High food prices here in the US means (for a lot of us middle class folks who have choices) we buy less of some of what we like, shop smarter, and eat out less. For the rest of the world, the cost of high food prices is much higher….refugees in camps in Thailand are having their rations cut (these were rations, not excesses!).  The following is an appeal received from friends in Thailand, put out by the Thai-Burma Border Consortium  (www.tbbc.org) which has provided for the refugee camps housing, at the moment 140,000+ people from Burma.  

TBBC, FAMILY AND FRIENDS APPEAL

Support refugees from Burma: put rice in the pot

Today, more than 140,000 refugees from Burma are living in nine camps along the Thailand Burma border.  Unlike most other situations around the world there is no United Nations-coordinating mechanism responsible for these refugees. The Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a non-profit organisation, provides all of the food to these camps and must raise its own funds. Rice is the main ingredient of the refugees’ food basket, the price of which has been seriously affected by the global food crisis.

During 2008, rice prices have more than doubled. Unless more funds can be raised quickly to cover the increased cost, TBBC will have to cut the refugee food rations to as little as 50% of the international minimum standard required to sustain life.  World attention is currently focused on the victims of cyclone Nargis and once again, we are witnessing the incapacity and unwillingness of the military junta to respond to the needs of its own people.

The people of Burma have suffered decades of human rights abuses, civil war and economic mismanagement and for 24 years, TBBC has been providing assistance to those who have had no choice but to flee to the border.  These refugees must not be forgotten. Before fleeing to Thailand, they suffered serious human rights abuses including forced labour, rape and torture and most have lost everything they owned as their villages were destroyed by the army. The refugees from Burma are confined to camps but if TBBC cannot support them with adequate food, they will be compelled to leave the camps, risking arrest, abuse, exploitation, and possible deportation back to Burma. We can expect to see serious malnutrition and health problems within a matter of weeks. Children, pregnant women and the elderly are most at risk. We are appealing to all traditional donors including governments to help us through this crisis. But we are also challenging ourselves as staff, friends and families. We believe that the huge network of family and friends we all have will make a difference.

We are setting ourselves a target of Thai baht 1.6 million (USD 50,000, EUR 32,000, GBP 25,000) by the end of June. That would be enough to provide rice to 1000 refugees to the end of 2008.  A contribution of just baht 300 (US$10, EUR 6, GBP 5) would cover the cost of rice for one refugee for a whole month, baht 1,800 (US$60, EUR36, GBP30) for the entire second half of 2008.

We can make a difference – even a little means a lot.

Donations can be made online at their web site:  www.tbbc.org for those who are interested. 

Looking at some of the suffering in Burma and other parts of the world, our western way of wanting to fix it falls short.  We are not in control, as the following forward from a friend working in Burma/Thailand so eloquently points out.  A great reminder that supporting the communities who are doing the work that us outsiders can’t do is the best way to be part of the solution.  

Forwarded by a friend working in Burma/Thailand….

“To many people who have come to know me over the years I’m a walking conundrum; alternately the ultimate cynic – relentlessly pointing out that as a species we haven’t managed to evolve over the last 5,000 years and are probably not worth saving, to the hopeless optimist – willing to put everything on the line to prove that a few good people can change the world.  Oddly, I think it’s this split personality that helps me function in Burma.
In the most of the world, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line; in Burma this could not be further from the truth.  What’s occurring right now in Burma cannot be understood by using conventional wisdom as Burma has never been a part of convention.  Burma lives in a world of it own.
As westerners we want western solutions for Burma.  We want planes to fly in supplies to save people who we know could be saved.  We live in a world where we can replace bad hearts with good hearts, clone organs, and do bone marrow transplants.  We think putting men on the moon is old school.  Flying in a plane load of life saving supplies should be child’s play. 
In Burma making a phone call is difficult.  Only seven percent of the country’s 52 million people have electricity.  For Burma’s excessively paranoid generals we might just as well ask them if we can fly in a plane load of anthrax as one of aid.  To them, this act might save lives but it would poison the culture, and while it may be a culture of fear and defeat, they unfortunately see it as their culture to defend.
To make a difference in Burma we have no choice but to deal with what is, not what we as westerners think should be. 

I detest the current regime.  I can’t for the life of me comprehend their cruelty.  This is the side of humanity that makes me want to throw up my hands in utter despair and quit, but I can’t because quitting is what allows governments like this to continue.
I am so proud right now to be working with a group of people who haven’t quit Burma.  A group that spans the globe, a group that is organizing in the face of utter despair and effectively getting help to cyclone victims in ways that could get many of them arrested if they were ever found out.
What is in Burma is that international aid is failing; goods sent in to help disaster victims are being co-opted by the government.  The military, once stuck with the problem of how to feed and clothe their 400,000 soldiers now has enough rice stores to feed them for years to come.  Likewise with medicine. 


