And barely a fraction of the 2.5 million displaced people have received aid.
Instead they are now being evicted from camps, as government officials believe that these villagers may get 'too used to' this type of lifestyle, living off donations.
What a sick sick world this is.
But we must still persist and do everything we can in our power. Whether it is volunteering, fundraising, or even putting up comments on instant messenger or social networks - it's the least we can do as we sit as our desks, in our protected homes in first world countries and complain about chipped manicures and our lukewarm coffee.
Click here for a complete update
Friday, May 30, 2008
4 weeks later...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend
This past weekend, families and friends across America gathered together to barbeque and celebrate. But what often lacks in these get-togethers is observing the reason behind Memorial Day - honoring the lives lost in military service.
Not to put a dampner on this traditional holiday, but how often do we really remember the history behind such days?
I spent my Sunday at a friend's birthday party. While we did have our fair share of revelry, what was special at that gathering was the discussion we had about Myanmar, about international affairs, and about what people could do to get involved.
We've made a few BuildBurma.org Tshirts in various designs and sizes (which can be seen in our Facebook group) and have been distributing them around.
Whether it's online or offline, getting your friends and those around you to take an interest in human politics is important - we should all be human rights advocates by nature else we are committing a grave crime against our own being.
Monday, May 26, 2008
MSF in Myanmar
Click here to read the interview with Medecin Sans Frontiere emergency coordinator Jean-Sebastien Matte on what MSF is doing in the Irrawaddy.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Ban Ki-Moon in Myanmar
Reuters: U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon is seeing first hand the suffering and devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis, as he tours the worst-affected Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar. Relief teams have reached only a quarter of the victims, so while the country's officials say that the situation is under control, Ban Ki-moon is hoping to convince the junta to accept more outside help.
As Myanmar requests a staggering $11 billion in aid pledges, Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan warns that donor countries will be reluctant to commit money until they are allowed to assess the damage for themselves. Meanwhile, the European Union has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution urging the U.N. Security Council to consider forced aid shipments.
Click here for the whole story
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Fundraising target raised!
It's really been exciting that within a few days of launching we were already halfway to our original fundraising target of 10K. Yesterday Alson Capital offered 5k to help us reach that goal! Yes, they are amazing.
So we have raised our target amount to 15 K.
Another highlight was the comment from Irene Lee who made a donation - "I'm from Myanmar. Thank you"
This is why we started this effort and will continue raising money and more importantly continue to raise awareness.
A big thank you to all our generous donors.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Reuters: Myanmar mourns dead, U.N. reports aid progress
20 May 2008 19:24:52 GMT 20 May 2008 19:24:52 GMT* Myanmar starts three days of mourning
* WFP gets permission to use helicopters for relief
* U.N. chief Ban on his way to Yangon
* Myanmar to allow Japanese aid workers (Recasts with WFP helicopters, adds U.S. comments)
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, May 20 (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta has given the World Food Program permission to use helicopters to send aid to cyclone survivors, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as flags flew at half-staff across the country to mourn the dead.
The first day of a three-day mourning period passed in torrential rain and diplomatic prodding of the reclusive generals to allow more international aid after Cyclone Nargis hit in early May, leaving 134,000 people dead or missing.
The junta in the former Burma has allowed relief flights to deliver supplies to Yangon, the largest city, but had balked at aerial access to the southwestern Irrawaddy Delta, where an estimated 2.4 million people were left destitute.
"We have received government permission to operate nine WFP helicopters which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely inaccessible," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told reporters before departing for a visit to Myanmar.
Continue reading here
Monday, May 19, 2008
Why do we care about some disaster's and not about others?
A great piece on Yahoo/Live Science
Also to note: Yahoo.com has really been active in updating its news feeds and has consistently featured Myanmar in its pressing news section.
Reuters: ASEAN to coordinate Myanmar aid effort
* ASEAN to coordinate international relief effort
* U.N.'s Ban to visit Myanmar on Wednesday
* Myanmar declares three days of mourning
* Donor conference in Yangon on May 25 (Adds U.N. secretary general visit on Wednesday)
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, May 19 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Myanmar, but the military junta will not give Western relief workers unfettered access to disaster areas, Singapore said on Monday.
"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar," Foreign Minister George Yeo said.
