Word: aids
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...what's Plan B? Some hope that China, whose investment in Burma helps prop up the junta, could pressure the generals to allow in more aid. (After an earthquake struck the central Chinese province of Sichuan on May 12, killing and injuring tens of thousands, China sent out relief teams immediately and said it would accept foreign aid.) But even if China is willing to speak out, it's hard to know just how much influence it would have on Burma's top brass. The extent of the regime's disconnect with reality struck me as I drove the broad...
...what is the world doing about it? Not much. The military junta that runs Burma initially signaled it would accept outside relief but has imposed so many conditions on those who would actually deliver it that barely a trickle has gotten through. Hundreds of foreign aid workers have been denied visas and blocked from visiting the stricken areas. Shipments of food and medicine have been seized. After more than 10 days, the U.N. World Food Program said it had been able to deliver only a fraction of the food required for the emergency. "I've never seen anything like this...
...close the duel. (He'll grow up fast in the next one.) But the CGI supporting characters are the big attraction here: Reepicheep, a mouse with some of the charming swagger of Antonio Banderas' Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies; stately tree warriors who come to Caspian's aid; magical leaves that swirl into a woman's shape; and a bearded water god who rises like some stern patriarch to drown a slew of infidels. Lots of cool stuff...
...surprising, since this is the same gang that unilaterally invaded Iraq. (Though considering how that turned out, maybe it shouldn't be.) But others have taken up the cause. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called for the U.N. Security Council to authorize outsiders to bring in and deliver aid no matter what the junta says; David Cameron, leader of Britain's Conservatives, advocates direct airdrops to the Burmese people. The European Union's foreign policy chief said, "We have to use all means" to get aid to those still at risk...
...coercive humanitarian intervention in Burma wouldn't be without precedent: the U.S. funded and helped coordinate the delivery of aid without the host governments' consent during the wars in Bosnia and southern Sudan. Nor would it be illegal: according to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1674, member states have a "responsibility to protect" populations from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, if their own governments fail to do so (or are responsible for committing the crimes themselves). Burma's crisis--hundreds of thousands of innocents at risk of death because of their rulers' willful neglect--easily meets that standard...