By ROGER PULVERS
The outpouring of goodwill toward Japanese people since the triple calamities of March 11's earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear crises has overwhelmed the nation. There is generally so much indifference to — and criticism of — Japan in the West and parts of Asia, that the Japanese have been taken aback, pleasantly, by this goodwill.
The world has reacted in two ways — with sympathy and alarm.
The sympathy comes first. To see hundreds of thousands of innocent victims being traumatized by the death of loved ones and friends, and then watch them stoically endure further great hardship in evacuation centers, has moved people outside Japan to empathize with the plight of the Japanese.
The alarm arises in countries with nuclear power plants. Could this happen to us, their citizens wonder and worry? Of course, it is a natural human trait to relate to tragedy in terms of one's own life. We empathize most deeply with those who are like us.
Perhaps the biggest shift in sentiment has come in China. Although the usual anti-Japan blogs have called this tragedy "divine punishment." How, I wonder, would these racist and chauvinist Chinese people have responded to foreigners saying the same thing of the Great Tangshan Earthquake, in which approximately 250,000 people perished? Tragedy is tragedy, irrespective of the politics, ideology or religion of the victims.
But one story emerging from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami has touched the hearts of the Chinese public. Hopefully it will act as a turnaround mechanism in a country where public expressions of positive sentiment toward the Japanese, especially in schools and the media, have been few and far between.
The incident occurred in Onagawa, a fishing town in Miyagi Prefecture. That part of the coastline is called a ria, which is a drowned river system caused by either sea level having risen or the land having sunk. Rias are notoriously subject to horrendous flooding when struck by a tsunami.
The silver salmon and mackerel pike of Onagawa-cho are renowned in Japan; and the fishermen of the district also harvest scallops, abalone, sea squirt and oysters.
Sato Suisan is an established Onagawa firm that processes sea urchin for sale at Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market. It just so happens that a group of 20 young Chinese women were resident trainees at Sato Suisan on March 11. When the earthquake struck, they took refuge near their dormitory. Managing director Mitsuru Sato immediately realized that these young women were in great danger. He ran to them and rushed them up the hill to the shrine, then returned to the dormitory to make sure that no one was left behind. Some of the young women watched from the hill as Sato was swallowed up by the incoming tsunami.
Sometimes a single kind and selfless act can move an entire nation; and the Chinese media has run the story of Mr. Sato's altruism with these words that recognize a universal truth: "Love knows no national boundaries."
Another nation that has not been particularly well disposed toward Japan, particularly of late, is Russia. The Russians are wont to interpret relations with all neighboring countries almost solely in a political context, and Japan is no exception. Recent posturing over the four disputed islands north of Hokkaido attests to this.
Following the earthquake, a call went out to Muscovites on Twitter to demonstrate sympathy for the Japanese people in front of the Japanese embassy in the Russian capital. This is a place, I might add, that has often seen Russians burning the Japanese national flag and hurling eggs.
On the evening of March 19, however, answering the call, a group of mostly young people gathered in front of the embassy. They placed flowers, stuffed toys and origami cranes against the wall. They lit candles and left messages, largely in English. One message that I saw on television said, "Pray for Japan." Above it was a picture of a boy sitting cross-legged with his hands clasped together.
Workers in the embassy put out messages of their own. One of them, in Russian, read: "Thanks to your support we are able to endure. A million thanks to you!"
Such spontaneous outpourings of sympathy and affection toward Japan as demonstrated by those young people are rare in Russia.
As for the alarm, countries around the world with existing nuclear facilities or plans for new ones have stood up and taken notice. The Russians, with April 1986's unprecedented nuclear disaster at Chernobyl behind them — a disaster that spread radioactive particles for thousands of kilometers and resulted in several thousand premature deaths — have given much space in all their media to the ongoing events at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
"The majority of nuclear plants in Russia are located in the European part of the country," said Bulat Nigmatullin, a former minister of atomic energy, to the leading newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. "The standards under which all our plants have been built enable them to withstand strong earthquakes. After the Chernobyl incident, our system of building nuclear plants became one of the best in the world. We are prepared for natural cataclysms."
