China and Myanmar

Tragedy has dominated the news headlines for the past week and a half, and with good reason. Myanmar (Burma) was hit with a powerful tropical cyclone on May 3, 2008. China's Sichuan region was the epicentre for a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on May 12, 2008.

And I didn't pray. I didn't pray, or even think that I should for Burma until my father suggested we do so as a family last night. China? China's death toll made me silently pray "Please God" while I was at the gym, and I left it at that.

Why did I fail to do the most important thing I could do to help?

Selfishness. An earthquake is more likely to affect me than a tropical cyclone, so I didn't pay attention to Burma. I was also "too busy" and had to focus on "other things" like finishing a game on my laptop when I should have been paying attention in class, checking out guys on the bus, motivating myself to run for just 5 minutes more, etc.

However, I am now paying more attention to Burma than before, and am furious, and weeping. How can the Burmese government have such little respect for their own people? Sin, yes I know, but what they are doing to their people is terrible. Hundreds of countries and organisations immediately offered aid to Burma, and they refused. They do not want outsiders in their country. They are only just beginning to accept food and other supplies, but will not allow aid workers into the country, claiming that their military is able to serve their people sufficiently. Journalists are sneaking into the country to show the world what is going on...and instead of helping people who haven't had any aid delivered to them, military helicopters fly above them searching for foreigners who have snuck in to assess the situation and secretly deliver supplies. Bodies are floating in rice paddies, villages have nothing to eat and contaminated water to drink, and Burma refuses aid. I can't stop crying.

China too is hurting, but their grief is not intermingled with anger towards their goverment for lack of aid. In contrast to Burma, China immediately dispatched aid and is accepting foreign aid as well. Less than 48 hours after the earthquake hit, troops have reached the epicentre of the quake and rescue missions are being conducted. I visited the BBC's 'In Pictures: China's search for survivors' and I began to cry at the fifth picture. And I can't stop crying.

The entire time I have been writing this entry, I have been crying. And I can't get any prayers out to God beyond a cry of desperation and pain for Burma and China. I can't stop crying. Oh God, Oh God, Please Lord