His Imperial Stinginess
The death toll from this weekend’s cyclone and tidal wave in Burma has reached 22,500, with 41,000 still missing. The people of Burma already were desperately poor before the disaster, as a result of the mismanagement of the oppressive military regime running the country. Now millions of people are left without food, shelter, medical services, and probably clean water to drink. Around the globe, nations and international relief agencies are scrambling to send as much aid as possible as quickly as possible.
Well, except for the United States. The Bush Administration released a whopping $250,000 from a U.S. Embassy emergency fund for the Burma relief effort. The Bushies refuse to send more until the government of Burma allows American disaster assessment teams into Burma to, um, assess.
UNICEF has five disaster assessment teams in the hardest-hit areas already, but of course the Bushies can’t trust United Nations assessments. We have to do our own. We do a heck of a job, you know.
Seth Mydans writes for the New York Times:
The United States, which has led a drive for economic sanctions against Myanmar’s repressive regime, said it would also provide aid, but only if an American disaster team was invited into the country.
The policy was presented by the first lady, Laura Bush, , along with a lecture to the junta about human rights and disaster relief.
“This is a cheap shot,” said Aung Nain Oo, a Burmese political analyst who is based in Thailand. “The people are dying. This is no time for a political message to be aired. This is a time for relief. No one is asking for anything like this except the United States.”
Dana Milbank writes at the Washington Post:
7:58 a.m.: By e-mail, the White House Communications Office sends out its “Morning Update.” It lists two events on Bush’s schedule for the entire day: a “Social Dinner in Honor of Cinco de Mayo” and, an hour later, post-dinner entertainment. To react to the main news of the day — thousands of deaths from the cyclone in Burma — Bush sends his wife out to make a statement. She criticizes the Burmese government for its failure “to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path” and “to meet its people’s basic needs.” Reporters, too tactful to draw parallels to New Orleans, quiz her instead about daughter Jenna’s wedding, and the names of future grandchildren. “George and Georgia, Georgina, Georgette,” the first lady says.
* * *
12:39 p.m.: The White House Briefing Room. On the podium, the understudy to the understudy to the substitute to the understudy to Bush’s first White House press secretary is giving a sparsely attended briefing on what he knows about Burma blocking relief efforts (”I am not aware of that report”), about the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to a Burmese dissident (”no announcements at this point”), and about word that the Saudi crown prince is dying (”I have not seen those reports”). The news of the day thus dispensed with, the questioning turns to why West Point allows its graduates to play pro football immediately but the Naval Academy does not.
Bush is, in Milbank’s words, forgotten but not gone.
Dan Eggen quotes the First Lady:
Earlier yesterday, US first lady Laura Bush condemned the military Government in Burma for its “inept” response to the cyclone, marking an unusual foray by the President’s spouse into a high-profile foreign policy crisis.
Appearing at a White House news conference, Mrs Bush alleged that the country’s rulers purposely declined to warn people of the impending danger.
“Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path,” she said. “The response to this cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failures to meet its people’s basic needs.”
Did you catch that, New Orleans?
To be fair, France isn’t doing much better. The Associated Press reports,
In France, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also expressed regret over Myanmar’s policy on international aid, saying the country insists only on aid that the government would distribute itself and has spurned French as well as U.S. offers of personnel.
The country’s modus operandi is “not a good way of doing things,” said Kouchner, the co-founder of French aid group Doctors Without Borders, said he himself had applied for a visa to travel to Myanmar to help coordinate, but was highly doubtful it would be granted.
France has so far proposed $309,200 in aid. “It’s not a lot but we don’t really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money,” he said.
That’s a good point, and we can commiserate. We have FEMA.
BTW, today Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded a congressional gold medal. Yesterday Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a Burmese government official who said Aung San Suu Kyi is safe, but I have yet to see corroboration of that.
An Oldie But Moldie: Mahablog post from December 28, 2004, on the Bushie response to the tsunami.
Update: Dan Froomkin writes,
When a country run by a despotic and isolationist regime is laid low by a massive natural disaster, the diplomatic thing to do is to respond with a show of compassion. Not kick ‘em when they’re down.
More than 22,000 people have died in the staggering devastation caused by this weekend’s cyclone in Burma. But when First Lady Laura Bush made her first-ever visit to the White House briefing room yesterday, to talk about what’s going on in that country, it was not to deliver a message of goodwill.
Rather than announce the launch of a massive relief effort that could take advantage of a rare diplomatic opening, the first lady instead tossed insults at Burma’s leaders, blamed them for the high death toll, and lashed out at their decision to move forward with a constitutional referendum scheduled for this Saturday.
The traditionally issue-averse first lady’s concerns about the Burmese junta and its abuses of human rights date back several years, and she’s been particularly outspoken since last fall.
But why respond to a catastrophe with such hostility? The awkward timing, as it turns out, may have had something to do with an event entirely unrelated to the cyclone.
“I’m going to leave tomorrow for Crawford, for Jenna’s wedding, and I wanted to be able to make a statement about Burma before I left,” the first lady told reporters.
I suppose one would have to be pretty damn shallow to stay married to George W. Bush all these years.
. I’ve seen an advance copy, and he does a great job calling out the Right on its recklessness and meanness. Jeff is having an 
