Paranoid Government

[picodoll]

Big natural disaster, lots of people dead, injured, sick and homeless. The world wants to help. Relief workers are standing by but the Burmese government is reluctant to let the aid come in lest we poison their people against them. How stupid can people be? The survivors will hate them for sure and we won't have had anything to do with it.

[CopyCat]

Well there is a picture to put with this stupidity...
That is Mr. We Don't Need No Help [Myanmar junta]
and he is pretty much the Burmese government...
And Burma [now called Myanmar by the current military regime]
is pretty much a middle Eastern country... So this is not the first time we've
seen middle Easterners do stupid things... So I don't know why anyone would be surprised...

[oldmoviebuff]

While I agree that humanitarian aid should be allowed in, you have to understand their point of view over in that part of the world. They have a completely different culture than we do and are very traditional. Whenever these countries allow open contact with westerners, their culture and way of life is affected. That can be very scary for people as they don't want the change in their lives.

[dramaqueen]

Yes, this is true. It is hard for Americans to understand this mentality you are describing, movie buff.
Either way, in a disasterous situation such as this, one would think Myanmar would see the gravity of their situation and accept basic things such as food and water.

[CopyCat]

Originally Posted by oldmoviebuff

While I agree that humanitarian aid should be allowed in, you have to understand their point of view over in that part of the world. They have a completely different culture than we do and are very traditional. Whenever these countries allow open contact with westerners, their culture and way of life is affected. That can be very scary for people as they don't want the change in their lives.

They could allow us to fly in, drop aid packages on the runway and fly out...
What kinda fricking open contact with westerners would that be ???

[jinzodude]

it's the 'give me what i want and now' mentality of americans that makes us think about only ourselves when really we're just born to privilege

[LadyShelley]

Originally Posted by jinzodude

it's the 'give me what i want and now' mentality of americans that makes us think about only ourselves when really we're just born to privilege

Ummm ,yeah. What does this have to do with offering aid that's turned down (and wait in a few months the US and the West in general will be vilified for doing nothing to help the people).

Air dropping would only work if the people who needed the supplies were guaranteed to get it. Another huge issue with relief aid is the people in desperate need rarely get the aid. It's either stolen and sold on the black market, to or the dictator of the day keeps it.

I haven't heard anything about Myanmar for a couple of weeks now. Anyone know the latest?

[Chris]

I agree that it just doesn't make sense but you can't force someone to take help. It is their people who suffer and all too often when you have a government (and I use that term very loosely) like theirs they care about themselves and not the people. It is insane but it has happened before and will happen again.

Chris

[aperio]

I believe what they were primarily concerned with was allowing foreign military units in and then not being able to get them to leave - particularly considering they are in a weakened state. It's not like the US policies are the most credible these days - so while I agree that the humanitarian effort should come first and foremost, you have to understand that there are two sides to the coin and they are merely trying to also protect their interests (whether right, wrong or indifferent).

Far stretch analogy here, but it's not like we'd be too eager to have the Taliban come into our country at the drop of a dime because we needed help after a natural disaster, know what I mean? ( I know they wouldn't offer, i'm just offering a reverse viewpoint of how we wouldn't necessarily want certain militia entering our neck of the woods regardless of the situation much like they don't either).

[moo6]

I think a good bit of it is the fact that some people either just flat out dont want help or someone is holding the no button and pressing it constantly. I understand that fly over, drop stuff and leave is dandy for some - but if its people that want help and their gov says no what are we going to do, force it?