Post-Nargis Junta Spin

[GWR]

Doubtless, the thinking goes something like this. "The fact that I decided to scuttle off inland should have been ALL the warning YOU villagers ever needed!" One might want to point out that most of that 'profound wisdom' must have come from his personal soothsayer, who told him to move the capital because of an impending natural catastrophe. Obviously a soothsayer with a degree in hydrology! But first a quote from The Myanma Ahlin, a SPDC (SLORC)-run newspaper:

People from the Irrawaddy delta can survive on their own, even without bars of chocolate donated by the international community. They can live on fresh vegetables that grow wild in the fields and on protein-rich fish from the rivers.“

Senior General praised for "profound wisdom"
News - S.H.A.N.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
A Kadaw Bwe (offertory) was recently held in Burma's new capital in honour of Senior General Than Shwe for his "foresight" in moving there in 2005 from the now cyclone-ravaged Rangoon, according to a reliable government source.

The Kadaw Bwe was said to have taken place a few days before the senior general paid his first visit to the Nargis victims in the former capital two weeks after the cyclone tore through Burma's delta. It was attended by the armed forces top commanders and government ministers. "If it wasn't for his profound wisdom, the country would be left without direction," Maj-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region Command, was quoted as saying.

The senior general reportedly issued another unusual directive on the occasion. "It was to build 30-ft high roads between villages and towns in the delta," the source said. "They would serve a double purpose: for travel and as breakwaters, not unlike the dikes of Holland we've been hearing about."

The bulk of the proposed $ 11 billion for reconstruction will go to the "Dikes of Myanmar," according to him.

"Naturally, the construction minister, the irrigation minister and the southwest region commander are now at each other's throats for control of the project," he said.

Burma has asked for more than $11 billion in aid. In response, international donors say they need access to verify the needs. The World Bank meanwhile says it cannot lend money to Burma because the country has been in arrears with the bank since 1998.

http://bnionline.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4232&Itemid=1

[GWR]

See also previous post

Let them eat frogs

Rangoon - The military junta began evicting destitute families from cyclone relief centres on Friday and rejected foreign food aid - because people can survive perfectly well by hunting "large, edible frogs."

The New Light of Myanmar "newspaper", a government mouthpiece, also warned that foreign relief workers would snoop inside homes, and condemned donors for linking aid money to full access to the hardest-hit regions in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The tirade came as the junta tightened its political grip on the country, extending democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and announcing that its new constitution has been enacted.

The regime says the charter will pave the way for democratic elections in two years, but dissidents say it will enshrine military rule in a country ruled by generals since 1962.

"It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable," a government official said at one camp where people had been told to clear out at short notice. "Here, they are relying on donations and it is not stable."

Locals and aid workers said 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30km south of Rangoon, were being cleared as part of a general eviction plan.

"We knew we had to go at some point but we had hoped for more support," 21-year-old trishaw driver Kyaw Moe Thu said as he trudged out of the camp with his five brothers and sisters.

They had been given 20 bamboo poles and some tarpaulins to help rebuild their lives in the Irrawaddy delta, where 134,000 people were left dead or missing by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

"Right now, we are disappointed," Kyaw Moe Thu said. "We were promised 30 poles by the government. They told us we will get rice each month, but right now we have nothing."

Why would they want rice? wondered the military regime.

After several days of praising the work of the United Nations and charities, the regime's official newspaper renewed its attacks on foreign aid and insisted Burmese could survive without outside help.

"The government and the people are like parents and children," the paper said. "We, all the people, were pleased with the efforts of the government."

"Myanmar (Burmese) people are capable enough of rising from such natural disasters even if they are not provided with international assistance," the newspaper said.

"Myanmar people can easily get fish for dishes by just fishing in the fields and ditches," the paper said. "In the early monsoon, large edible frogs are abundant."

"The people (of the Irrawaddy delta) can survive with self-reliant efforts even if they are not given chocolate bars from (the) international community," it added.