Such assurances to the native population are common. How true they are remains to be seen.
Russian experts had predicted a disaster in a Japanese nuclear facility. Aleksandr Melik-Yolchyan, a Russian scientist based in Belgium, warned earlier this year of a catastrophe in Japan, adding, "When it will occur is a rhetorical question."
By and large, countries with nuclear power plants do not have to worry about a tsunami striking their facilities, even though — as in China and the United States in particular— earthquakes may pose a significant danger. The Fukushima plant would no doubt have been damaged by the earthquake alone; but all evidence suggests that the backup generators supplying electricity to the pumps would not have failed if it hadn't been for inundation from the tsunami.
In that sense, the planning of that facility was entirely lax. The backup system should have been located in a place invulnerable to a tsunami.
We humans are a bizarre species. We invent the technology to bomb each other with pinpoint accuracy from thousands of kilometers away, but we can't seem to get water — with the ocean a stone's throw away — into a building.
A frenzy of hatred can be fomented in a matter of days, so vicious that we can talk about "obliterating" an entire nation to punish it for its presumably wicked leaders; but it can take decades for us to realize that even those who once perpetrated evil upon us did it because they were misled and temporarily crazed.
We maintain our rage in the form of self-righteous superiority, often perpetrating similar aggression on others in its name.
Such a holocaust as that which began in Japan on March 11 may have the effect of showing those in the world not necessarily favourably disposed toward the Japanese people that they, and their nation, deserve sympathy, support and respect.
It is to that sentiment that I want to dedicate the words: "Never forget!"
Monday, March 28, 2011
Japan's crises spark wide alarm and some unlikely sympathizers
News & Articles on Burma-Sunday, 27 March, 2011
News & Articles on Burma
Sunday, 27 March, 2011
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Suu Kyi party seeks talks with Myanmar's generals
Slow relief efforts after Myanmar quake
ASEAN ready to help Myanmar following strong earthquake
Rescuers struggle in quake-hit Burma
Suu Kyi's party seeks talks with Myanmar's generals
Suu Kyi calls for better relations with Myanmar military
Myanmar military holds unusually low-key celebration of Armed Forces Day
Myanmar gems auction earns record $2.8 billion
-------------------------------------------------
Suu Kyi party seeks talks with Myanmar's generals
By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON | Sun Mar 27, 2011 6:36pm IST
YANGON (Reuters) - The party of Myamar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, called on Sunday for talks with the country's military rulers to clear up "misunderstandings" before a new government takes office.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) reiterated its demand for talks with the military, known locally as the "Tatmadaw", to seek the release of more than 2,100 political prisoners and a bigger role for democratic forces in the country's future.
"It is urged that dialogue be held urgently to eliminate the misunderstandings between the democratic forces and the Tatmadaw," the NLD said in a statement.
"The authority should create fair political conditions by holding politically meaningful dialogue and releasing all political prisoners unconditionally."
The call is likely to fall on deaf ears as the authoritarian junta prepares to make way for a civilian government it has hand-picked to maintain its half-century grip on power.
The regime has used everything in its power, from deadly force to contentious court rulings, to sideline the NLD and its supporters since its landslide election win in 1990, which the military ignored.
Suu Kyi was released from a seven-year detention in November last year and wants to start a process of national reconciliation involving the army, pro-democracy groups and ethnic militias that have fought the military for decades.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been given unprecedented freedom since her release but her calls for dialogue have been ignored.
The NLD has no political role because it boycotted last year's long-awaited election, won overwhelmingly by a pro-military party, and was effectively banned by the authorities.
The NLD's decision to continue backing Western sanctions angered the generals, who warned her via their media mouthpieces that she would meet a "tragic end" and demanded her party apologise to the Burmese people for blocking Western investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country.
Suu Kyi said on Sunday she would keep an open mind but hoped to have a better relationship with the new civilian-led government after two decades of animosity with the junta.
