Burma's "Malign Neglect"

The following was posted on Huffington Post: Burma's Criminal Malign Neglect.

Burma is making China look like a world leader on human rights. The troops in China are moving out in force to help Chinese eathquake victims, while in Burma the troops have blocked the way to relief from the devastation of the Nargis cyclone.

Now, 11 days since the cyclone, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC today that the junta was guilty of "malign neglect" and that he would be amazed if 100,000 Burmese have not already died, with "hundreds of thousands" more at risk of starvation and disease.

He says that a natural disaster is turning into a "humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions". Afraid that epidemics may already be starting, relief agencies have thrown themselves into the logistics of the enormous challenge, especially in the Irrawaddy Delta, only to find soldiers blocking their way at the behest of the Burma's ailing xenophobic dictator, Senior General Than Shwe.

American Lobbyist for Myanmar

Myanmar is “a very bad government” Senator John McCain told Katie Couric of CBS on May 8. The  United States should ask China and other neighbors of Myanmar to “really put some pressure” on the junta to accept humanitarian aid.

However, two days later on May 10 at noon, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek broke the story about the connections to this government by the man managing the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn. - Doug Goodyear, CEO of DCI Group, which earned $3 million in 2007 lobbying for some of the world’s largest companies. The firm’s only foreign client was Myanmar, which paid $348,000 in 2002 to get the United States to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime.

DCI led a PR campaign for the junta, praising the country’s attempts to rein in the drug trade and attacking Bush administration "falsehoods" about rape and other abuses.

Goodyear told Newsweek that the junta's recent refusal to accept aid is "reprehensible." By 6 pm Saturday Goodyear had resigned - see YouTube post on the news.