cyclone

I had the chance today to attend a speech by ASEAN's (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Secretary General, Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, right after he had met with the Bank's President Bob Zoellick. He told us they discussed ways to increase the cooperation between the two organizations, but the most interesting and pressing aspect of it all is that they talked about specific ways in which the Bank will be helping out the victims of Cyclone Nargis through ASEAN. ASEAN had announced on May 13 that it was setting up a "Coalition of Mercy" for the Myanmar relief effort, and today Zoellick offered to have Bank experts assess the devastation and plan for the country's recovery. The key point here is that ASEAN is the organization with best access to Myanmar right now --it has already secured entry visas for its emergency team--, so this collaboration between the Bank and ASEAN can start being effective really quickly, which is what the people of Myanmar need.

As advanced in an earlier post, here's a short list to the webpages for online donations of international NGOs that have a large presence in the country and so are likely to be most effective under the difficult circumstances:

• International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent - Donations
• Save the Children - Donations
• CARE - Donations
• Malteser International (This is a German medical NGO which was able to send in supplies within a couple of days after the cyclone). - Website with info on donations
• Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières - Donations

As the official estimate of fatal victims of cyclone Nargis raises to 22,000 --not counting the more than 40,000 missing--, World Bank President Bob Zoellick has just issued a statement:

"Our sympathy goes out to the thousands of victims of this terrible tragedy in Myanmar. I urge the government in Myanmar to allow relief agencies to reach those in need."

(Sadly, it's a vain attempt to try to keep this blog updated on the estimated death toll, and these postings are bound to become outdated fairly quickly in that aspect. Please check any major online news site or a news aggregator like Google News to keep track).

With winds clocked at over 190 kilometers per hour Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar on Friday, May 2, about 250 kilometers southwest of the capital Yangon.  On Monday United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was “very much alarmed” over estimates from Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry that over 10,000 people may have died.  The New York Times is reporting on the devastation, which comes before a constitutional referendum scheduled by the military government for this Saturday.  According to CNN.com, the U.N. has made $30 million available for emergency aid.  Check these CNN video reports from Yangon.