The Bright Dawning Of Realization

There are aid directors out there who have just now discovered a dazzling fact that everyone but the aid directors saw coming.

Relief supplies were sent to Burma and officials refused to accept them. Then, the same officials grudgingly accepted the supplies but they absolutely refused the aid workers who came with the aid.

The Burmese won't be able to distribute the aid efficiently, the directors noted, because they don't have the experience or the resources. The rest of the world did not see this as a problem, because the rest of the world believed that the Burmese officials weren't going to distribute the aid to the needy anyway.

Sure enough, directors are stunned to discover that relief supplies were never given out to those in need. The dictatorship took all those expensive supplies and put them away in warehouses, to be sold on perhaps or used to feed the soldiers who keep the dictatorship in power.

There hasn't been much public outcry over the cyclone in Burma, but it's not because people are tapped out or weary of being asked for help. The average person is well aware of how Burma operates, and they're not so stupid as to donate money that will never reach the person who needs it. Why give to some charity that will give the money to Burmese officials? What's the point?

Still, relief agencies send supplies, in some naive hope that the ruling junta will grow a conscience. In the meantime, Burmese soldiers maintain their strength and health on the dime of the outside world, while those who would seek to overturn the existing government grow weak and die. For the ruling junta, the cyclone couldn't have been more welcome.