A Tale of Two Countries

Charles Dickens second novel, A Tale of Two Cities is a moral story that examines the themes of resurrection, imprisonment, revolution, shame, redemption, social injustice, self-sacrifice, and patriotism. In a story that plays on Dickens title, the tale of two countries, is about China and Burma, where the world watches the same elements play out in the way each country responds to grave threats to their people.

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Burma is beginning to resemble South Asia in 2004 in the scope of death and destruction that has been visited upon their shores. The behavior of the ruling Junta is beginning to make North Korea seem transparent. The posts below serve to contrast the response and openness of China as it deals with a natural disaster on a scale that most modern western countries have never had to face, and Burma operating on a scale that horrifies most decent people in the world.

The Slow Burn in Burma

Foreign powers lean on Myanmar to open up aid effort

China has mobilized her army and allowed almost unlimited news access to the hardest hit regions. Chinese CCTV television has been covering the story nonstop since it occurred with their English language channels struggling to cover the story in ways reminiscent of American networks after 9/11.

The stories linked here attest to China changing before our eyes. Coming on the heals of Tibet and the bad repressive response, the sight of children being pulled from ruble breaks the heart of any decent human. Quakes test China's openness and readiness

One of the best roundups of the latest on the earthquake comes from Shanghaiist. Recommended Reads: The earthquake

American of all stripes have rushed to offer aid. This is a hat tip to talk radio personality Hugh Hewitt for getting involved early. The Rush To Rescue.

Individual Americans like Evangelist Franklin Graham outgives entire nations to the relief effort who was visiting China and is bringing back an important message about the changes in China, as noted in the article.

Mother Nature is a Bitch!

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The news of two devastating natural disasters within the past two weeks, remind us that Mother Nature is not always the nurturing wet nurse, we were taught about in prose.

The great Sichuan earthquake: What we know so far (and a second earthquake this morning)

Warning! Graphic scenes!
Slide show: Digging Through the Disaster. and Rescue Efforts Continue After Deadly Quake
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In fact! as Howard Bloom writes about Mother Nature, "She's a bloody bitch!" In two posts Bloom strips away the covering and reveals that nature's "curve balls" are what stimulates innovation and change. The links are well worth the time to read. Screw 'Sustainability' - And I Am Here To Tell You Why and Screw 'Sustainability' - And Cheer Up About It.

Disasters like cyclones and earthquakes serve to remind us that humans are at their best when responding to those challenges. Steve DeAngelis has a post this week that notes those traits don't need a catastrophic event to trigger the desire to reach out to help those in need. The Psychology of Philanthropy. Building on an article by Shankar Vedantam entitled, ["Where the Conscience Meets the Checkbook,"

DeAngelis adds his own wise words:

I agree with Vedantam. Whether you decide to contribute to the rebuilding efforts in Myanmar, China, or Georgia, or decide to make small loans through a group like Kiva, or decide to help a church group or other established charity that helps others in need, the decision to help is the most important first step you can take.

And turning back to their roots as a force that traditionally has been the nation's fire brigade that responded to the aid of fellow nations is the United States Navy. Poised to offer a response similar to that offered after the 2004 Tsunami, is the7th Fleet Focus: Ghost of Macarthur Lands in Myanmar. The first man off the plane was Admiral Timothy Keating, Chief of US Pacific Command, who met with the Junta leaders in a mirror of the days when the Navy took the lead, in contact with regimes outside of normal diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile in China, More troops rush in to help China quake rescue their military musters every branch, even sending in paratroops to drop into areas cut off by road. News Analysis: A Rescue in China, Uncensored

Great battles will resonate in the history books, but the the personal rewards gained by saving a life will resonate in the heart of the giver until his last breath.

Please consider a donation to the which can be earthquake relief fund established by CaringforChina.org, made over the web or mailed in to the address provided.

Killings Fields in Retro, Burma 2008

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Sunday morning, Mothers Day for Americans, but 10,000 miles away in the country formerly known as Burma and now calling itself Mynmar, a natural disaster is turning into a tragedy that portends to have the capacity to approach the scale of death not seen since the The Killing Fields of Cambodia in the late 1970's.

Currently over 250,000 people are estimated to be in mortal danger of loosing their lives for lack of immediate aid. The long term consequences of this disaster will unfold as the Monsoon season begins and the window to plant rice is lost.

The naval oriented blog Information Dissemination has a post today 7th Fleet Focus: Monsoon Season Looming As Myanmar Dithers, that begins to ring the world's fire bell. As the UN stands by wringing it's collective hands, the fire brigade made up of elements of the U.S. French, and Indian Navy, wait down the block, as the Junta rulers block most aid from being landed.

