Korean Job Discussion Forums

chris_J2 · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: From Brisbane, Au.

Looks like Myanmar is now prepared to accept ASEAN, acting as an intermediary, for Western powers it distrusts. (Paranoia is alive & well).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=abq_dld28HX8&refer=india

Not an ideal situation, but better than nothing. In view of past corruption by Myanmar thugs (swapping high quality relief aid food for low quality rotting food & stamping it's own name, over the top of International relief), I worry how much aid will actually get through?

Grab the Chickens Levi · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Location: Ilsan

mises · Joined: 05 Nov 2007 Location: retired

The reason it will accept ASEAN is because of the Junta's close relationship with the PAP in Singapore. The generals only trust the Singaporeans. The Singaporeans are the leading arms supplier to Burma. The Singaporeans built the Burmese IT infrastructure (modeled after their own, to ensure total control). The kids of the Junta study in Singapore and the Generals use the private medical facilities in Singapore when they are ill. Any negotiated settlement that involves the Junta leaving will be brokered with Lee Kwan Yew. Lastly, the vast majority of plunder is in private Singaporean accounts.

Singapore will lean on the Junta because the relationship right now if very profitable for both.

The West doesn't run the world. We don't have to take care of every problem that jumps at us from every corner of the world. Burma is in Asia. Let the Asians handle it.

mrgiles · Joined: 09 Jul 2007 Location: Seoul

sigh i always make poor judgements when i'm too hungover to do something more constructive. like weigh into an argument like this here. my hangover may also have something to do with my poor choice of words - it's a little inaccurate to call the afghan situation a "yank invasion." my bad. but i feel i shd respond anyways.

first of all i agree that the burmese situation is a monumental tragedy that shd be in all our minds, and something the entire international community should be deeply concerned with and involved in. still, i would stand by my opposition to an external military intervention. let's hope this small and ambiguous asean step helps.

now, to what i disagree with:

chris_J2 · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: From Brisbane, Au.

GTCL wrote

wannago · Joined: 16 Apr 2004

From the above website, I thought this was the most telling point of all:

chris_J2 · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Location: From Brisbane, Au.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-27-voa68.cfm

"One Million Cyclone Victims Have Received Aid in Burma... Byrs says the U.N. has huge warehouses in Rangoon and Bangkok where they can store relief items. She says the so-called air bridge between Bangkok and Rangoon is working well with 10 to 15 humanitarian flights taking off every day."

That's the good news. Now, the bad news:

"It says nearly 1.5 million people in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta have not received any international aid."

"We estimate that still around one million people have not been reached at all in the Irrawaddy Delta and since we estimate that roughly 40 percent of them are children, we can estimate some 400,000 children are not reached at all," Klaus said. "We know that hundreds of unaccompanied children have been seen and registered, including infants, children under two years of age, who need urgent support."