What if? .....

[Katharine]

I'm not usually a person who thinks what else I could have made of my life but this week I have been having those thoughts for two reasons - I am reading Heart of Darfur written by a Kiwi Medecins Sans Froniers nurse, with that and the cyclone in Burma I have been wondering what if ... While I was at university I wanted to go into Aid Administration work. I spoke to several charities - certainly Oxfam and SCF and the general advice was to get field experience by doing VSO. Thus I went to Ghana intending to do three years there and then ... however Cupid struck and I never worked officially in aid work although always managed to find something fairly useful and humanitarian to do wherever we were posted.

This week I have been wondering would I have been one of the people tearing her hair out with frustration at the Burmese authorities - or would I have suffered burn out years ago? Or would I have been one of the logistics people in Darfur?

Just in case you're wondering I don't really regret the choices I made, but sometimes feel I didn't fulfil my potential (I'm sure DR would think I'd failed her!). I have had a good life (so far!) and am very happily married!

[gma]

Just in case you're wondering I don't really regret the choices I made, but sometimes feel I didn't fulfil my potential (I'm sure DR would think I'd failed her!). I have had a good life (so far!) and am very happily married!

You could always play 'what would have happened if you'd married the one who asked you before you married this one'!!

For me, I knwo I certainly wouldn't have been sitting in my sunny garden in Berkshire, 'working' on my laptop on this lovely Thursday afternoon! (Although my Chamless-Mother-In-Law would have been just as loathsome!!)

[J.R.]

I'm pleased the Burmese Government have now relented and are allowing aid in.

In the long term, it might help them realise they cannot completely insulate a country.

[gma]

I'm pleased the Burmese Government have now relented and are allowing aid in.

In the long term, it might help them realise they cannot completely insulate a country.

Have friends with family still in Burma and the PR will never reach the people that 'outsiders' helped. Let's hope that they don't follow the same route as some of the countries hit by the tsunami and end up with the aid never reaching those who actually most in need of receiving it. Same thing happened Bhopal as the locals were not of high enough caste to have any political influence and vast quantities of the money vanished or built 'colonial' manses for the regional politicians.

[J.R.]

Who watched the 'Time-Team' Special about all the relics bought up from the North Sea from what is now known as the Dogger Bank ?

The frightening thing is, they have worked out that the current ice-cap melt is over 10 times faster than the last major thaw which cut Britain off from what is now Europe !

[Ajarn Philip]

Interesting (and gratifying) to see this topic crop up on this forum. I live on the narrow bit of the isthmus that Thailand shares with Burma, I suppose I'm about 50 miles away as the minah bird flies. One of the reasons that Burma comes under so little real pressure from its immediate neighbours is that it is a major source of (in particular) natural gas. Not that Thailand can be too preachy about military dictatorships, although I'm told it's a democracy here for the moment.

There are many Burmese refugees and illegal immigrants here, most labouring, fishing or simply trying to get by, and all very much looked down on by most Thai people.

As far as I can make out, some aid is getting in, but we're talking about an unprecedented national disaster on an unimaginable scale. It now seems likely that as many as 100,000 people may have died, almost half as many as died in all countries affected by the tsunami. If a little aid is starting to trickle in, it will inevitably be too little, too late. The junta will simply not permit access to many areas.

One of the reasons I shake my head at the pontification and self-justification of the Bushes and Blairs over Iraq is Burma. How long would it take to change the regime there? 3 days, and it would all be over. And not one resident of the country would voice a word of protest - on the contrary, anyone except the Chinese would be welcomed with open arms. The troops could all go home in a week.

