Looking past the obvious, that American media’s greatest regret about Myanmar’s cyclone (Nargis) is that Hurricane Katrina took only 1/20^th number of lives, I’m struck by the absence of comparable outrage for the mis-handling of a tragedy that took over 40,000 lives (and counting), versus one that took under 2000. By mis-handling, and by the standard set by the world press during Katrina, I’m speaking about the incompetence and shady self-interests put on display by the thug-junta of Burma, but also the foot and paper shuffling and general inability to move forward by UN Relief Agencies. Where the hell were they anyway?
       Compare the two storms from the top down. True, US and Louisiana officials had about seven more minutes of warning as to where landfall for Katrina would be compared to officials in Burma. Picked up by forecasters on April 28^th, it tracked predictably until May 2^nd when it veered away from it historic track into the Burmese highlands and instead turned into the more populous Irrawaddy delta.
        Sound familiar?
        So, what were Burmese officials doing in those four days? The same things Blanco and Nagin were apparently, wringing their hands, trying to put a spin of competence about a situation neither knew an iota as to how to combat. Rural Virginia counties would have reacted more competently.
        And, where were international relief agencies? Had the UN sent out advance teams? Were there plane loads of supplies waiting on airstrips in Thailand, Guam, or Dehli for the Go-sign from the UN? Were UN officials in Rangoon (Yangon) twisting arms to sound the alarm more quickly or to allow UN experts to assist in pre- and post-storm relief logistics?
        I can’t say, as I was in east Europe at the time, and my only English news source was CNN-World and BBC-World, who found the cyclone, the Burmese junta and the UN’s response, well, reassuringly normal. Inaction was so well-paced you’d have thought it had been rehearsed. I noted no shock in reporters’ comments, except at the rising death toll, which sat at over 20,000 by the time I last counted in Charles deGaulle Airport on the 8^th. There was no direct finger-pointing at the junta, but then again, neither was there at Blanco or Nagin. Territorial integrity and all that. Wot! Perhaps the world press knows better than to get angry at dogs for being dogs.
       But most telling, there was no outrage at the UN for not being more forceful in getting access to airfields and docks to off-load supplies. As the days passed, and goods piled up outside Burma’s terrirorial limit, the Beebs and CNN treated the negotiations between the UN and the thugs regime of Burma almost as if it were an arbitration over sick leave at the local rice plant. In Louisiana, FEMA and Brownie were damned because they didn’t force state and local authorities to step aside (which he should have done), break the law, and do the right thing despite state and local crooks. But in Burma, territorial sovereignty was clearly an insurmountable hurdle, and one, in a UN sort of way, whose protection was more important that a few hundreds thousand lives. No such consideration was ever mentioned in Louisiana.
      Oh, the humanity! Oh, the loss! But we musn’t step on toes.
      Thus was I treated to a marvelous media contradiction of its finger-pointing during and after Katrina. Was it that George W Bush could not be blamed for either the storm or the puny response? Or was it because, after all, to the Euros, the Burmese victims were merely part of the world’s riff-raff that had so far not come under the protective umbrella of the United Nations.? (More about the Euro view of riff-raff later.)

 VBushmills