The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 is said to have killed over 300,000 people from Sri Lanka to Sumatra. Lat week’s Cyclone Nargis, that sent tidal surges estimated at 20 feet in height pounding into the lowlands of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, may end up topping that number by 200,000 or more, according to the UK’s The Sun.

Last night’s warning came as it emerged that 17 Britons, including ex-pats and backpackers, were still missing.

Sources said 200,000 people were already dead or dying.

But the figure could rise to HALF A MILLION through disease and hunger if the nation’s hardline army rulers continue to block aid for the devastated lowlands of the Irrawaddy Delta.

Unlike the devastation and resulting aftermath caused by the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and its series of tidal surges, the military junta of Burma, known as Myanmar to the politically correct crowd, is standing fast in its refusal to allow foreign aid workers into the country. The military rulers are allowing mass casualties to continue, with many more to come from disease from the rotting corpses, tainted water supplies, lack of food distribution, because they are afraid of losing control of the country they have ruled for decades. So much so that the UN has now suspended food aid, but hopes to resume tomorrow.

In 2004 and early 2005 the World responded to the tsunami disaster in mass, with our military rushing in supplies, medical aid and cleanup help, along with aid from the UN plus many other countries and disaster aid groups. Many of us gave money to organizations like World Vision which got in there early and made the most of each dollar sent to the cause. Not this time.

This time, we watch, helpless, as another set of xenophobic amoral thugs, having no sense of human worth and fearing the outside world, allow those in their charge to die in gross numbers. Even the AP seems to have this one figured out.

“The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything,” said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Australia’s Macquarie University.

Among the junta’s fears are internal uprisings, a U.S. invasion, globalization and its capacity to dilute traditional Burmese culture. In the aftermath of Saturday’s cyclone, the junta appears to be afraid of losing face with its people.

“If they can’t handle the situation and they let Westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military,” Turnell said. “They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives.”

Regardless of what Michelle Obama believes, we live in a great country. As events like those of last week make so very clear, most of the rest of the world is not nearly as fortunate.

Technorati Tags: Boxing Day tsunami, Cyclone Nargis

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