However, what is also happening in Burma is that internal aid is working.  Granted that it lacks the fairy tale effect of a white horse riding in complete with knight in shining armor, or wizards with magic wands that can turn the horrible truth into a happy ending, but in a very real way, in a very empowering way, Burma’s people are saving themselves – despite the generals.
Supported by those who refuse to quit, a quiet revolt is taking place.  A strong grassroots movement is evolving to bring goods to those in need.  It travels many routes and is crossing continents and cultures – some routes are above ground – small convoys of concerned citizens with used clothing and humble donations, businessmen with enough clout and connections to get permission to transport small quantities of relief – many adopting a village and rallying friends to sustain support – and some routes go underground – traveling through bank accounts and well established black market trades long used by insurgents and smugglers.  Even many military officials, appalled by the suffering they face each day, are denying orders and secretly transporting aid.


I was really amazed when the Saffron Revolution was so easily quashed.  I was saddened to see the despondent faces of those I passed everyday on the street afterward, people who had had the opportunity to support their most revered and had failed to do so.  Defeat went well beyond the monks and deep into the heart of the entire country.
But this time is different.  Perhaps because of that defeat, perhaps because the general’s decisions to refuse lifesaving aid is just more callous than anyone can accept, I’m seeing strength and unification among people who otherwise may have continued to remain passive.
I really don’t know if this will come to fruition, if this will be the catalyst that actually unites an active resistance movement and that that movement will grow.  I don’t know if the temptation of controlling a well fed army will serve as the tipping point for internal conflict in the military, but what I do know is that in the face of it all, my faith in humanity is once again being restored.  So long as we don’t give up, there is hope for those cyclone victims still surviving.  So long as we don’t give up there is still hope that Burma will change for the better, and in our lifetime.  So long as we don’t give up, others won’t give up.
My thanks really goes out to all those of you who continue to lend support, to all of you who understand that the gap between what should be and what is is currently too wide to jump in Burma, that even planes can’t cross it, but that this is not a reason to stop helping.
What should be may never come to Burma, but what is is still worth saving.
Many thanks …” 

The link below shows the situation in Burma’s cyclone area, according to the New York Times.  Promises aside, the SPDC (military junta) is still obstructing relief!  As soon as the world’s attention moves on, these guys revert to their original plan of genocide, albeit with the help of a convenient cyclone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/world/asia/03myanmar.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

The Burmese military dictatorship has found a new cash cow and shouldn’t be missing all the dead water buffalo left by Cyclone Nargis too much, if the assertions in the articles below are true.  I’m not a numbers person, but these articles had some interesting statistics….  So, does this mean, if you go into Burma to do relief work through government-approved channels, the exchange rate is going to create an incredible profit for the SPDC (military government)? Money coming in through government channels is worth 6.7 kyat per $US, but money changed on the black market (non-government channels) is worth 1000 kyat (or more) per dollar.  I am way out of my economic depth here, but it just seems so WRONG that they can block aid, drag their heels, perpetuate suffering and death for thousands of people, and then still make a profit!

Trying to understand, but probably never will!

From the Japan times: “The Rape of Burma: where did the wealth go?” http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080502a1.html

From Open Democracy: “Burma: cyclone, aid and sanctions” http://http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/burma-cyclone-aid-and-sanctions

Processing donations the other day for the non-profit I work with, there was a note from a donor enclosed with a cyclone relief check that said…”I know it’s just a drop in the bucket…..” I’ve thought about that for a few days, and I agree.  What small groups like the one I work with can do is very small.  Helping those trying to survive the circumstances of Cyclone Nargis and the government-induced disaster that has followed it requires everyone working together (governments, big NGO’s, local grass roots organizations…everyone who can do anything!).  But, if the “drop in the bucket” is the only drop in your bucket, then it counts.  If you need clean water, food, medical supplies, and you have nothing, anything that comes to make your bucket less empty matters.  Small groups working with networks of locals can help in less conspicuous, more mobile ways than the big players. 

Some quotes from a report passed on by a friend in Thailand received from people she personally knows who are working with a network in the delta area:

… “We bought rice, noodles, blankets, longyi (for men and women), drinking water and medicine and bring along…. 

While waiting, I met many of those who lost their family members. Some of them left alone. Some lost all the family members and also all relatives. Most of the houses in their village were destroyed, but did not get death toll from them either…(The death toll is high at the villages close to the sea.)…

Those helping have man power, but need financial support to bring more students and let them stay in the villages. They are working closely with the groups networking in the delta.  Attached letters are from those who received your contributions. I trust them as I saw they are doing the relief works reaching directly to the victims….”   

God bless those doing great things, in big ways, and those who are putting drops in the buckets of those whose buckets are empty!!

Here’s a couple of this morning’s articles on the situation:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12354 (Cyclone refugees being sent home from camps)

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12366 (Burma government on “open access”)