THE TRAGEDY OF MYANMAR

Roland at the orphanage

My pal Roland is a big macho guy. He doesn't show emotions much-- at least not around me and we've been pals for about two decades. This morning he called around 6:30AM on his way to work. He was all shaken up over Myanmar. We were there a few months ago. We met a lot of people, lots of kids, on the streets of Yangon, in an orphanage we wanted to help rebuild, in the countryside south of the capital. These were the areas the typhoon hit. He was sure the orphanage was flattened. Look at that photo I took up top. He was sure the poor kids who followed us around Yangon are all dead. He was sure the small towns of thatched hut in the Irrawaddy Delta are all washed away.

The brutal, fascist dictatorship there is not only vicious but also corrupt and incompetent. There are some questions under what circumstances they will even allow aid to reach their people. We were told we had to make "donations" to military officials if we wanted to rebuild the orphanage. Something between 22,000 and 60,000 people are dead. Over a million are homeless.

Residents have described a mood of anger and a grim resignation at the junta’s power since the military shot into crowds last September to quell a huge non-violent pro-democracy uprising led by Buddhist monks.

At least 31 people, and possibly many more, were killed during that uprising, and thousands were detained, including large numbers of monks.

There were several accounts over the weekend of monks leaving their monasteries to help clear away storm wreckage, even as the military offered little help to residents.

Roland is still teaching now, so he doesn't know that George Bush just offered the send Myanmar $3 million. But apparently with strings attached. "This is a cheap shot,” said Aung Nain Oo, a Burmese political analyst who is based in Thailand. “The people are dying. This is no time for a political message to be aired. This is a time for relief. No one is asking for anything like this except the United States.”

They showed us around town on our first day in Yangon