Burma

Man's inhumanity to his fellow fan never ceases to shock me and the situation in Burma following the devastation caused by last weeks hurricane shows how low the well being of a country's citizens are on the list of priorities for a military regime that does not wish to be subjected to the prying eyes of the west. The reluctance of the Junta to allow foreign aid workers into the country because of the belief that they would simply be spys for agents of western democracy is callous at best. The storing of food at Government centres whilst the rivers are filled with the blackened decomposing bodies of the dead is simply beyond any horror I can imagine the rulers of a country committing against its own people apart from genocide.

It seems incredible to me that in the west we can devise all sorts of ways and means to rid the world of despots, which in the case of Iraq has meant the further deaths of around half a million people under the misapprehension that a westernised democracy may one day visit itself on that country, whilst we sit on our hands when it comes to actually aiding the dying of another country. The French have come up with the right idea, not for the first time it must be said when it comes to humanitarian matters, by quoting the UN Charter that specifically allows food drops when a country's citizens are at risk from starvation. Of course Russia and China veto any move that allows such a drop. Watching Newsnight last night it was incredible to hear the excuses offered for not carrying out such a plan - the food would be dropped in the wrong areas, there is no guarantee that those in need would receive it. Well excuse me for being Mr Angry and Mr Cynical but we have the technology to send a cruise missile from a ship in the Mediterranean through the window of the PLO compound in Ramalla, surely we can drop a food parcel from a C130 into the correct coordinates on the Google Map of Burma!

Political ideologies led to more deaths in the 20th century than any wars, forget Hitler, the biggest killers were Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot - people who killed those who were perceived as enemies within their own countries. Now we have a military junta that blatantly and flagrantly opposes any form of democracy within its own borders denying its own people one of the five basic human rights as defined by the United Nations Constitution.

Watching the output from Burmese television last night was one of the most nauseating spectacles I think I have ever witnessed. It's up there with film of the Warsaw ghetto and Klu Klux Klan rallies in terms of its cynicism and public manipulation, the idea that a song and dance programme promoting today's referendum is somehow the most important thing in the world right now is deplorable. As I said on Gavin's station the Junta will win any referendum because they cannot be seen to lose, they make Robert Mugabe look like a paragon of democratic virtue when it comes to manipulation of ballot boxes and of course by winning they will announce that the people have given them a mandate to continue their 'good work.'

Officially there are now more than 100,000 dead from what was initially a natural disaster, how many of that figure have died as a result of the aftermath is not known. What is known is that cholera epidemics begin 10 days after such an occurence, once that milestone is passed the country enters what can only be described as the equivalent of post operative complications.

I just feel very angry, very humble and very grateful that despite the shortcomings of our own version of democracy we have yet to reach the stage where letting our people die is seen as a viable alternative to letting them have their say at the polling station.