If you are in Auckland, 15th March, you can enjoy loads of delicious Burmese and ethnic foods, with a short report from Dr Aung Mang of MEGST on cyclone relief and Christian witness as well as a cultural display with ethnic dancing. A fun and informative evening out.
5pm-8pm at Laidlaw College (ex-BCNZ) just $30. The details are here do tell your friends of make up a party!
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
Tom Sine’s “Seed Sampler” email included this timely item from Samantha Baker-Evans, InnerCHANGE Cambodia
A few people have asked me recently how Cambodians are dealing with the ‘recession.’ Recognizing their genuine concern and good hearts, I have searched for a diplomatic and non-melodramatic response, but in this case, the truth is just not reassuring. How are Cambodians responding to the recession? They are dying from it, the slow, silent death of old people and small children from malnutrition as rising food prices cause families to eat less with less variety. Crises like these are hard on all of us, but disproportionately affect the poor. Since Cambodia came out of war and oppression in 1991, the people have benefited from development, and a new middle class has grown, but the last two years have brought high inflation. Families that were finally stabilizing are now falling back into poverty.
Naw Ree Kah prepares food
The reminder came as we are planning to send a small sum to the refugee camp to help feed the extra mouths who have retreated there since cyclone Nargis. Already back in April the TBBC had to cut the food ration they give to refugees, then in May Nargis struck, and over the months since more and more unregistered but desperate people have arrived at the camps. So the meagre rations have had to be spread even more thinly.
So if you are in a tizzy over the global financial meltdown, as well as being angry at the bankers whose greed caused it, please also spare a thought and some cash for those who are REALLY hurting.
The photo comes from a fine photo post on Timelight @ Mae La
on “The new arrivals and their food in Mae La Camp”
Radio NZ had a short feature on Burma, focusing mainly on ongoing relief efforts after Cyclone Nargis. It was good they mainly interviewed Burmese and Karen people (Stu Corlett was among the Kiwis interviewed). Apart from a (natural) media tendency to dramatise it was a good brief introduction. You can listen from this link:
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
I must have had a reverse “senior moment”, I remember writing a post about the Burmese Evening at BCNZ put on by the West Auckland Burmese community, with Burmese food and dancing and songs from Karen, Chin and Kachin groups, but when Miriam sent me a notice about it, I can’t find the post anywhere 
So, here, belatedly, is a link to the invitation, and extracts of the details, it is:
221 Lincoln Rd, Henderson, traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save, “entrance through the muli-storey brick building at the end of the drive”If anyone needs lift from over our way please contact me!
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone · people
There are two new posts on the Partners blog, both muse on different aspects of providing assistance to cyclone victims. Kath (in the context of underlining how the presence of foreigners can help) tells a heartbreaking story:
What difference could one person like me make? One distraught woman, of a similar age to me, shared how she had heard her mother calling for help from the rice field but both her and her husband were carrying two of their children each trying to keep all heads above the rising water
and were unable to go to her aid. This family lost their home and all of their belongings but fortunately all of their children miraculously survived. However now they are grieving the loss of their mother and grandmother. Who else around her had the strength to listen to her tell
her story over again as if it was the first time, when everyone else had their own tragic story? Instead God supplied the ears of an Australian. I offered reassurance that she had made the right choice as a mother, a gentle squeeze of the hand and a prayer of blessing over their new home and her family. I attempted to instill hope that many on the other side of the world are being moved into action to pray, to give, and to be a voice for the suffering people of Burma.
While Ruth herself, in a longer post mentions the necessarily unsung heros:
those working in Burma, of aid getting through to the survivors despite all the obstacles, and of the brave local community leaders who have been delivering the aid despite the threat of imprisonment or even death at the hand of the military regime.
We may not hear their stories, we certainly won’t know their names, but we should pray for these people, their love and determination in the face of a cruel and powerful “government” is making all the difference in a disaster that has hit the delta region worse than the tsunami did.
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
If you can bear it, read one man’s account of cyclone Nargis. Great tragedies are composed of many many stories like this one. But in some ways the saddest thing is that out of his suffering the military will gain.
Thbe Burmese Christian Community in West Auckland are putting on a cultural evening and food. Karen, Chin and Kachin groups are involved this is a great chance to hear their singing, see their dances and taste their food. The evening costs $25 and all profits will go to small-scale local cyclone relief:
Sunday 20th July, 5PM to 7PM
Bible College of NZ
221 Lincoln Road
Henderson (traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save – entrance to dinner through multi-storey carpark building at the end of the drive).
Please reply to:
Adrienne Coats 837 1507
Khun Aung 630 8975
and if possible arrange to pay in advance!
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
If you can bear it, watch the ITN report from Mae Sot on the Myanmar military dictators and aid to the cyclone victims. The video: Myanmar’s cyclone refugees is available from the CNN site.
It is so sad. I hope it makes you angry too.
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone · video
The NY Times has a report “Weeks After Cyclone in Myanmar, Even Farmers Wait for Food” in case you do not have time to read it here are a few extracts:
Few of those who wait say they have received anything from the government, other than threats.
“They said if we don’t break our huts and disappear, they will shoot us,” one man in the village of Thee Kone said over the weekend before a police jeep approached. “But as you can see, it’s raining now. We are pleading to the police to give us one more day and we will be gone far, far from the road, as they wish.”
Or again:
Villagers in the region, which previously provided much of the rice for the country of 48 million, now squat along miles of roads, holding out bowls to the occasional passing cars bringing food and other supplies. Children keep a vigil, rushing to the vehicles for handouts, sometimes thrusting their arms inside the cars’ windows.
“I don’t know how the government is helping us,” said [... in ...], a delta town 30 miles south of Yangon, Myanmar’s main city. He said the only aid he had seen was delivered by other Burmese citizens.
“I am no beggar, so I didn’t eat anything in the past two days,” he said, leaning against a roadside palm tree. “Besides, you shouldn’t compete with kids for begged food.”
If you can bear pictures Mizzima has lots.
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
Yesterday we heard of the youngest survivor found by our group rescuing
people in the delta area. A three month old baby was found still alive
after being wrapped up and tied up in a tree 12 feet off the ground.
What’s amazing is that she missed being swept away in the flood water
which rose to up to 12 feet in places, that the many snakes also trying
to keep out of the water didn’t bite and kill her, and that the sand
and salt being whipped around in the seriously strong winds didn’t
suffocate her. Her mother is silently rejoicing, unlike many of the
other mothers around her in mourning.
She also reports that a shipment of 7 tonnes of rich and enough plastic sheeting to shelter 100 families from the monsoons has reached Rangoon/Yangon for distribution.
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone
Tagged: cyclone, nargis
Today is my 60th birthday. This year the Karen people have been in conflict with the government for 60 years. The military dictators who took power in 1962 (and use the name Myanmar for the country) have exacerbated this conflict into an attempt at genocide. The stories of how their troops act when in Karen state are horrifying. To add to this some 50% of the people in the areas of Burma worst affected by the cyclone are Karen.
One of the existing dorms at the school
So, if you are in Auckland please consider coming to my party on Sunday evening, bring a gift (of money) for a school that educates Karen Displaced People’s children – the school is safely in Thailand, but the children’s families are mainly in Burma.
A donor who was supplying money for the girls’ dorm has pulled out, the roofing on the old one needs replacing, and the rains are starting…
Categories: burma/myanmar · cyclone · school
Tagged: cyclone, idp, nargis, school
Today’s Bible reading