by James Turley of Communist Students

Crocodile tears and democracy

Nature has been cruel to south-east Asia recently. The Union of Myanmar (formerly, and still popularly known as Burma) has been rocked by a devastating cyclone, the eighth most severe in recorded history; and Szechuan province in China, saw a powerful earthquake kill upwards of 12,000 people.

While China has been criticised for failing to build strong enough buildings, resulting in thousands of people unaccounted for, many buried under piles of rubble, its rapid and very visible relief operation has mostly inoculated its government from direct criticism. The same cannot be said for the military junta in Burma, however, which has drawn widespread scorn for its refusal of foreign aid and its cynical, self-serving response.

Cyclone Nargis, a category four storm with wind speeds rising to 150mph, landed in the Irrawaddy rice-farming district – an immensely complex network of rivers, streams and tributaries – on May 3. What land the district has is low and flat. Under normal conditions, the area is only navigable by boat, but it nevertheless is densely populated, with seven million out of Burma’s 63 million people living in the area.

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