Brian Martinez ([info]cluebyfour) wrote,
@ 2008-05-09 10:58:00
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Entry tags:bureaucracy, disaster, government

Reason # 534 why I'm an anarchist
It's because states are capable of doing this:

Myanmar's junta seized U.N. aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating cyclone, prompting the world body to suspend further help on Friday.

The U.N. said the aid included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits and arrived in Myanmar on Friday on two flights from Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.

"All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated," U.N. World Food Program spokesman Paul Risley said. "For the time being, we have no choice but to end further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at this time."

Myanmar's government acknowledged taking control of the shipments and said it plans to distribute the aid "without delay by its own labor to the affected areas."

In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, government spokesman Ye Htut said the junta had "clearly stated" what it would do and denied the action amounted to a seizure.

Yeah, anyone actually believe those last two paragraphs?  Now I'm hesitant to even donate to relief efforts, because the money may get wasted by the bureaucratic meddling of Myanmar's government.  If they truly cared about their people's welfare, they'd let relief workers just do their job.  I think the Burmese are a lot more focused on survival than staging an uprising at this point.

How ironic, that bureaucratic inefficiency leads to rather efficient mass murder.  And it's happened time and again.

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[info]mama_gryphon
2008-05-09 05:23 pm UTC (link)
Well, whatever works for the government there you know. A few less whining peasents is probably just what the doctor ordered.

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[info]theminaoflife
2008-05-09 05:59 pm UTC (link)
In my neighborhood in Egypt, every now and then the police would come in and evict all the street peddlers and close down street stands. This was technically legal because you needed a license to sell, a requirement passed into law on the grounds that food street stands were unsanitary (which they were, no doubt about it). Once everyone had been evicted, the friends of the police would come in and open their own shops, now free of any competition, and they usually sold at inflated prices. My family was wealthy enough to own a car, so we'd invariably have to drive to a different neighborhood for shopping whenever the police decided they'd like to take over the market, though not everyone was so fortunate.

It was always rumored that the police was selling food confiscated from food aid shipments. Though I'm not sure if this is true or not, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if something similar happens wherever food aid is shipped to.

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[info]ilcylic
2008-05-09 08:12 pm UTC (link)
I hate corruption.

Stories like this make me so mad.

(I realize it happens here too--"Eminent domain", anyone?--I'm just sayin', is all.)

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[info]cluebyfour
2008-05-09 08:26 pm UTC (link)
Repressive governments like Mubarak's, plus weak or slowly emerging economies, are particularly fertile ground for corruption.

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[info]fabianwhig
2008-05-09 09:03 pm UTC (link)
Sadly, that is true, but in some ways, I always hope that corruption increases as long as it as aimed AT THE "STATE's" resources... for every tax dollar stolen from a repressive government is back out into the economy. But, alas, it is often NOT the state, but the weak such corruption is aimed at.

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[info]theminaoflife
2008-05-10 02:02 am UTC (link)
Eminent Domain boils my blood pretty quickly too. I've always wondered why more people don't see it as outright robbery.

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[info]ilcylic
2008-05-10 07:25 am UTC (link)
Oh, I think most people do... when it happens to them.

The greatest weakness of the American public is apathy.

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[info]ilcylic
2008-05-10 07:26 am UTC (link)
Or possibly "indifference when it doesn't apply to themselves". I guess that would be "solipsism".

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[info]fabianwhig
2008-05-09 09:01 pm UTC (link)
:: blinks :: Well, that increases my likelihood of becoming more cynical than Ambrose Bierce.

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