Burmese Military Government Officials Selling Emergency Aid Supplies In Local Markets
"Officials in Burma's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta area are selling donated emergency aid supplies in local markets, it was claimed on Monday."
Telegraph.uk
General Than Shwe (the criminal who leads the military government of Myanmar/Burma
A very sad story that amidst so much suffering there is still such incredible greed.
It has to be a very special breed who can consistently profit either by exploiting people or a situation and be able to sleep at night.
I'm coming to the conclusion that many powerful people are actually sociopaths.
Posted by Carefulspider | 4:06 pm, May 13, 2008
. . . very special breed . . .
----------------
Such a breed of heartless tyrant is what should be an extinct species.
Posted by Anonymous | 6:11 pm, May 13, 2008
Buckdog, equating anything in Mayanmar to a free market or free enterprise is beyond your normal leftist rhetoric.
Especially as the junta and it's leader were, for forty years, self-declared as 'socialist'.
Please try again.
Cheers,
lance
Posted by lance | 6:12 pm, May 13, 2008
Its time for the US to take over. The Burmese government is clearly incapable of taking care of its citizenry. If the Iraq war hadn't stained their global reputation, I bet the US would already be delivering aid without even consulting Rangoon, backed up by the threat of military force if the gov't tried to interfere. They did it in Bosnia.(sp?)jac
Posted by Philltaj2 | 6:59 pm, May 13, 2008
lance, there is absolutely nothing about the current military government in Burma that can be called 'socialist' - this is a ruthless right wing military dictatorship. Hitler did the same thing with his political 'party' - there was NOTHING even remotely resembling 'socialism' under his dictatorship.
This recent phenomenon of right wing Canadians and Americans labeling everthing as 'socialist' is almost comical. It is a spin off from the old McCarthyist world view that condemned everything they disagreed with as 'communist'. It demonstrates a lack of formal education in it's simplicity and stupidity.
Posted by leftdog | 7:59 pm, May 13, 2008
What a horrible government
Posted by Graeme | 12:37 am, May 14, 2008
LD, If I wanted to be comical, I'd have said they were communists. I didn't. I said they were 'self-styled socialists'.
The 1962 Central Committees Directive, and in case you are just now dawning on realization, Google it.
Sometimes a duck is actually a duck.
Posted by lance | 12:39 am, May 14, 2008
"Ne Win, who ruled the country from 1962 to 1988." - he self declared as a 'socialist' (which he wasn't - and that was not "40 years" as you stated. I say again, the current right wing military dictatorship is NOT socialist!!
Posted by leftdog | 7:53 am, May 14, 2008
Sorry Buckdog, but the first dictatorship in Burma was most definitely socialist, hardcore.
As for SLORC's orientation, I think that's open to interpretation.
I wouldn't characterize the selling of medical supplies by Myanmar soldiers as free market or free enterprise. That assessment is beyond the pale.
Posted by John Murney | 12:55 am, May 15, 2008
Come now, Mr. murney, beyond the pale? It's exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies do as a matter of ongoing policy in third world countries. Do they not represent free enterprise or free markets either?
(Well, they don't, them and their "intellectual property", but they sure as hell represent the official version of free markets)
Posted by Purple library guy | 12:09 pm, May 16, 2008