May 09, 2008 09:53 am
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The extent of damage and the death toll in Myanmar from the massive storm that hit on May 3 may never be known.
It will be impossible to know how many lives were lost. Census counts are unreliable. Transportation is restricted and not easy.
Health care is primitive and the big need could be for basic shelter provided by tents and tarpaulin.
From September of 1966 through August of 1968, I was part of the U.S. military mission in what was then Burma. Basically, our mission was to deliver items the Burmese military purchased from the United States.
Burma is a nation of contrasts.
Our military unit was not all work and no play. There were two golf courses, the American club with movies and swimming pool, and a softball field.
Getting to Burma in the 1960s and today seem similar. It took months to secure a Burmese visa from a government that is suspicious of all visitors and does not welcome thoughts of democracy.
My wife, Doris, was an exception to the visa delays. While it took me months and a lot of waiting to get my diplomatic visa, I got Doris included on my diplomatic visa in less than a day.
We were married in New Delhi, India. We met a lot of American and other regulations. I was able to get her added to my diplomatic passport to be with me in Burma.
Our daughter, Carolyn, just might be the last American born in Burma. She was born in the American clinic and has a U.S. Department of State birth certificate.
Change comes slowly or quickly to a country wrapped in tradition of kings at Mandalay, followed by years of British control to the assassination of the new leader and the military taking control.
What has followed for more than 50 years is a government led by the military, which retains control of almost all aspects of life.
To replace a dictatorship with democracy would not be easy. The people may have problems agreeing just how democracy would work and in what form.
The void left after the British left found those with little or no training filling positions of responsibility.
This can result in warehouses filled with cloth or other items desperately needed by the public.
Soldiers can have two jobs, one with the military and a civilian job where they can wear their uniforms and carry rifles.
The government in Rangoon often had little impact outside that city. That may not have changed. Burma has different tribes or clans that inhabit specific areas. These and other movements or ideologies often are not in agreement with the “central” government.
That compounds any changes and problems getting relief where needed.
Rangoon and Burma come with beautiful trees and flowers and seeing bugs hopping in bags of flour and decaying streets and piles of debris that attract pi-dogs that roam the city.
Rangoon comes with magnificent gold-leaf covered pagodas and small to huge images of Buddha, and at the same time has many houses and buildings that are covered with rusting metal roofs.
You could not buy a tube of toothpaste, for example, but wood and ivory carvings and other items were available. A small American grocery was in the basement of the U.S. Embassy.
The military control years ago ordered missionaries to leave or remain in the country forever. Some Catholic priests opted to remain.
There are still various Christian denominations such as the English Methodist Church that exists only as long as meeting government demands such as prior approval to sermons.
The press had freedom in 1967 as long as the government did not object. The author of any unfavorable stories could end up in prison.
Change is needed in Burma, but that change must come from within Myanmar, not be delivered by another country.
Mike Surbrugg is the farm editor for The Joplin Globe.
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