The blog comments:

It is also now clear that next years rice crop will not be laid down in time. This is a critical aspect of the discussion of the Myanmar tragedy that we have not observed analyzed in the media reporting or public statements, but it may explain the behavior of the junta in Myanmar. While the rice not being laid down will not create an immediate food shortage, it will create a massive food shortage next year, as 40% of the rice grown in Myanmar is grown in the devastated areas. While no one is saying it out loud, the strategy we observe unfolding appears to be to allow as many people as possible die, thus fewer people to feed next year when shortages will occur.

We believe there are many more dead than is being reported, for several reasons. First, aid has only reached half a million people. The UN numbers the population of the heavy disaster region to be around 2 million people, with around 3 million people under flooded areas. In other words, as many as 2 million are in regions that have been wiped out by the Cyclone, but 3 million more are threatened due to living in a flooded region as the weather turns to more rain. It takes about 5 days by truck to drive to the southern affected regions from the capital, and there is no evidence of daily convoys. Another problem, on Saturday military forces involved in the humanitarian relief efforts were pulled off that duty so the government could run its sham election.

To further illustrate the gravity of the situation in Burma, is a series of links in the 11 May SWJ News, Op-Ed, Events & Blog Roundup by SWJ Editors.

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Burma’s Cyclone Children Facing Wipeout - Harry McKenzie, London Times

Burma Starts Vote As Aid Trickles In - Washington Post

Bodies Flow Into Hard-Hit Area of Burma - New York Times

Less Aid, More Show for Burma's Junta - Graeme Jenkins, London Daily Telegraph

Children Starve as Aid is Blocked - Sydney Morning Herald

Burma Set for Political, Economic Shocks - Associated Press

Sporadic Aid Trickles into Burma - BBC News

Risks Stop US Riding Roughshod Over Junta - Swain and Baxter, London Times

Burma's Generals Take Aid Credit - Richard Ehrlich, Washington Times

Voting Proceeds in Myanmar - Los Angeles Times

Referendum in Burma Likely to Solidify Junta's Power - Associated Press

Junta Hands Out Aid Boxes with Generals' Names - Associated Press

No Time to Hesitate - We Must Get Aid to Burma - London Times editoria

Flexible' Aid for Burma - Toronto Star editorial

Shared History of Britain and Burma - Thant Myint-U, London Daily Telegraph opinion

Why Can't UN Be More Forceful? - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer opinion

Burma’s Dying Cry Out to be Saved - Simon Jenkins, London Times opinion

Invasion Burma - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club

And more from the 10 May SWJ News, Op-Ed, Events & Blog Roundup by SWJ Editors

Burma Clears US Aircraft To Deliver Relief - Kazmin and Lynch, Washington Post

Burma Seizes UN Food, Blocks Foreign Experts - Seth Mydans, New York Times

Burma: 'I Stopped Counting the Bodies' - Kenneth Denby, London Times

UN Launches Appeal as Burma Refuses Aid - London Daily Telegraph

Burma Exports Rice as Cyclone Victims Struggle - Los Angeles Times

Burmese Junta Seizes UN Relief Aid - The Australian

Burma Warned Over Cyclone Delays - BBC News

UN Halts Burma Aid in Seizure Row - BBC News

Burma Presses on with Voting - Richard Ehrlich, Washington Times

Is it Time to Invade Burma? - Romesh Ratnesar, Time

Burma's Blockade - Washington Post editorial

Kick Burma Out of the UN - Wall Street Journal editorial

The Case for Invading Burma - Shawn Crispin, Asia Times opinion

Burma: No News Is Bad News - Roby Alampay, New York Times opinion

Time to Invade Burma? - Gordon Chang, Contentions

Re: Time to Invade Burma? - Abe Greenwald, Contentions

Note that several leading publication have editorials calling for a military response to allow aid to reach those in need. Unfortunately the chance for that occurring is slim to none given the current conditions. Any chance for a UN sanctioned intervention would likely be vetoed by China. One would note that China, is silent beyond sending money, seems to be content having countries on her borders who are so despotically bad, Myanmar, North Korea, as to act as an insulation against free ideas leeching in to pollute their own ideology.

So the World watches and waits as the ruling Junta of Myanmar follow a diabolical Machiavellian plot to consolidate power and lower the population to a level it finds more manageable by waiting for people to die. Sadly, this is another example of the UN's completely neutered ability to protect anything, except the expense accounts of it's ambassadors.