He was speaking after hosting a regional meeting to prod the generals to accept large-scale foreign aid and expertise for up to 2.4 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis.
The details were to be worked out with the United Nations, which announced later on Monday that a donor conference would be held in the cyclone-hit former capital, Yangon, on May 25.
Myanmar agreed to accept nearly 300 medical personnel from its neighbours in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the foreign ministers said in a statement.
A few have already sent teams two weeks after the disaster which left 134,000 dead or missing. But aid workers from outside ASEAN will only be granted visas on a case-by-case basis.
"We have to look at specific needs -- there will not be uncontrolled access," Yeo said after the meeting which named ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan to work with the United Nations on aid delivery.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Myanmar on Wednesday, when he plans to visit the country's Irrawaddy delta area which was hit hardest by Nargis, his spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters.
"His objective is to reinforce the ongoing aid operation, see how the international relief and rehabilitation effort can be scaled up and work with Myanmar authorities to significantly increase the amount of aid flowing through Yangon to the areas most affected by the disaster," Montas said.
Continue reading here
It's all in a name
We got feedback from various people regarding the choice of our name. Why BuildBurma.org and not BuildMyanmar.org or MakeMyanmar.org, and so on?
We're not using 'Burma' as a way to reject 'Myanmar' as the country's legal name. In fact, we do recognize this difference and one can observe from our content that we consistently refer to the country as Myanmar.
BuildBurma.org is simply a name, a branding tool, something that is easy for people to remember and approach.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
From Reuters: Myanmar's Buddhist monks fill cyclone aid void
17 May 2008 03:25:45 GMT 17 May 2008 03:25:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Aung Hla Tun
KUNTHECHAUNG, Myanmar, May 17 (Reuters) - With a loudhailer in one hand and a clipboard in the other, the bespectacled Buddhist monk calls out names from a long list of villages devastated by Cyclone Nargis.
One by one, maroon-robed monks in the crowd milling round the make-shift relief centre put up their hands before coming forward to accept a carefully measured quota of food for his village.
Welcome to emergency aid delivery, Myanmar-style.
With foreign agencies on a tight leash and only a trickle of relief coming in from the military goverment, the Buddhist monkhood has become a major conduit for help to the 2.5 million people left clinging to survival in the Irrawaddy delta.
Given the monks' unquestioned moral authority in the devoutly Buddhist southeast Asian nation, private donors are happy to see the shaven-headed men in maroon taking charge of goods brought down to the delta in rickety trucks, vans and boats.
"It gives us great pleasure and joy to see our donations transferred directly to the beneficiaries," said Ko Myo, a young businessmen from Yangon, the former capital. "That's all we expect out of our contribution. Nothing else."
Outside the tent, dozens of monks and villagers wait their turn patiently. Many sit in the boats that will take the needed supplies back to their shattered communities.
Praise for the senior monk, or Sayadaw, who establised the relief centre is universal.
"Most people wouldn't have survived long if the Sayadaw hadn't arrived in time," one man told Reuters. "Some places have run out of food completely."
"MAGIC WORDS"
The monk in question, the Venerable Nyanissara, is a Buddhist patriarch who is as close to being "untouchable" as it is possible to be a country run by a ruthless military junta.
The 73-year-old was in Paris the night Nargis struck with its 120 mph (190 kmh) winds and 12-foot (3.5 metre) wall of water that slammed into the delta. He immediately cut short his Buddhist lecture trip to return home to start relief work.
Now, in a tent beside a stagnant waterway in the district of Bogalay, where at least 10,000 people, probably many more, were killed, he personally overseas the handing out of aid.
"Today we distributed rice, salt, clothing, drinking water, and soap to 27 villages," he told Reuters as a mobile phone rang on the table in front of him.
"We have distributed over 100 tons of rice and more than 3,000 tin roofing sheets so far. We are trying to distribute more," said the monk, much of whose funding comes from a global network of rich, well-educated disciples.
As with September's protests against the soaring cost of living, when the going gets tough in Myanmar, people typically turn to the monkhood, the only institution that can stand up to a military machine that has ruled almost unchecked for 46 years.
Nyanissara's elevated status means soldiers at checkpoints on roads into the delta dare not interfere with his supplies. Just the words of his mission -- "Sitagu Missionary Association" -- on the side of a truck are enough to allow it safe passage.
