I was watching the news this afternoon, and was listening to the story about a horrible cyclone hitting a country called Myanmar.  To be honest, I have not been very diligent about keeping up with what foreign countries have been changing their names to what, so I wasn’t even sure where Myanmar was.  So I did a little bit of research and found that it is the country that used to be called Burma and it is located between India and China.  From what I understand that country is ruled by a dictator who seized power through a junta after a democratic election had elected a woman to be the country’s leader.  There has been a quiet rumble about human rights violations in the country ever since then, but it would appear that the USA has not attempted to interfere with this country’s politics – yet.

I hope that the international community pulls together some relief effort for the victims of the cyclone and that the relief supplies actually reach the victims and don’t simply get “given” to the country’s leaders and “favorites.”  Call me cynical if you will, but I think that history has shown that in dictatorships like this the leaders are the only ones who fare well in any circumstance.  I feel very sorry for the victims of both the cyclone and the regime.