The United States, and most of the Western Nations are no longer willing to take action out of fear of offending political correctness, brought about by the legacy of a post colonial mindset and the recent observation of American unilateral responses to failed states, in the examples of Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many of the themes on this blog have been on making our world a better place. Almost every favorite in the blogroll, is to a site where the author has, or is actively devoting their time and effort in making our world better and safer. It is worthwhile on this special day to take a moment and reflect on what would your mother do, if she saw such a travesty occurring down the block? Then act, by urging our Representatives to come together to put pressure on everyone involved to do the right thing and respond to this disaster before it becomes a holocaust.

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

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The intimacy of the experience of World War II is passing to join the memories of other wars, whose only link to our national recollection, remain stored in the archives, among fading relics and forgotten memorials.

Today, World War II is taught and remembered by touching on the exploits of the leaders and strategies used by all sides. The personal memories are replaced with bullet points that spin a political position, dependent upon the current view of being either right or left in one's viewpoint. The stories of courage and personal dedication are largely lost to memory and in today's self-indulgent world, are discounted as sacrifices that any rational person would defer from making.

The blogger, CDR Salamander dedicates every Friday as Fullbore Friday, to remembering the deeds of those whose bravery during time of war has been largely forgotten. This week, he links the story of the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber whose dedication to duty and courage is so fantastic that one would believe it to be fiction, without the visual record created, courtesy of the History Channel. Take the time to watch the videos and read the story of Captain Jay Zeamer and his bombardier Joseph Sarnoski who both won the Medal of Honor, as the bomber named Old 666 completed it's lone mapping mission over enemy territory in the South Pacific and single combat, took on 17 Japanese A6M Zeros as they struggled home, Wings of Valor II- Jay Zeamer and Joseph Sarnoski.

Introducing Howard Bloom

I want to give credit again to my fellow blogger Mark at zenpundit.com for making this post, Hey…Howard Bloom has a Blog!

For those who don't know who Howard Bloom is, the following link, and a few snippets of what he has been writing about will introduce you to one of the most interesting minds in today's world. I've linked it in my history and culture favorites under Howard Bloom's Blog. Bloom along with an esteemed group of scientists write about physical and earth science, biology, medicine, neuroscience and culture in a flowing style that holds the reader spellbound. The following is an example, Mother Nature And The Evolutionary Mandate.

We've seen the beginning of mass behavior among quarks, the proto-memory of atoms, and a strange preview of culture long before life arose. We've run a background check on Evolution (aka Mother Nature) and have discovered her track record of violence and destruction. Destruction from which she's pulled enormous leaps of creativity.

And takes on the pop buzz word sustainability in a post entitled Screw 'Sustainability' - And I Am Here To Tell You Why.

Why screw sustainability?

Because the word implies merely hanging in there, merely surviving, merely sustaining. It implies a penny-pinching earth, a miserly existence, a nature that punishes change, and a nature that prefers small tribes to large groups of human beings.

This sort of attitude has traditionally led to ignorance and to self-inflicted poverty. It pitched Europe into misery from the fall of Rome in 476 ad to the revival of optimism, technology, and entrepreneurialism in 1100 ad. That 600-year-long slump was the famous dark ages of the West. An attitude of self-denial and an urge to return to the past also led to an age of darkness in the Islamic Empire starting in 1566. For the first time, Islam saw its limitations more clearly than it saw its possibilities. How did it respond? It banned every new technology, shunned every new idea, and withdrew into fantasies of a past mistakenly viewed as a paradise.

Then moving on to talk about bees and bacteria. In Praise Of Consumerism - Bees, Bacteria And The Value Of Wasted Time.

What is consumerism? It’s the flaunting of surplus. It’s the conspicuous display of surplus time, of surplus energy, and of surplus luxuries.

More important are these two facts. First, consumerism is the way that nature expresses herself in men and women. Yes, you heard me right. Consumerism is natural. More important, consumerism evolved long, long before there were industrial machines. Consumerism evolved billions of years before there were human beings. Consumerism isn’t the creation of mankind. It’s a strategy deployed by mother nature.

Bloom and his fellow columnists representing the above fields and several more, have something for everyone with an open and inquisitive mind. Howard Bloom takes information from science and culture and brings it together in one of those famous intersection of ideas, and feeds us brain food that will nourish our understanding and stimulate us to learn more.

Barnett's Latest Booklist

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One of the rewards of reading Thomas Barnett's blog has been his book recommendations. This past year as he prepared for his latest book on grand strategy he listed the books he was reading along with a brief review Two new book lists and FAQs. Anyone interested in the complete list can visit his blog and type in books in the site search box.

Keeping with that tradition, Tom has added seven of the most recent books he's read along with brief comments.

Recent books read (1 of 7): Klare's "Rising Powers and Shrinking Planet" »But in this book, even Klare ends with a note about China and the U.S. shifting slowly from competition (not so bad and hardly "war") to cooperation.

