Opinionated Yankee

I got this in my email inbox yesterday:

Thank you for contacting me to share your support for aid to cyclone-ravaged Burma, also known as Myanmar. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

My heart continues to go out to the Burmese people, who have been devastated by Cyclone Nargis. An estimated 130,000 people either died or are still missing since the cyclone struck the coast of Burma on the evening of May 2, 2008, and the Myanmar government has put the death toll at 78,000.

The Myanmar regime has a history of denying and restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Burma. On May 7, 2008, as a member of the United States Women’s Caucus on Burma, I joined Senate colleagues in writing to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, urging him to help compel Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to allow international aid workers and disaster relief teams into the country and lift restrictions on international humanitarian organizations operating in Burma and the distribution of aid so that the people of Burma can receive the help they so desperately need.

Also on May 7, the Senate passed with my support a resolution expressing the Sense of the Senate on humanitarian assistance to Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. Among its important provisions, this resolution expresses support for the people of Burma; supports the President’s decision to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Burma through nongovernmental organizations that are not affiliated with the Burmese regime; calls upon the SPDC to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance and allow free access to the U.S. government’s disaster assistance response team; and states that the United States Agency for International Development should evaluate which organizations are capable of providing humanitarian assistance without SPDC interference.

On May 23, our efforts and those of others in the international community prevailed when Secretary General Ki-Moon announced that Myanmar’s ruling junta agreed to allow all aid workers, regardless of nationalities, into the country to help the survivors of the cyclone. In addition, Secretary General Ki-Moon guided a conference of 52 donor nations at a meeting on May 25, in which countries pledged in excess of $100 million to help Myanmar recover. It was also established at the meeting that more aid would be forthcoming once aid groups are granted access to the worst-affected areas, an agreement to which the junta agreed.

During my service in the Senate, by cosponsoring legislation and joining Senate colleagues in sending letters, I have consistently voiced my opposition to the Myanmar regime’s record on democracy and human rights. I continue to support sanctions against the Burmese government, which must end its flagrant human rights abuses and provide protections for ethnic minorities. I am cosponsoring the Saffron Revolution Support Act, which Senator McCain introduced on October 16, 2007. This bill would impose targeted sanctions against Burmese officials who played a direct role in the violent repression of peaceful political dissent and those who provide or have provided substantial political and economic support for the junta. The Saffron Revolution Support Act was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it awaits further consideration.

On October 1, 2007, the Senate passed with my support a resolution condemning the junta’s use of violence against peaceful protestors in Burma and encouraging China, India, Russia, and other countries to suspend assistance to the Burmese junta and increase pressure on it to work with opposition leaders and minority groups. In addition, I cosponsored the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which the President signed on July 28, 2003. This legislation imposed import restrictions in the United States on Burmese goods and articles and provided for democracy assistance in Burma. I also cosponsored joint resolutions in 2005, 2006, and 2007 to renew Burmese import restrictions established under the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act.

I appreciate knowing your views on this matter and will keep them in mind as the Senate considers this important issue in the future. Please be assured I will follow the situation in Burma closely.

Again, thank you for contacting me.

Thank you, Senator Collins, for this response! Kudos.

Read this article this morning, which contains a video of the effects of the cyclone in Burma. One of the mothers says, “we are starving.” They have nothing but rain water to drink and a little rice. 20 people out of 400 in one village, they sit in an open-air building, huddled together. The government helicopters flew overhead, but they received nothing. The children’s eyes look so sad and helpless.

I wish I could hug those poor children and give them shelter and food. It must be hard for their mothers, to not be able to care for their children.

Yay to the French Ambassador to the UN:

The French UN ambassador warned that the Burmese government’s refusal to allow aid to be delivered to those who needed it “could lead to a true crime against humanity”.

Trés bien, Monsieur Ripert, d’accord.

We have given to Doctors Without Borders, I have written to my representatives, and I don’t know what else to do but watch the governments of the world delay help by tiptoeing around the junta regime in Burma. If it were their children starving, they would not hesitate. I appreciate the sentiments, but I would also appreciate immediate action even more. I’m sure those poor children and their parents would agree.

I will light a candle for the people of Burma, and pray they get help ASAP.

Due to overwhelming lack of response, I have stopped the Burma MetaFilter “statement” project. Thanks to Wendell for being supportive and thanks to all the great people I met on MetaFilter, both in person and online. I personally have become too irritated with the tone of some of the not-so-great members of MetaFilter (note, this is not aimed at any one person, just a general tone, maybe it is something in the stars like Mercury Retrograde), so I have closed my MetaFilter account before I say anything worse than I already have. I’m sorry if I upset anyone, please be aware that it’s not necessarily you, it’s me. Going through some stuff right now and am too emotional to control my temper, so taking a step back for a while.

If you want to help Burma and other needy countries, I suggest you donate to Doctors Without Borders or the International Red Cross.

Thanks for visiting!