One half-vast step at a time

According to the BBC, it seems the Burmese have relented enough to allow an aid flight by the UN: "The first UN relief plane arrived in Rangoon on Thursday from Italy, carrying high-energy biscuits, medicine and other supplies. Three more UN flights are expected to land later on Thursday. The UN World Food Programme said concern about the military siphoning off aid was one reason for the delay. WFP regional director Anthony Banbury said: "We will not just bring our supplies to an airport, dump it and take off." The UN said its four-member disaster assessment and co-ordination team had now been given visas to travel to Burma. UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said the move "shows a certain openness so far, but it is still too slow. Our country team [in Burma] is over-stretched". "UK aid agencies have launched an urgent joint appeal to raise funds for victims. The Disasters Emergency Committee said the need for aid was "immediate and vast". "Burmese state media say 22,980 people have been confirmed dead and another 42,119 are missing. But Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said the death toll could reach or exceed 100,000, based on information from a non-governmental organisation that she would not name. A local military official, Tin Win, told AFP news agency 80,000 had died in the remote district of Labutta alone. There are reports that the Rangoon home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years, was damaged in the cyclone but that she is unhurt."

Rico sighs at the stupidity of humans...