Cyclone Sadness & Madness

Just like everyone else, I have been stunned, angered and saddened by the cyclone fall out that is happening in Myanmar.

Myanmar has maintained a front spot in my mind since I traveled there two years ago.

Hubby and I only spent five days in the country - a time frame that was both too short and too long.

Too short because there is so much to see in the country. Because transportation is difficult, we didn't get to half the places we had hoped to see. We never made it to Mandalay, for example. We didn't reach the ruins of Bagan. Nor did we visit the now devastated region.

At the same time, the days we did spend in Burma filled us with questions and unease. We witnessed disturbing ecological destruction as well as poverty, inequity and forced labor, like these local people pictured above who had been forced to build a highway by hand.

Of all the places I have ever traveled in my life, Myanmar is honestly the one place I have no desire to ever step foot in ever again. I am so glad I experienced it, but I am so glad I'm no longer there.

Watching the cyclone fall out, I am of course horrified that the military junta is dragging its heels on letting foreign aide in. It's a clear indicator of just how messed in the heads these guys really are.

I can't help but wonder whether or not this massive blunder on their part isn't going to spell the end of their reign. Maybe they are delaying aide because they are trying to punish their own. Maybe they are doing it because they are power paranoid. Their motivation doesn't really matter. The end conclusion is the same: The leaders are insane.

Last fall, the world watched as the military rulers smashed a local revolution. In the end, the world stood by and let it happen.

But maybe, maybe this will be a tipping point that will convince all governments and average Joes everywhere that Burma's leaders need to be toppled. Maybe this will spark a global effort to oust the junta.