No aid agencies are known to have provided chocolate bars to victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The United Nations estimates that about one million people in the delta are still without emergency aid. (Agencies)

Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=127914

[GWR]

June 12, 2008 12:58 PM
Myanmar To Build First Storm-resistant Model Village

YANGON, June 12 (Bernama) -- Myanmar will build a first-ever storm-resistant model village in cooperation with international experts, said Xinhua news agency quoting a report in the leading local weekly Yangon Times Thursday.

With the assistance of experts from the Tokyo University of Japan and with the combination of technical knowhow applied in most cyclone-hit Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and that of Myanmar's local regions, such cyclone-resistant model village will be constructed, the report said, quoting Myanmar Engineers' Association as saying.

Such model village will be initially built in suitable location in Yangon division, one of two cyclone-hardest-hit divisions after Ayeyawaddy delta, by taking two years' time and is targeted to be completed by February 2010, it said.

According to the report, coordination is being made between the Tokyo University and the Myanmar engineers' association for the move.

The 40-house model village will comprise storm shelter, water distribution system using natural gravity, solar-energy power supply system and cyclone-resistant apartments, it added.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.

Villages in some townships such as Ngaputaw, Laputta, Bogalay, Dedaye, Phyapon, Mawlamyinegyun and Haigyigyun in Ayeyawaddy delta and Kungyangon, Kawmu and Kyauktan in Yangon division were almost totally destroyed and some even erased.

The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 9,359 injured according to official-released death toll.

Non-specific link:
http://www.bernama.com.my/

[GWR]

Learning lessons from disaster
By Aung Sithu Hein and Shin Min Nwe

SOME disregarded the warnings. Others failed to grasp the technical language of the weather forecasts. And still others, deeply attached to their farms and villages, thought they could ride out the storm. And now the authorities are determined to make sure that a disaster like last May’s cyclone Nargis will not wreak the same havoc if a similar event should befall.

“Our relatives from Yangon warned us to move here from Bogale two days ago before Nargis struck. But my Dad and Mum refused to move, because they loved their hometown so much and couldn’t bear to leave,” said tearful survivor Ko Htoo.

“Even after they heard the weather forecast, some villagers did not understand the terminology, and stayed at home. Some packed up their possessions – clothes, jewellery and so on – just in case they had to flee the storm,” he said.

“Once there was a storm in India that was stronger than Nargis. It killed 50,000 people, but that was lower than the predicted casualty rate because many people managed to reach a place of safety in time,” said U Tun Lwin, the director general of Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

U Tun Lwin told The Myanmar Times of his sadness, both at the high toll of Nargis and of the fact that many of his listeners did not understand the information he had begun to broadcast two weeks before the tragedy. He puts it down to the fact that local people had little interest in the weather news, and they were devoted to their homes, farms and land.

The government and technicians in the field believe it will be possible to avoid a similar disaster in the future, but only if people abandon their traditional beliefs and take the necessary precautions.

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology is organising a seminar on meteorology in Yangon for early 2009, where meteorologists will discuss how to prepare for storms, and how to warn people in plain language what is in store, U Tun Lwin said.

“The seminar will include an educational program on understanding meteorological terminology,” he said.

Many are not even aware of the role of the Myanmar Fire Brigade (MFB). The brigade has plenty of relief equipment and is trained to save life in the event of a natural disaster, but most people still do not report such situations because they think the fire brigade is just there to put out fires, said U Kyaw Min, the Brigade’s assistant director.

U Zaw Htoo Oo, program officer of the Myanmar Red Cross Society, told The Myanmar Times that his organisation has set aside relief supplies in Red Cross warehouses throughout the country against a repeat natural disaster.

http://www.mmtimes.com/no431/n007.htm

[GWR]

Last updated on Friday, August 15, 2008.
New Light of Myanmar
High Tide Warning

YANGON, 14 Aug - The public are hereby informed that exceptionally high spring of from 20.01 feet to 20.90 feet high above the datum are expected to occur in Yangon River during the period from 17th August to 22nd August 2008. That it is not serious because the high tide reached up to 21.7 feet high above datum in the year 2006 and 2007, and that the warning is issued only because high tide reaches over 20 feet high above datum.
Non-specific link:
http://www.myanmar.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html