These photos are heartbreaking. But the real evil here is a government that won’t allow relief efforts, and we have no way of knowing if any of the supplies that get through actually help the victims or line the pockets of the of this oppressive government. As far as I’m concerned, this dictatorship is truly using weapons of mass destruction against their own people.

Hello, Adelle, thank you very much for sharing this urgent crisis with us and for bringing home the true scope of the horror of this unfolding and fluid story by making it real with your rich detailed reporting and shockingly sad photos. We all need to know this stuff so that hopefully some other bigger country out there can take care of this dictatorship once and for and let democracy flourish in a place that really needs it the most right now in this imperilled planet that we call Earth. The enormity and severity of this situation just boggles my mind. Peace from Canada.

The regime we should have toppled instead of Iraq’s is the Burmese junta’s. Their denial of access to foreign aid workers is disgusting and criminal. They should have been ousted long ago. My fervent hope is that Aung San Suu Kyi is still well and relatively safe. She is Burma’ hope for the future.

Indeed Elizabeth, indeed. People want universal health care here—then ask for those 3 trillion back and maybe we’d have it. Instead of the slaughter of Iraqi men, women and children and the slaughter of our troops in that abattoir.

Overwhelming - don’t have any other words. I always wondered if my small donations made a difference. That is why I keep this taped on my office wall. “There was once a man vacationing on the coast of Mexico. One evening he decided to take a midnight stroll down the deserted beach. There was a full moon and down the beach he could make out what appeared to be a boy who would scurry around, pick something up and throw it back into the ocean. As the man drew closeer to the boy he could see the beach was littered with starfish. As he reached the boy he asked what he was doing. The boy explained that with each full moon the high tide would wash the starfish so far up on the beach that they were destined to die the next day in the sun. The man responded that there must be thousands of miles of beach and millions of stranded starfish - how much difference did this one boy hope to make? The boy pondered the question for a moment, looked back at the starfish in his hand, tossed it as hard as he could back into the life-giving sea, and andswered, “It made a difference to that one.” I use to donate nothing because I didn’t think my small amount would help - I now realize that every cent is added to another cent and makes enough to help someone. Although we can’t change the regime - we can now get some aid into this country so lets forget politics and just try to help these people.

Maggie, Thank you for sharing that.

But how do we get needed supplies to the survivors if the junta confiscates them? It’s all very well to write “blitz them” with help, but how? Who’s getting through?