Burma’s cyclone survivors help themselves

The US labeled the Burmese government’s response, or lack thereof, to the cyclone in Burma as �criminal neglect.� But an international assessment team recently spent 10 days in the affected area and they had found nearly every town had received aid of some sort, though not necessarily from international agencies. It seems there was no second wave of death and disease, and the survivors did survive with whatever food or shelter they could get. This humanitarian relief worker says the people helped themselves out. Largescale international aid was slow to arrive on the scene, due to the regime. But Burmese people started a haphazard but crucial relief effort themselves and traveled to the Delta. It counted during the crucial early days, and the relief worker says we didn’t hear about this because the regime didn’t allow the press to cover the immediate relief process. Meanwhile, the regime’s ban on international aid got all the media attention. This aid worker says all aid for the most part has been delivered by Myanmar people. There’s still plenty of suffering for people in the Delta. This analyst says we should not forget that the regime obstructed aid and media coverage, so people thought the worst was going on.