Word: hope
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...natural to hope that the destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis in Burma will have a similar impact - that it will force the military junta that, in one guise or another, has ruled Burma for decades to change its ways: win the trust of its citizens, and devote its resources not to sustaining a bloated, corrupt military but to helping people live better lives. But assessing how governments will conduct themselves is not like the common law, where precedents accrete until they solidify into doctrine that shapes future conduct. The dreadful famine in North Korea in the 1990s, for instance...
...Optimists will hope that the junta in Burma will learn the lessons of Chernobyl and Mexico City, and realize that they cannot continue as they have before. Realists, sadly, will note how long Burma's rulers have defied the manifest will of their own people, and guess that they will hunker down again. It would be nice if the realists were to be proved wrong. Until then, those within Burma as well as those from afar who genuinely care about its prospects can do little but hope for better, cloudless, days to come...
...willingness of the generals to even entertain the idea of outside help was enough to excite Burma watchers who have been waiting for decades for something - anything - that might augur a sliver of openness from the military leadership. Hopeful aid workers point to the Indonesian province of Aceh, where the 2004 tsunami galvanized warring factions to lay down their arms. But Burma's seclusion is more akin to that of North Korea, a country that gulps down foreign aid without reciprocal political concessions. And corruption is so rampant in Burma that NGOs worry about how much aid will actually reach...
...People I've spoken to back in Burma say they're angry at two things," says Aung Zaw, the Irrawaddy editor. "First, they're angry at the military for reacting so slowly. And second, they're angry at the cyclone for missing Naypyidaw." The long-suffering Burmese can only hope that divine intervention will not be so kind to the generals next time...
...from the island's east, where the disease has hit hardest. But it now seems that devils from the more isolated west could be different. It's a distinction that just might save them - and their species. "If you'd asked me six months ago if there was much hope for the devil I would have said it's not looking good," says Belov. "I'm now much more hopeful...