{"id":1621,"date":"2008-05-26T03:38:42","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T03:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2017-08-17T04:03:57","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T04:03:57","slug":"the-acts-of-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/the-acts-of-man\/","title":{"rendered":"The Acts of Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is there a reason<\/span> why the situation in Myanmar angers me so?\u00a0\u00a0It is late May, and on May 2 Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country, likely killing over 120,000 people, and 2.5 million require immediate aid.\u00a0\u00a0Only now has the\u00a0government accepted the idea of genuine aid<\/a>\u00a0into the country, after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited there.\u00a0\u00a0Even so, no significant aid has\u2014even today\u2014been delivered.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need here to hash out all the reasons why this is.\u00a0\u00a0The military junta, a corrupt cadre of generals who refused to accept the results of a 1990s democratic election, is now\u00a0infamous for human rights abuses<\/a>, violations of international agreements, and other atrocities.\u00a0\u00a0Some initial attempts by the UN and ASEAN to deliver food found the government taking it for their own uses.\u00a0\u00a0And the dozens of US and European ships off the coast are laden with helicopters ready to deliver everything they need.<\/p>\n

Contrast this audacity to the healthy and immediate response of China to its recent earthquake in Sichuan, an enormous natural disaster filled with stories of success and optimism. (And contrast this, too, to the 1976 earthquake in China where borders were closed and 250,000 died.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not just airdrop the aid?\u201d a CNN commentator asked a UN aid coordinator.\u00a0\u00a0That would be a violation of Myanmar\u2019s air space, he replied. And, \u201cWe prefer to work with the government, if at all possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonsense. As hundreds and thousands die each day, clogging the rivers with bodies, every diplomatic mistake is too great.\u00a0\u00a0Three weeks have passed as I am writing this with diplomatic touring, diplomatic tea, and diplomatic cordialities hiding the real deaths which are so easily preventable.\u00a0\u00a0Sovereignty is not sacred\u2014it must not be.<\/p>\n

I could offer international legal justifications for broaching Myanmar air space (how the ICCPR does not allow human rights violations which, through neglect, cause suffering and death, even when a state of emergency is declared, for instance).\u00a0\u00a0The bottom line, however, is moral as well as political: a government has an obligation to the welfare of its people.\u00a0\u00a0If it fails this obligation, it is no government.\u00a0\u00a0And if no legitimate government, no worries about sovereign airspace.<\/p>\n

The US has the helicopters ready.\u00a0\u00a0Send them in.\u00a0\u00a0We could cross borders for worse reasons.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In doing so, the US should also go to the United Nations to author a new Universal Declaration of Disaster Relief, to be signed by all nations, an expectation that in the event of catastrophic natural disasters all nations are expected to coordinate with regional and international aid agencies to bring in support within 48 hours.\u00a0\u00a0To delay longer is not merely negligence but a crime against humanity.<\/p>\n

Under a UDDR, disaster relief will not be turned down and will be coordinated by the most able international agencies available.\u00a0\u00a0Signatories would agree that delays would indicate their abdication of host nation status and management of the disaster:\u00a0\u00a0the world would take over where the government failed.\u00a0\u00a0(And the US could also not repeat its hubris in\u00a0turning down relief from Cuba<\/a>\u00a0following Hurricane Katrina.)<\/p>\n

Okay, you sense that I am angry.\u00a0\u00a0But the idiocy of Myanmar ruling General Than Shwe (a UN spokesperson said that the government was \u201cnot the most enlightened\u201d) is not what puzzles me most.\u00a0\u00a0I want to know why I\u2019m angry at this negligence and I do not raise similar ire at the same government\u2019s or Nigeria\u2019s violence against ethnic minorities, at Russia\u2019s declaration that a gay pride parade was \u201csatanic,\u201d the denial of rights of the Chiapas Indians in Mexico, or the innumerable wars in Somalia or the Caucasus.<\/p>\n

