Myanmar. And Congo. And Darfur …

My evening news channel, CanWest Global, says that 22,500 people are reported dead and 44,000 missing after a cyclone hit Myanmar.  These numbers have more than doubled each day since the deadly storm.  From the Guardian/UK

The dramatically escalating toll of dead and missing four days after Cyclone Nargis slammed into the south and centre of the country reflects the degree of devastation and remoteness of the worst-affected areas along the coast.

The military regime in Burma, known for the brutal repression of its people, has said it would accept international help, and teams of specialists are making their way to the affected areas.

Noppadol Pattama, Thailand’s foreign minister, said the Burmese ambassador to Bangkok, Ye Win, told him that 30,000 were missing. Asia’s worst cyclone hit Bangladesh in 1991, killing 143,000.

In the delta area to the south and south-west of Rangoon, witnesses described how 16 villages along the coast near another devastated town, Laputta, had simply vanished in the flood surge.

Aid agencies have estimated that as many as 1 million people may be without shelter after their flimsy bamboo homes were torn down by the winds or washed away in the flooding that left a carpet of mud when it receded.

“We have a major humanitarian catastrophe on our hands,” said Chris Kaye, Burma country director for the UN’s World Food Programme.

“The numbers are harrowing. Certainly, we know that in areas in the southern delta - towns like Bogalay and Laputta - were very, very badly affected by the storm surge. A surge in low-lying areas coupled with high winds served to flatten areas, taking villages and villagers with it. It’s a tragic and serious situation,” he said.

I want to know why the world rushes to the assistance of this country and these people while at the same time virtually ignoring the crises in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo; why thus far we have done little to deal with rising food prices causing malnutrition in developing countries such as Haiti; and on and on.  I am certainly not suggesting that we ignore Mynamar’s people.  But we do need to check our arrogance about humanitarianism.  We help where we want to help. 

Some analysts of the situation in the DRC note that the instability and permanent state of war in that country for the last ten years, now marked by atrocities against tens of thousands of women and children, is actually rather convenient for Western countries such as the US and, no doubt, Canada and other countries who can pillage the country’s natural resources with impunity.  For instance, it is estimated that one million dollars worth of coltan  (a mineral used to produce cell phones, computer chips, laptops and other electronics) is removed from the DRC EACH DAY.  And unknown quantities of diamonds, gold and other precious stones and minerals.  If action in Iraq is to some degree about oil, is inaction in the DRC about plundering this resource-rich country?  In Darfur, China has already staked out much of the oil produced by Sudan.  If Western countries responded to the crisis there, what would they get in return?  Is this how we decide who deserves our help?  I’m not saying I know the answer.  But I think the question is important.  With respect to the mineral resources being plundered in Congo, see   this  and   this   and   this

The relationship between the pillaging of natural resources and the tragic violence against women in Congo is also documented in the compelling documentary The Greatest Silence : Rape in the Congo  by Lisa Jackson.