"Bringing things by car here is very difficult now because the authorities ask us to hand them over," Ko Myo, the Yangon businessmen, said.
"But these are magic words," he said, pointing to "Sitagu" painted on the side of a van. "Nobody has laid a finger on it so far." (Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Official toll of the dead and missing hits 133,000
The numbers keep rising, time keeps passing.
The junta continues to stall and restrict aid despite huge international pressure.
CNN doesn't even mention Myanmar on it's homepage.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Making Movies Out of Molehills
On our BuildBurma.org Facebook group Vinay Lobo wrote:
"Not just the hurricane....They've been suffering military oppression and murder since the 60s and no one gives a f___. Their women are raped, their kids and men tortured and killed...food burned...highest no. of child soldiers in the world....highest number of internally displaced people...its cambodia all over again and it'll only get attention when its over and someone makes a fucking movie out of it."
I didn't know they had the highest number of child soldiers in the world. Truly. It's amazing how much we know, and how little we also know at the same time.
I'm not pretending to be an expert on world affairs, this is a space and a forum where we can learn such things.
The goal of BuildBurma.org is to encourage dialogue between artists, politicians, construction workers, students, everyone from around the world who want to discuss such issues, using the current devastation in Myanmar as the discussion platform.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
No names, not even numbers
A few weeks ago, I went to a talk put together by the PEN organization titled World Voices Literary Festival. One of my clients Mia Farrow was speaking with French journalist and activist Bernard-Henri Levy about the dire situation in Darfur.
One of the things that Mr. Levy said that struck me and I will never forget is the fact that in situations of genocide, not only are names forgotten, numbers are also miscalculated. Imagine not having even a number on this earth for you.
The number of people who have been killed in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis varies from 68,833 to even 127,990. Imagine. We're not sure whether we can account for around 55,000 people. That's crazy.
The government's numbers are even more bizarre - Stating that 34,491 people have been killed.
It is true that in times like these, it is hard to calculate numbers...but guesstimates of such varying degrees is what is frightening.
Another storm is coming!!
I learned today that another storm is heading towards Southern Myanmar, to the same area that was devastated by Cyclone Nargis.
Click here for the details
I cannot even imagine what it could feel like, to have everything taken away from you - family, food, shelter, your friends - and then you see another black cloud approaching. It's one of the most hopeless situations.
In the rebuilding of this region, while people will be given medicine, food and water (hopefully soon), while their houses are being made, they will also need psychiatric care to mend their hurting minds and their broken hearts.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Sunday, May 11th
We were out buying a Mother's Day gift for my boyfriend's mom when he got a news alert on his Blackberry. It read:
"BODIES FLOW INTO HARD-HIT AREA OF MYANMAR: The bodies come and go with the tides. They wash up onto the riverbanks or float grotesquely downstream, almost always face down. They are all but ignored by the living. In the southern reaches of the Irrawaddy Delta, where the only access to hundreds of small villages is by boat, the remains of the victims of the May 3 cyclone that swept across Myanmar are rotting in the sun. "These people are strangers," said Kyaw Swe, a clothing merchant who said he expected the tides to take away the six bloated bodies lying on the muddy banks near his collapsed home. "They come from upstream." Villagers here say it is not their responsibility to handle the dead. But the government presence is barely felt in the serpentine network of canals outside Bogale and Phyarpon, devastated towns in the delta, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm."
Today a Red Cross boat, after an eleven hour journey into the region, sank. It was carrying food and aid for 1000 people. My heart too sank when I heard about this. The boat had hit a tree that was submerged under the water.
But one can't lose hope. Relief and aid WILL get there. And when it does, we will begin only our first baby step of recovery to build Burma, nurture Myanmar, back to health and to heart.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
This time last week
A chill was sent through the spine of the world on Saturday, May 3rd, a week ago, when Cyclone Nargis hit the southern shores of Burma.
It is now May 10th. A whole week later and those 1.5 million survivors are waiting on aid. They are without shelter, without food, without water.
Imagine every homeless person you've walked by on the streets of New York or your own city and multiply that number a million times. It's hard to believe but it's true. It's a reality -There in that Irrawaddy Delta 100,000 souls were washed away.
It is a crime against humanity to be comfortable in our own skins and not make this disaster our problem.
And that is all we are asking of you. Start to care. Talk about it. And act.
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