[gma]

My hairdresser is the Grandson ofthe last Shan (sorry, no idea how it should be spelled) dynasty ruling head and he escaped with his Mother and siblings from Burma after the 'invasion'. He went back with his Mother last year after a book was published about his family to see if they could find any - fortunately his Father was not Burmese so they maanged to get and visited a family member up country to find him acting as a gardener on the estate that was his and hiding portartaits of the royal family behind moth eaten curtains on walls. He told them that it was a hanging offense to display such pictures - with all the focus on China as it is now with Olympics, animal cruelty, trade practices, Dafur and Tibet (and not in that order either) you would think that the International community would have and use a little more weight than it does, you only have to look at Africa to see the complete waste of time and money that is the UN - their offshoots do a fantatsic jobs but the ruling body is more political and more corrupt than all the nations it represents.

I saw a quote the other day that may land home, particularly given the turn that this thread has taken

"I believe that I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us."
Konrad Lorenz, Ethologist, Nobel laureate (1903-1989)

[englishangel]

Great quote, and obviously a piece from the heart Gerri. and sort of(if we were ever off), when I was leaving university as an about to be married person no-one wanted to give me a job ("she'll be off having babies"). I was marrying (I thought) a chemical engineer, (petroleum, natural gas etc.) so I thought I would train as a nurse and then I could work wherever in the world we ended up, in the event he switched to business and we stayed in England. What if I had never met/married him, would I have still trained as a nurse/midwife? and I if I had would I have joined something like Medecins sans Frontieres? Several of my nursing class went off to countries which needed nurses so I hoep I would.

[Ajarn Philip]

I thought the topic was aid administration. And what's the news today? The Burmese authorities will let the aid in, but not the aid workers. Now there's a surprise.

[J.R.]

I see the subject got considerable coverage on last nights 'Question Time', on BBC 1, which, incidently, came from the Dorking Halls.

Funny thing was, when the camera was panning over the audience, I didn't recognise ANYBODY ! Do they bus people in ?

That Piers Morgan gets right up my nose. What an arrogant, rude, pretentious pratt !!

[Great Plum]

To answer your question JR, I think they must bus people in because that was not what I would call a fair represntation of the demographics of Dorking...

I have heard that the Burmese lot in charge, will allow the aid in but not the people to help - the few get richer whilst their country suffer eh?

[J.R.]

That woz very diplomatically put Matt ! Not quite how 'Er Indoors put it, anyway !

[gma]

Bless 'em, the Burmese governement have said that they can't let the aid workers in as they don't have visas, so most of them are hanging back apparantly in Thailand (look forward to verification from Phil - 'our man on the ground') but as this weekend is a Burmese national/bank holiday extending through to Tuesday they will not be able to look at the visa issue until wednesday at the earliest, as they are also struggling to maintain the necessary adminsitration for a referendum that is being carried out by the government. Spoke to my Burmese friend today, (can neithers ay nor spell his Burmese name and for some reason he vhose Brian as his english name!) to see how his family is doing and he has confirmed via his Uncle in Rangoon that the national news channels are all showing Burmese government soldiers handing out special aid packages 'donated by your Government' and tere is no mentionof foreign aid. There is no word from is family in the south as even those in non affected areas have had their electricity supply either damaged or suspended.

Getting off hobby horse now. Sorry for the hijack.

Do you know what really burns my ass?
A flame about 3 feet high.
Dolly Parton - 1976

[Ajarn Philip]

Bless 'em, the Burmese governement have said that they can't let the aid workers in as they don't have visas, so most of them are hanging back apparantly in Thailand (look forward to verification from Phil - 'our man on the ground') but as this weekend is a Burmese national/bank holiday extending through to Tuesday they will not be able to look at the visa issue until wednesday at the earliest, as they are also struggling to maintain the necessary adminsitration for a referendum that is being carried out by the government.

Your man on the ground is almost on the floor right now (check post time), but yes, I can confirm that the Burmese (oops sorry, Myanmar) Embassy is closed for a very long weekend - combined Thai and Burmese national holidays. Of course they couldn't make an exception. And of course the essential referendum on democracy/whatever is far too important to postpone, especially as over half the population are unable to vote due to a need to somehow survive the next few weeks.

[Wuppertal]

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