Only a handful of serving generals have been given cabinet portfolios but most other ministers are former soldiers who retired specifically to take political roles. The president and one vice-president were the fourth and fifth most powerful figures in the outgoing regime.
Asked if she felt positive about reconciliation, Suu Kyi said: "I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. We have to assess the situation objectively, but we hope for improvement in the interests of the nation."
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould) http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/03/27/idINIndia-55913720110327?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401
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Slow relief efforts after Myanmar quake
Published: March. 27, 2011 at 9:48 AM
Comments (0)EmailPrintListen BANGKOK, March 27 (UPI) -- Witnesses say the death toll from the recent earthquake in Myanmar is at least double the official government estimate of 75.
Rescue efforts were described as relatively slow with large numbers of people forced to camp out in the open or seek shelter in monasteries, the Bangkok Post reported.
"Many people are still missing and their relatives have been trying in vain to search for their loved ones," journalist Puenkham Payakwong told the Bangkok Post by telephone from the Mai Sei district Sunday.
Payakwong estimated the death toll at 150 with several hundred injured.
The magnitude 6.8 quake that shook northeast Myanmar Thursday prompted the prime minister of neighboring Thailand to order a thorough evaluation of the nation's own earthquake plan.
The order included adding contingency plans for a potential tsunami along the coast, the Post said.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/03/27/Slow-relief-efforts-after-Myanmar-quake/UPI-23411301233697/#ixzz1HoHYI4HX
----------------------------------------------
ASEAN ready to help Myanmar following strong earthquake
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-03-27 22:09 Comments(0) PrintMail Large Medium Small
JAKARTA - ASEAN member states on Sunday expressed their readiness of providing Myanmar support and assistance in any way following a strong earthquake on March 24, a press statement said here.
They also expressed their deep sympathy and condolence to the government and people of Myanmar for the loss of lives and damage to property caused by the earthquake that occurred in northeastern territory and wished that they will make a speedy recovery.
The statement also said that ASEAN member states are confident that the government and people of Myanmar would be able to overcome this unfortunate natural disaster and challenge.
------------------------------------------------
Rescuers struggle in quake-hit Burma
Published: 27/03/2011 at 01:31 PM
Online news: Asia
Rescue teams struggled Sunday to reach those affected by a powerful earthquake that struck Burma's east three days ago, as aid workers feared the death toll would increase.
Myanmar residents look at large cracks on a road two days after an earthquake struck the area, in Tarlay township near the northeastern city of Tachilek. Rescue teams struggled Sunday to reach those affected by the powerful earthquake, as aid workers feared the death toll would increase.
Officials say 75 people were killed by the 6.8 magnitude quake that hit near the borders with Thailand and Laos late on Thursday, reducing homes and government buildings to rubble and affecting thousands of people.
"As we learn more it appears that the casualty figures will continue to increase," an aid worker in the country told AFP, asking not to be named.
Tachileik town and nearby Tarlay and Mong Lin in Burma's Shan state appeared to have been most severely affected by the quake, which was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
"We don't know how many people were affected yet. We are still trying to get the figures," a Burma official said on Sunday.
"Transportation is difficult. We still haven't reached some areas, we still don't know what happened to them and we don't know how many people are living in these mountainous areas," he added, declining to be named.
An unnamed Red Cross worker in Tachileik told exile news group the Irrawaddy that at least 150 people had been killed, but the official said there was no confirmed increase from Friday's toll of 74. One woman was also killed in Thailand.
The charity World Vision believes around 15,000 people may have been affected in the worst-hit areas.
"One of the things that's really emerging is water as a critical need. That's the immediate challenge in addition to temporary shelter," said Chris Herink, the charity's Burma country director in Rangoon.
The group, in partnership with the health ministry, is sending in tens of thousands of water purification tablets along with first aid kits and emergency shelter.
The affected region was already difficult to reach before the quake, while access to the area by foreigners is restricted and the military-dominated government tends to keep a tight grip on information.
