Burmese Days

If the Burmese military junta were embodied in a single person, that person would need to be hospitalized for severe mental illness. The recent games the junta has been playing with the international community, and its own people through its propaganda machine, are symptomatic of some serious troubles: grandiosity, narcissism, the list goes on. In the past the little guy (the military government) has been a bit of a sociopath with a severe personality disorder.

The more recent failure to protect its own citizens in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis by restricting foreign aid, denying visas to foreigners, and insisting that all aid be managed by the junta, represents a level of delusion that is criminally insane. The government, through its "news" outlets like the New Light of Myanmar, continues to insist that everything is fine, the situation is firmly under its control, and that all of Burma's citizens who need assistance are getting it. Perhaps this is more magical thinking than delusion: if they wish hard enough, maybe all their problems will go away.

It's clear that the junta isn't going to let Western aid agencies into the remote regions that need the most help, but let's hope that their newest promise to let aid be delivered by their ASEAN neighbors will prove fruitful. Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines are all countries with both governmental and nongovernmental agencies that are capable of delivering aid in emergency situations. Let's just hope they're given the chance.