The Indian government must provide timely, accurate, accessible information on natural disasters
The Indian Ocean tsunami that resulted in the deaths of around 20,000 Indian citizens (and displacement of around 700,000) occurred less than five years ago. The human tragedy of the earthquakes in Kashmir (October 2005) and Gujarat (January 2001) are also relatively fresh in [...]
A new territorial dispute in the Bay of Bengal
The Burmese navy has withdrawn two of its warships from an area in the Bay of Bengal 50 nautical miles south-west of Bangladesh’s St Martin’s Island. Bangladesh is to withdraw its four ships after the intruding commercial gas exploration ships leave the scene. (via Information Dissemination)
It appears [...]
America, Europe and a coalition of the willing
It should be abundantly clear by now to any thinking person that Burma’s generals are not about to open up their country to foreign relief workers, even if they somehow agree to accept foreign relief supplies. It should also be abundantly clear that in doing so, the generals [...]
And why the option of airdropping relief supplies to Burma’s disaster victims should not be dismissed
The numbers the Burmese junta killed while suppressing pro-democracy protests last year fade in comparison to the numbers they’ve killed in the last two weeks.
India’s state-run Meteorological Department said it had alerted Burma two days before the cyclone struck. The [...]
Reporters or imaginers?
“Tiger vs Dragon again, this time to help Myanmar” announces a headline in DNA. Seema Guha, who wrote that article, ‘reports’ that India and China are competing to send relief to cyclone-hit Burma.
It’s a very good example of very poor journalism.
First, it is undeniable that countries can use their participation in international [...]
The tricky business of delivering aid to victims of a natural disaster who are also victims of a repressive regime
A closed regime. Media controls. A category 4 cyclone. Damaged infrastructure. Broken communication links. Death toll first in the hundreds, rapidly upped to the tens of thousands.
It’s highly likely that the Burmese junta can’t cope with [...]
Why Tarun Khanna is wrong about Burma and confused about geopolitical power
The India-China hyphenation is doubly dangerous: one the one hand, the conflation of China and India (and its unspeakable, dreadful portmanteau) ignores the differences in the outlook, policies and global impact of these two countries. On the other, stretching the differentiation indiscriminately can lead [...]
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