Filed under: International Response, Latest News, Uncategorized | Tags: direct relief international, ecowordly, google, Google's support disaster relief in Myanmar, UNICEF
Go to Google in Burma and you’ll get:“Error Number 1045 Access Denied.”
The Burmese military junta has banned Google, according to an article in ecoworldly.com.
Apart from its famous logo being replaced with “Banned,” Google seems unfazed.
The article says that “Despite being banned by the government of Burma (also Myanmar), Google has said that it will donate up to $1 million USD to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis.”
It also says that, “Google has offered to match donations made to UNICEF and Direct Relief International for all donations made at Google’s Support disaster relief in Myanmar page, up to one million dollars.”
– Divya
Filed under: Events, From the Field, International Response, Latest News, Media, Videos | Tags: aid, New York, newshour, pbs, protest, thirteen.org, united nations
As promised: we did a video of a Burmese protest outside the United Nations over the weekend for thirteen.org. It was just posted in their news & public affairs section, along with a link to NewsHour’s daily updates on the humanitarian crisis.
–Karen
Filed under: Death Toll and missing, International Response, Latest News, Uncategorized | Tags: cholera, david miliband, death toll, humanitarian catastrophe, typhoid, water-borne diseases
According to latest news reports including one in the Yorkshire Post, UN aid agencies estimate that 100,000 people have already perished in Burma as a result of the cyclone. The official estimates hover around 30,000. (Reuters quoting Mynamar Sunday TV)
The Yorkshire Post article said that the 100,000 figure could multiply 15-fold to 1.5 million, if a sluggish aid response continues. Water-borne diseases, which have already started consuming several lives, will be the big killer.
If the gravity of the situation is not understood by everyone involved, it warns that the cyclone Nargis and its aftermath could quickly dwarf the Tsunami toll of 250,000 dead.
The article quotes Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who ‘blamed the “malign neglect” of the Burmese regime for turning the disaster into a “humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions.” ‘
Read the full article here.
–Divya
Filed under: Uncategorized
PRESS RELEASE 001/08
May 11, 2008
First U.S. Air Force C-130 Cargo Plane Provides
Humanitarian Assistance to Burma
CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii – A U.S. military C-130 aircraft loaded with
emergency relief supplies departed Utapao Thai Royal Navy Air Base,
Thailand at 12:45 p.m. (local) for Rangoon International Airport, Burma
in support of national disaster relief efforts following Tropical
Cyclone Nagris that recently swept through Burma.
The aircraft, loaded with 8,300 bottles of water, two pallets of
mosquito nets, and a pallet of blankets is the first of three planned
flights in support of the United States Agency for International
Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Relief, and approved by the
Burmese government.
U.S. Pacific Command is accustomed to working with the international aid
community and other partner nations in disaster relief operations to
provide humanitarian assistance. We are committed to providing relief
assistance to the people of Burma as they cope with this tragedy.
-PACOM-
For additional information about U.S. military relief efforts, contact
the Joint Task Force public affairs office in Thailand 087-058-8180 or
email jtfpao@core5.djc2.net
For the latest imagery on the relief effort, visit www1.apan-info.net -
Burma or http://dodimagery.afis.osd.mil/home.html.
–Divya
Filed under: From the Field, International Response, Latest News, Media, Resources | Tags: aid, children, Latest News
UNICEF has its own television broadcast, which is regularly updated online. Find their blip.tv channel here: http://unicef.blip.tv/
- Lam
Filed under: Donations, International Response, Media, Resources, Uncategorized | Tags: aid, Asia Society, electricity, food prices, Khin Maung Win, relief, Suzanne DiMaggio, Yangon
Excerpts from new Asia Society page on disaster relief efforts in Myanmar:
<<An Asia Society contact, reporting from one of the few available Internet connections in Yangon on Wednesday, May 7, wrote: “Yangon is like a post-war city. No water, no electricity. Food prices are three times [higher]…. The price of gas [is up] two times. People need a lot of things, but [the] government has no proper plan to support [us].”>>
Page also contains links to relief groups, a Washington Post audio interview with Asia Society expert Suzanne DiMaggio, and photographs, including this beautiful shot by Khin Maung Win (AFP/Getty Images.)
–Karen
Filed under: From the Field, International Response, Latest News, Uncategorized | Tags: 88 generation students, all burma federation of student unions, all burma monks' alliance, humanitarian intervention, junta, referendum, SPDC
Joint Statement of
All Burma Monks’ Alliance, the 88 Generation Students and All Burma Federation of Student Unions
May 9, 2008
The Military Junta’s Sham Constitution Rejected
International Humanitarian Intervention Requested
(1) It is obvious that the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council), official name of the military junta that has ruled the country of Burma illegally for many years with arms and threats, oppresses and kills the people of Burma who demand democracy and human rights peacefully, by using not only its military power, but also natural disaster.
–Karen
Filed under: Donations, International Response, Media, Resources, Uncategorized | Tags: aid, Donations, relief, the lede
Filed under: International Response, Latest News, Media, Uncategorized | Tags: Doug Goodyear, GOP, McCain, newsweek, presidential campaign, Republicans, SAJA
From SAJAforum, the newsy SAJA blog – new desi stuff daily:
http://www.sajaforum.org
And now, the Burma cyclone affects the presidential campaign. From AP/Yahoo story, “Leader of GOP convention quits after Myanmar ties reported”:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Read the full AP piece and the original Newsweek piece, by Michael Isikoff and post your comments at http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/05/burma-republica.html
–Karen
Filed under: Latest News, Media, Uncategorized | Tags: aung san suu kyi, ellen page, kim kardashian, u.s. campaign for burma
U.S. Campaign for Burma has sent word that Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has been under house arrest for more of the last two decades, is fine but her house was damaged in the cyclone.
Excerpt:
<< She is still under arrest and forbidden from helping Cyclone victims. >>
The NY Times did a story in last week about the campaign’s new Web drive to draw attention to the struggle for democracy in Burma. Strategy? Use celebrities, including ‘Juno’ star Ellen Page, and ‘brand’ Aung San Suu Kyi.
In other weird news, Kim Kardashian has also done a PSA for the campaign and she blogged about it here.
–Karen