The ruling junta was widely criticised for refusing foreign assistance for weeks after cyclone Nargis wrought devastation across the Irrawaddy Delta in May 2008, leaving more than 138,000 people either killed or missing.
But Herink has said his organisation, which is working in the affected areas with the Burma Red Cross and UNICEF, had found the government had been proactively cooperating.
He said a report by authorities assessed the estimated financial damage in Tarlay alone at US$3.5 million.
Sunday's state New Light of Burma newspaper detailed the official relief effort on its front page, after various ministers travelled to Tachileik from the capital Naypyidaw on Saturday.
"They comforted earthquake-hit victims and presented cash assistance to them," the English-language paper said.
But many have been getting their news from Thai radio rather than sources in Burma, and one Tachileik resident, posting anonymously on Saturday on an Internet forum, lamented the lack of "concrete assistance from authorities".
In Tarlay, as strong aftershocks continued on Saturday, a few rescue teams were seen picking through the rubble of buildings, a bridge was destroyed and roads were riven with huge cracks.
"The whole village is gone," said Nan Myint, tearfully explaining that she had lost her father, nephew and sister-in-law in the quake, which took place while she was in Rangoon.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/228871/rescuers-struggle-in-quake-hit-burma
-----------------------------------------------
Suu Kyi's party seeks talks with Myanmar's generals
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Aung Hla Tun
Reuters
9:06 a.m. EDT, March 27, 2011
E-mail Print Share Text Size sns-rt-international-us-mytre72q170-20110327
YANGON (Reuters) - The party of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, called on Sunday for talks with the country's military rulers to clear up "misunderstandings" before a new government takes office.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) reiterated its demand for talks with the military, known locally as the "Tatmadaw," to seek the release of more than 2,100 political prisoners and a bigger role for democratic forces in the country's future.
"It is urged that dialogue be held urgently to eliminate the misunderstandings between the democratic forces and the Tatmadaw," the NLD said in a statement.
"The authority should create fair political conditions by holding politically meaningful dialogue and releasing all political prisoners unconditionally."
The call is likely to fall on deaf ears as the authoritarian junta prepares to make way for a civilian government it has hand-picked to maintain its half-century grip on power.
The regime has used everything in its power, from deadly force to contentious court rulings, to sideline the NLD and its supporters since its landslide election win in 1990, which the military ignored.
Suu Kyi was released from a seven-year detention in November last year and wants to start a process of national reconciliation involving the army, pro-democracy groups and ethnic militias that have fought the military for decades.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been given unprecedented freedom since her release but her calls for dialogue have been ignored.
The NLD has no political role because it boycotted last year's long-awaited election, won overwhelmingly by a pro-military party, and was effectively banned by the authorities.
The NLD's decision to continue backing Western sanctions angered the generals, who warned her via their media mouthpieces that she would meet a "tragic end" and demanded her party apologize to the Burmese people for blocking Western investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country.
Suu Kyi said on Sunday she would keep an open mind but hoped to have a better relationship with the new civilian-led government after two decades of animosity with the junta.
Only a handful of serving generals have been given cabinet portfolios but most other ministers are former soldiers who retired specifically to take political roles. The president and one vice-president were the fourth and fifth most powerful figures in the outgoing regime.
Asked if she felt positive about reconciliation, Suu Kyi said: "I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. We have to assess the situation objectively, but we hope for improvement in the interests of the nation."
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould)
http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-international-us-mytre72q170-20110327,0,6044078.story
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Suu Kyi calls for better relations with Myanmar military
Mar 27, 2011, 11:01 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi marked the 66th anniversary of the founding of the country's resistance movement against Japan Sunday with an appeal for better relations with Myanmar's military leadership.
Speaking at a ceremony attended by about 200 supporters, press and Yangon-based diplomats, Suu Kyi said she hoped to work with the new nominally civilian government which is to be installed by the end of March.
The new government, which was chosen in an election tightly controlled by the military last November, is widely seen as an attempt to give the ruling junta a more internationally acceptable civilian face.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) boycotted the poll after the junta instituted rules deemed unfair and barred Suu Kyi from running for office.
