Rescue and recovery efforts continue in the aftermath of the great earthquake in Sichuan, China. Almost 70,000 people have died with almost another 20,000 still missing:
An operation to look for survivors is under way alongside the wider rescue and relief effort in Sichuan province.
Troops battling to stop a lake formed in the quake from flooding the city of Mianyang are reported to have finished digging a diversion canal.
A new official toll puts the number of people killed in the 12 May disaster at 69,016, with another 18,830 missing.
Many of those who died were children, killed when their schools were destroyed.
Almost 7,000 classrooms are reported to have collapsed, killing more than 11,000 children and teachers, triggering complaints that the schools were badly built.
China has vowed to investigate such charges.
If indeed 7,000 classrooms did collapse, particularly, as alleged, while private schools used by the wealthy continued to stand, that transforms the disaster in China from a purely natural one to a natural disaster greatly abetted by human malfeasance.
Meanwhile, Burma struggles to recover from the cyclone that struck the country more than a month ago:
YANGON, June 1 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s military junta on Sunday defended its response to Cylone Nargis after stinging criticism from the United States, while a U.N. official said food supplies had yet to reach at least 200,000 people.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has accused the regime of causing more deaths by stonewalling foreign aid, said on Sunday U.S. ships cruising near Myanmar could leave in a “matter of days” if they cannot deliver relief supplies.
Myanmar Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, in Singapore for a security conference also attended by Gates, insisted the government had acted swiftly and it was open to foreign aid with “no strings attached.”
“Through the prompt and immediate supervision of the supervisory central body headed by the prime minister and member ministers, relief camps and hospitals were opened, debris was cleared, emergency power and water supply restored,” Myint said.
State media had given plenty of advance warning of the May 2 cyclone, which left 134,000 dead or missing and up to 2.4 million others destitute, Myint told the annual gathering of security and defence officials in Singapore.
Clearly, this is another case of a natural disaster magnified by human mal-, mis-, or nonfeasance.
Despite the similarities of these two events the reactions in the West to the two tragically similar events couldn’t be more different. I’ve read many calls for an invasion of Burma to deliver what’s been termed “coercive humanitarian assistance”. Where are the calls for an invasion of China for similar reasons? The principle would be much the same: more people have died or will die in both countries because they have the sort of government they do.
Don’t get me wrong: I think the idea is insane and reprehensible. Delivering humanitarian aid is not one of the moral or legal justifications for war for all but a few maleducated people in the West. If the answer is that China can muster substantial resistance to invasion while Burma can’t, that’s an argument on pragmatic grounds not on principled ones. Now I’m trying to figure out how you can justify an invasion of Burma on pragmatic grounds.
Sorry. I’ve tried. It’s beyond my abilities.
