Oh Haiti

Jared Diamond's Haiti story

One Island, Two Worlds

Why is Haiti so poor?

Too Small to Fail: Developing Haiti’s Economy

The Help That Haiti Needs

Country Without a Net

Podcast of the Day

Robert Barro on Disasters

Economic Loss of Cyclone Nargis

The total economic losses amount to about 2.7% of the projected 2008 GDP, with the effects of the cyclone concentrated on a region important for agriculture and fishing in Myanmar.

Recovery needs, which are estimated at just over a total of US$1 billion over the next 3 years, include the most urgent priorities of significant food, agriculture, housing, basic services and support to communities for restoring their livelihoods and rebuilding assets

-First comprehensive picture and analysis of the impact of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

Most Stupid Quote of the Day- Sharon Stone

And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma -- when you're not nice -- that the bad things happen to you?

Photo of the Day- Unrest in China

A day after parents staged an impromptu rally in Mianzhu on Saturday, the Communist Party's top local official, Jiang Guohua, came to plead with the protesters to not carry out their plan to march to Chengdu, the provincial capital, where they sought to prevail on higher-level authorities. Mr. Jiang, on his knees, failed to deter the parents, who shouted in his face and continued their march.

Logarithmic spirals in Space

Typhoon Rammasun (right) and 25 million light-year distant galaxy M101 - each with arms exhibiting the shape of a simple and beautiful mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose separation grows in a geometric way with increasing distance from the center

With power and status comes responsibility

Willem Buiter laments about inaction on Myanmar;

Where are the United Nations when we need it? Why does it not condemn utterly and declare the Burmise regime - this Pol Pottish collection of murderous incompetents - to be illegimate?

And where are the significant neighbours - China and India - when humanity needs them (I absolve Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand, because they are not in a position to intervene with force and effectiveness)? These countries talk a good game about the need for the old order to recognise that times have changed, and that a place at the top tables of global political and economic governance has to be reserved for both China and India (and possible for some of the other BRICs as well). I support that claim. But with power and status comes responsibility.

Neither China nor India have done more than tut-tut cautiously in response to the outrageous human rights violations of the Burmese military regime. This pathetic abdication of responsibility may not be surprising in the case of China, a country that engages routinely in the large-scale violation of human rights - in Tibet, in its suppression of independent religious worship and in its denial of freedom of speech and freedom of association to all its people. It is surprising in the case of India, a beacon of democracy on the Asian continent.

Why cannot the UN authorise a joint intervention by China and India in Burma, to neutralise/eliminate the collective of goblins that currently rule the country and to oversee the effective distribution of humanitarian relief? The legitimate political authority in Myanmar, in the person of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, is right there to establish a representative structure of government.

Surely, even if you believe that national sovereignty has a deep legitimacy of its own, rather than (as I believe) a purely instrumental, derived legitimacy, there has to be a point at which the cost of respecting and sustaining national sovereignty becomes grossly excessive? Of course, the effectiveness and costs of external intervention have to be evaluated carefully. But in Myanmar (and in Sudan (Darfur) and Zimbabwe) the point of no return for national sovereignty was reached long ago. If the international community sits on its hands despite the self-evident case for external intervention and for the overthrow of the ruling regime, it is a confirmation of moral cowardice or incompetence, or both.

A sad sad story

Myanmar Peril Escalates;

As many as 1.5 million people -- including more than 200,000 now believed to be congregating in temporary camps along the coast -- face an increasing risk of malaria, cholera and other potentially deadly epidemics, aid workers said.

Myanmar Junta Still Blocking Much Cyclone Aid

Myanmar in Crisis

Understanding Myanmar

Burma Clears U.S. Aircraft To Deliver Storm Relief

Death toll from Myanmar cyclone rises to 22,500

Experts: Myanmar cannot run aid effort alone after cyclone

Burmese Junta Seizes Aid and Blocks Foreigners

U.S. Myanmar Policy Should Involve China

Derek Mitchell, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic International Studies, talks with Bloomberg's Tom Keene from Washington about Myanmar's military junta, the cyclone that may have killed 100,000 people in the country and U.S. policy toward Myanmar

Which would you prefer- a cyclone or military junta

Burma assorted





More Reader Photographs From Myanmar

U.N. Pressures Myanmar to Allow Aid

India, Thailand Warned Burma of Approaching Cyclone

The crazy junta of Burma

French Official Urges U.N. to Force Aid on Myanmar;

“We are seeing at the United Nations if we can’t implement the responsibility to protect, given that food, boats and relief teams are there, and obtain a United Nations’ resolution which authorizes the delivery and imposes this on the Burmese government,” Mr. Kouchner, who founded the aid group Doctors Without Borders, told reporters in Paris.

In 2005, the United Nations recognized the concept of “responsibility to protect” civilians when their governments could or would not do it, even if this meant intervention that violated national sovereignty. But it has been rarely applied.

Bangladesh saves IMF

IMF Executive Board Approves US$217.7 million in Emergency Assistance for Bangladesh;

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved SDR 133 million (about US$217.7 million) in emergency assistance to Bangladesh to assist the government's efforts to deal with the impact of severe damage from a November 2007 cyclone that had followed severe monsoon-related flooding.

Cyclone Sidr and two preceding floods resulted in at least 4,400 deaths and disrupted the lives of millions of people in one of the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the country. Total damage, mainly to agriculture, housing and infrastructure, is estimated at US$2.7 billion, or 3.7% of Bangladesh's GDP. The IMF's emergency assistance will support Bangladesh's international reserve position that has been put under pressure in the face of a sharp rise in disaster-related imports, including large volumes of food....

"The government has indicated their intention to maintain macroeconomic stability and pursue important reforms in the areas of revenue administration and policy, expenditure management, energy pricing, and state-bank reform," Mr. Kato said.

Microinsurance - another fancy idea?

A new health insurance plan will enable the poor in India to buy health insurance for less than 10 cents a month, and it will cover natural disasters including Tsunamis.

-Tsunami insurance for the poor