Here is a portion of another e-mail that I received from a friend in Yangon yesterday:
“I’m fine but so many others, so many, are homeless or dead or without shelter. I really did not take much notice of the cyclone warnings from the state media although they did say it would be serious. Now I am careful of batteries in my laptop, but thank god I can send emails. I hope this gets to you. I have no power but everything is alright. Writing this by torch and candlelight. It was a very scary 13 hours from before midnight of the 2nd to afternoon of next day. Had a slight accident with my car, front grill/lights ripped out. I am unhurt but rattled. So many trees are down … Yangon looks wounded.”
It’s been one of those weeks where my thoughts are preoccupied and I can’t think of much else besides the current humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s delta region. Normal concerns — such as what I’m going to have for dinner, how many books we sold today, what CD I’m going to buy next, or how the Minnesota Twins did yesterday — are suddenly unimportant and trivial. People in a neighboring country are hungry, thirsty, sick, and homeless. They need help.
I hesitate to make public pleas for help, but in this case I think it’s vital that we do something. I know several people travelling to Myanmar in the coming days. They already have visas and contacts within the country. Some of them live and work there. I plan to donate and collect as much money as I can and give it to these people before they leave Bangkok. They can get money and supplies to local volunteers and organizations that can quickly distribute them to needy people in the area. Getting into the hardest hit parts of the delta region is problematic, but that’s where various UN organizations are best equipped to help. The people I know can help those in Yangon, across the river in Dalah and Twante, and further west in Pathein. I know this is somewhat of a band-aid approach to relief, but I think if we can help even a few hundred, or a few thousand, people, it’s worthwhile.
