Great minds do think alike

No one was more surprised than the fulminating Rico to read Romesh Ratnesar's editorial in the current Time magazine. (And if his doesn't get the name-of-the-week award, I don't know what will.) Seems Mr. Ratnesar has some of the same issues with, and some of the same solutions for, the situation in Burma that Rico does: "Unless the victims receive immediate help, the death toll could conceivably approach that of the entire number of civilians killed in the genocide in Darfur."

Rico says he did not know that, but it's a disturbing number.

"So what is the world doing about it? Not much."

Rico says he's pithily right there...

"The trouble is, the Burmese lack the kind of assets needed to deal with a calamity of this scale, and the longer Burma resists offers of help, the more likely it is that the disaster will degenerate beyond anyone's control."

Rico says right again.

"If Burma's leaders continue to refuse help, the world should impose it on them, even if that requires military force."

Rico says right yet again. (This from Time? Rico is surprised.)

"French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has called for the UN Security Council to authorize outsiders to bring in and deliver aid no matter what the junta says. David Cameron, leader of Britain's Conservatives, advocates direct air drops to the Burmese people... A coercive humanitarian intervention in Burma wouldn't be without precedent; the US funded and help develop the delivery of aid without the host government's consent during the wars in Bosnia and southern Sudan. Nor would it be illegal; according to UN Security Council Resolution 1674, member states have a "responsibility to protect" populations from genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, if their own governments fail to do so (or are responsible for committing the crimes themselves). Burma's crisis--hundred of thousands of innocents at risk of death because of their rulers' willful neglect-- easily meets that standard."

"Just come now", one Burmese woman was quoted in the column. The columnist goes on to say "What, exactly, are we waiting for?"

Rico says there's no better question, and he sees no answer other than typical Western reluctance to wade into some pathetic little Third World pile of shit and clean it up...