2005 other countries in the region, including China, Thailand, and South Korea invested in Myanmar’s oil and gas industry.
In 1996 a human rights suit was filed against the American-based Unocal Corp. A group of villagers accused Unocal of using forced labor conscripted by Myanmar soldiers. Villagers were raped, murdered, and brutally relocated during the construction of a $1.2 billion gas pipeline to Thailand, started in 1990.
The suit, which Unocal settled in 2004, brought to light the kind of horrible crimes that were being committed by a consortium of foreign companies, including Unocal, all of which were receiving support and protection from the military regime.
Beyond the interest of imperialism in profiting off the resources and people in Myanmar there is the geostrategic importance of this in the world. And this is a big factor in how the U.S. and various international forces look at their relationship with Myanmar and how they have responded to the current disaster.
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“The U.S. State Department has recruited and trained key opposition leaders from numerous anti-government organizations in Myanmar. Since 2003, the U.S. has provided the NED with more than $2.5 million a year for activities that promote a regime change in Myanmar. The NED funds key opposition media including the New Era Journal, Irrawaddy and the Democratic Voice of Burma radio…
Today in such human catastrophes, the outmoded economic, political and social relations of imperialism stand out in stark relief. The world needs revolution, and things could be a different way. In a whole new socialist society power would be in the hands of the people. Society’s resources and knowledge and, most especially, the compassion, creativity, and political consciousness of the masses, could and would be fully mobilized to build a whole new emancipating society that will be able to figure out and solve all kinds of problems, including how to deal with natural disasters.
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AID V. SANCTIONS The Burma dilemma. by Thant Myint-U
Myanmar is one of the poorest nations in the world, with millions living in extreme poverty. But the average Myanmar citizen receives less than $2 a year in international aid - about a 10th of per capita aid to Vietnam and a 20th of per capita aid to Laos and Cambodia. Thousands, mainly children, die every year from treatable diseases like malaria.
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The outrage felt at the lack of international access is more than understandable. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. But the actions of the generals should also come as no surprise.
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Can the UN both push for political change and be the institution working on humanitarian and development issues? As Rolf Carriere questioned years ago, does help for the poorest have to wait for democracy? Does a policy of further isolation make sense?
Critical Need for New Initiatives in Burma. (irrawaddy)
Post-cyclone Politics (irrawaddy)
Haven or Hell by Tor Norling (irrawaddy)
Backed up against China’s Yunnan State and within a day or two’s mule ride to the Golden Triangle, the undeveloped Wa State was once the world’s largest producer of opium and, by implication, the greatest source of heroin.
However, nowadays the region is undergoing a series of transformations that is causing friction between leaders of the Wa armed forces and the brutal clique that rules from Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw.
Mostly animists, living in isolation and numbering only half a million people (an estimated 400,000 more live in Yunnan on the Chinese side), the Wa remain one of Burma’s most mysterious and least-documented ethnic groups.
During the first British expeditions to the area in the late 1800s, the Wa were labelled simply as naked, dirty, dark-skinned, poor and barbaric. Their tradition of hunting for human heads—used as totems in the villages to secure good harvests and to protect against disease—persisted until the 1970s, added to their ferocious reputation. It was no small wonder that this ethnic group became widely known as the ”Wild Wa.”
“The US always says we are terrorists. That’s a mistake,” argues Jiao Wei. “We stopped producing and selling drugs in 2005. We hope the world can agree that the Wa hills have become a good place and that the situation is not like it was before.”
Wei says he is disappointed the drug ban has not had more support from the international community. “We have asked our farmers to grow rice, tea and rubber, but it doesn’t offer enough revenue. They don’t have enough food and need help,” he says.
“Most farmers are against the ban. The poverty creates tensions. We feel a growing pressure from our people.”
‘‘In the Wa State, a few are extremely rich, everybody else is extremely poor.”
“The Burmese authorities don’t want more Chinese in Wa State; but most of the economy comes from China, so we welcome them,” says Jiao Wei. He says Naypyidaw has no business in telling them what to do. “If they attack, we will retaliate. But we will not fire the first bullet,” he says.
Sandimar, meanwhile, hopes the Wa State will continue to offer him a safe haven. He says about 300 monks, most of whom are originally from the Wa hills, have come from Rangoon recently, along with a group of student activists, among them 23-year-old Aung. A long scar on his forehead bears witness to the treatment he received in prison.
For now the Wa have gone beyond their Conradian image as headhunters to become the unlikely protectors of Burma’s saffron revolutionaries and a key player in the global crackdown on drugs.
Kachin Leaders to Form Political Party. (irrawaddy)
An Interview with Jody Williams. (irrawaddy)
Jody Williams, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, spoke to The Irrawaddy on a wide range of issues including the role of the United Nations in Burma, the humanitarian crisis and targeted economic sanctions. ..
An auspicious, bloodstained day. (IHT by Ko Bo Kyi)
Danish Minster Slams Burma Boycott, Sanctions. (irrawaddy)
Soldiers Still Watch Suu Kyi. (irrawaddy)
Generals still rule Myanmar with firm grip. (IHT)