Rev. Danny Fisher

Via Integral Options Cafe:

Today’s mailbag question comes from our good friend Ven. Hue Hai (formerly Ven. Rinchen Gyatso). The venerable and I were colleagues at UWest, and he is also a fellow Buddhoblogger (you may know him from his wonderful blog A Monk Amok).

Ven. Hue Hai was especially interested in a post that I did recently about the global food crisis, which included an Avaaz.org petition to the G8, UN, and EU leaders. He blogged about the post (here), and sent me a couple of emails about it–including one with today’s question:

DEAR VEN. HUE HAI: In terms of immediate relief, here are two good articles that will point you in the right direction:

Via Agam’s Gecko: A translated post and group of photographs at Burmese Bloggers Without Borders demands attention. As Agam puts it:

It’s a captioned photo essay on those who are suffering the results of the cyclone, and those who are enjoying them. See where the nice tents and generators and water purification equipments are being used, and where they aren’t.

Here are two telling photos…

The Washington Post has an important news items from Burma:

In the weeks after Tropical Cyclone Nargis battered Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, Burma’s most famous comedian — a dentist known by his stage name, Zarganar, or “Tweezers” — spearheaded efforts by about 400 Burmese artists to collect and distribute food, mosquito nets, blankets and other supplies to destitute survivors.

His initiative was one of many spontaneous private operations by concerned Rangoon residents — including businesspeople, students, monks and local journalists — that brought some measure of help to cyclone victims as U.N. agencies struggled with Burma’s military government to get aid into the devastated region.

Long known for sharp comic jibes at the military rulers, Zarganar also spoke publicly in stark terms about the inadequacy of their cyclone relief effort, the physical difficulties and psychological trauma of the victims and the appalling conditions in the delta.

On Wednesday night, Zarganar was taken into custody by Burmese authorities, who insist that the relief phase of the emergency is over. The state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper, meanwhile, lashed out at “unscrupulous” elements that it said were exaggerating the problems in the delta.

Human rights groups say the detention of the high-profile figure and the effort to gloss over the extent of the disaster highlight the precedence Burma’s rulers are giving to political concerns at the expense of the welfare of an estimated 2.5 million cyclone victims.

“By detaining him, it sends a message of real intimidation to people who the regime thinks could use the humanitarian disaster for political purposes,” said Benjamin Zawacki, a researcher with Amnesty International.