She was released from house arrest less than a week after the election.
The Nobel Peace laureate said that despite political differences with the junta, she retains respect for the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw.
'The NLD highly regards the Tatmadaw,' she said. 'The Tatmadaw was founded by my father. I personally value and cherish it very much.'
The ceremony marked the 66th anniversary of Anti-Fascist Resistance Day, when Suu Kyi's father, General Aung San, switched sides in World War II on March 27, 1945, to lead a short but successful resistance campaign against Japanese occupation.
She said the occasion was a time to promote unity between the public and the military.
'We also want better relations with the new government,' she said. 'We want to have better relations for the sake of the country.'
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1628961.php/Suu-Kyi-calls-for-better-relations-with-Myanmar-military
--------------------------------------------
Myanmar military holds unusually low-key celebration of Armed Forces Day
By Associated Press, Sunday, March 27, 6:38 AM
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s military government on Sunday held an unusually low-key ceremony marking Armed Forces Day, as anticipation mounts that it will soon turn over power to a nominally civilian administration.
The holiday commemorates the day when the army rose up against Japanese occupation forces 66 years ago. It is usually is observed on a grand scale with a military parade and a speech by the country’s military leader in the capital, Naypyitaw.
There was no explanation given for why the ceremony was cut back for the first time since the junta took power in 1988.
However, the move comes as rumors swirl that a military-dominated civilian government formed after elections last year will soon be officially sworn in, perhaps in the next few days.
The state-run media gave the holiday normal treatment. They printed the speech that junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe gave at last year’s commemoration, and an editorial in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper praised the military — known as the Tatmadaw — for “leading the nation and the people to the way to democracy by serving as a major national force.”
The opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose father Gen. Aung San led the uprising against the Japanese, held its own ceremony for the holiday, which it refers to by its old name, Resistance Day. The name was changed in 1974 to avoid offending Japan, Myanmar’s top aid donor in the 1970s.
Her National League for Democracy party issued a statement urging that a “dialogue be held urgently to eliminate the misunderstandings between the democratic forces and the Tatmadaw” and that political prisoners be released.
Suu Kyi’s party boycotted last year’s elections, saying they were being held under unfair and undemocratic conditions. The vote and a constitution pushed through by the military ensure that the army will hold ultimate authority over the government.
Asked if the rocky relationship between her party and the government will change when a new civilian administration takes power, Suu Kyi replied: “I don’t know but we always want good relations with the government. I wish that the relationship will improve.”
“Only they (the new government) will know how they intend to treat us but we will work for good relations,” she said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/myanmar-military-holds-unusually-low-key-celebration-of-armed-forces-day/2011/03/27/AFtLwZhB_story.html
-----------------------------------------
Myanmar gems auction earns record $2.8 billion
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YANGON, Myanmar
Myanmar earned more than $2.8 billion from the sale of jade, gems and pearls at its annual gems auction this month, a report said Saturday.
The weekly Voice news magazine said 16,939 lots of jade, 206 lots of gems and 255 lots of pearls were sold through competitive bidding to fetch the record-high revenue. It said 8,719 local and foreign gem merchants took part in the 48th annual event, held in the capital, Naypyitaw, according to an official from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Commerce and Industry.
The March 11-22 auction, held under the auspices of the Mines Ministry, is a major foreign exchange earner for the military-dominated government, which faces economic and political sanctions from the West because of its poor human rights record.
Myanmar is one of the world's biggest producers of jade as well as the source of up to 90 percent of its rubies, and gems from the country are specifically targeted by U.S. sanctions.
in 2008, the United States enacted legislation banning the import of gems from Myanmar, which already was the voluntary policy of retailers such as Tiffany's and Bulgari.
U.S. officials said at that time that Myanmar had evaded earlier gem-targeting sanctions by laundering stones in other countries before they were shipped to the United States.
Myanmar gem sellers say the sanctions have little impact on their business because they rely on Chinese and Thai gem merchants, who are the major buyers. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9M6RRS00.htm
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