Is it because when humans attack humans, I am saddened but not surprised\u2014yet when the natural world strikes the innocent I am moved? Am I, then, so jaded by human cruelty, selfishness, and ignorance that I am numbed to it?\u00a0\u00a0Am I more moved by an \u201cAct of God\u201d than an \u201cAct of Man\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Or is it that I can\u2019t imagine why\u00a0anyone<\/em>\u00a0would hesitate to help those whose homes have burned or flooded, but can somehow rationalize an Armenia or a Darfur? (That one makes me shudder.)<\/p>\n

Is it simply the ferocity, speed, and devastation of the tsunami or wildfire which moves me whereas man-made deaths, however terrible, are dragged out over time and cannot compare in intensity (or attention-deficit news coverage)?<\/p>\n

Even now, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0\u00a0But it strikes me, that all of these are, in the end, human acts.\u00a0\u00a0The Sudanese, Nigerian, and North Korean governments select their policies, perpetuate their crimes with premeditation\u2014just as the governments of Myanmar and China make opposite decisions for their people affected by natural disasters.<\/p>\n

After 48 hours, the negligence of Myanmar moves beyond the excusable.\u00a0\u00a0The decisions to deny visas to aid workers and holding aid in Rangoon\u00a0are premeditated, no different from a government intentionally shutting off heat and water supplies, no different from a government intentionally firing hundreds of thousands of bullets.<\/p>\n

The rest of the world must decide how long the slaughter will continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there a reason why the situation in Myanmar angers me so?\u00a0\u00a0It is late May, and on May 2 Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country, likely killing over 120,000 people, and 2.5 million require immediate aid.\u00a0\u00a0Only now has the\u00a0government accepted the idea of genuine aid\u00a0into the country, after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited there.\u00a0\u00a0Even so, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,323,256],"tags":[532,530,531,440,529],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-global-issues","category-politics-and-ethics","tag-aid","tag-burma","tag-cyclone","tag-disaster","tag-myanmar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/acts6.jpg?fit=401%2C306&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1686,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/listening-to-joplin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":0},"title":"Listening to Joplin","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jun 27","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is a republishing of my blog post on\u00a0The Royal Oak Patch, June 27, 2011 Somewhere through the middle of a week like Joplin I begin to ask myself what I can possibly say to help my students process their experience, to learn from it whatever lessons they most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/joplin-e1503247245712.jpg?fit=350%2C234&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":806,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/kafkaesque\/","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":1},"title":"Kafkaesque","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2007 Oct 7","format":false,"excerpt":"In his book,\u00a0An Assault on Reason, Al Gore draws a parallel between the fate of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Joseph K. in Kafka\u2019s\u00a0The Trial.\u00a0\u00a0The detainees, he writes, have not been told the crimes with which they have been charged, they are \u201cserved\u201d by secret courts, and their friends and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/trial.jpg?fit=402%2C302&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":821,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/the-buffers-of-new-orleans\/","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":2},"title":"The Buffers of New Orleans","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Feb 21","format":false,"excerpt":"Over the last week or so I\u2019ve been thinking about what I wanted to write of New Orleans.\u00a0\u00a0Thirty months following the storm, over 4000 homes are still untouched.\u00a0\u00a0FEMA trailers are toxic. The media has all but quit talking about it.\u00a0\u00a0Brad Pitt builds a few show homes well out of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/nola-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1700,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/1700-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":3},"title":"The Cuban Reality","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jul 7","format":false,"excerpt":"Cuba: July 6, 2011 I want to write of a formula for understanding Cuban politics and culture. I want to say that all of these poor and oppressed people, holding together through music and art, would be happiest if we were able to remove the evil Castro regime and let\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ChizBlog"","block_context":{"text":"ChizBlog","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/category\/chizblog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/cuba3.jpg?fit=400%2C302&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":794,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/opportunity-and-anxiety\/","url_meta":{"origin":1621,"position":4},"title":"Opportunity and Anxiety","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2011 Jan 30","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write this, Hosni Mubarak's resignation video plays on YouTube. It's a surreal idea, imagining somehow that I can recline on my sofa with a laptop and witness an historic moment of regime change from a major US ally. 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