Recent books read (2 of 7): Glenny's "McMafia" »

Glenny says when you add up all the estimates, that global crime is 15-20 percent of global GDP. This is the biggest estimate out there, and by definition, I tend to doubt it, because the ones who push these calculations most are always trying to move product with the fear factor.

Recent books read (3 of 7): Robin Wright's "Dreams and Shadows" »

Subtitle is "the future of the Middle East."

Great bit on "pyjamahedeen."

Also like the "peaceful empowerment" logic that is taking root and threatening the old order in the region.

Recent books read (4 of 7): David Rothkopf's "Superclass" »

Subtitle is "the global power elite and the world they are making."

6,000 people actually run the entire world, and Rothkopf's got a list!

Recent books read (5 of 7): Krupp and Horn's "Earth: The Sequel" »

More seriously, the larger point is that we're heading into a period of great and powerful forces: "great powers" that obliterate our old understanding of that term (more on that later).

Recent books read (6 of 7): Wallis' "The Great Awakening" »

Subtitle is "reviving faith and politics in a post-religious right America," and I find that a bit much. If you're going to crank on the new "great awakening," then why get all pissy on the religious right like it's some straw man we must defeat?

Recent books read (7 of 7): Talbott's "The Great Experiment" »

Like how he calls America a "postimperial multinational state" and refers to pre-American role in world as "the imperial millennia."

The First Saturday in May

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May is the month when Spring begins to show itself in earnest. New life blooms across the northern hemisphere in all the colors of the rainbow. For those whose recent journey has been down academic paths, it is a time for finals and graduation. I want to take the time to reflect on a few. who this month are reaching that gateway.

The first, deserves special recognition for taking time out of studying for the last round of finals before she graduates, to spend the past twenty four hours participating in The American Cancer Society Relay for Life Event Home. I have written about this individual before as being an example of dedication and purpose, A Resilient Nation.

To briefly recount her story, she is the daughter of two, who fled the Killing Fields of Cambodia to eventually make their way to the United States. This young woman will be the first of her family to graduate from a university. She did it, by going to school full time, working to support herself and family, all the while making ninety miles round trips in Southern California traffic. She also found the time to be an officer in a campus organization promoting her field of study. But above all, she always finds the time to participate in activities that benefit others. We are lucky as a nation and a community to have such a person in our midst. As you read this, take the time to think of her, and know that she is living the message in the headline on this blog. "Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” Wish her well, as she ventures out to join the next generation of those who will continue to connect our world through commerce and culture.

In a similar vein, there is another who has been noted on these blog pages, The Changing Image of Women. She is a daughter of Vietnam, in the final stages of her last semester before graduating with a degree in History. She is not your usual historian, as her field of concentration is ancient military history. Her story, is one of the thousands of first generation Americans whose parents fled the collapse of their world over a quarter a century ago to risk it all, by starting afresh in a foreign land, whose past history toward people of color was less than stellar. She also, works full time and goes to school nights. I had the pleasure of meeting this person while a graduate teaching aide, and have seen her raise her sights beyond the baccalaureate degree, to a Masters and PhD. Her talent for critical thinking and research will sustain her as she pursues her goal of sharing her passion for history.

And finally, a young man who is the result of the intersection of two diverse paths My Persian Sons, who met and created a remarkable person who never ceases to surprise those who know him with his focus, and innate talent to understand the world. This young man is poised to graduate next month from high school, and like a lot of young people he set his sights on college, where he wants to study political science. Without parental guidance, he began to search out on his own and applied to several universities. This last month, he was accepted at a several upper-tier universities and made his choice to attend a school that will require him to move away from his family. This is a challenge for thousands of parents every year as their children graduate and leave home to begin building their own futures. For me, this young man holds special significance because he is my youngest, and a time for reflection and pride fills my heart.

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So this Saturday, as May ushers in hope for those who live by the land and for those who make their livelyhood connecting and holding society together, take the time to pause and be thankful for this amazing time of renewal and hope.

The Zenpundit Uncovers Another Gem

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For the second time in two weeks the master blogger, Zenpundit has uncovered a gem of an article. In a post entitled,Academia’s Jihad Against Military History. Mark has added his own thoughts, that have generated several worthwhile comments from his readers.

Zen begins.

It’s true that military history is not being targeted per se, though the field gets caught up in leftist faculty attitudes toward ROTC, American foreign policy and dead white guys. Economic and diplomatic history programs are faring little better and with history departments being squeezed in general, even labor and social historians are finding tight job markets. No, it’s simply a herd mentality in action, responding to the PC fetishes of academic administrative culture. It’s more important for the key decision makers in universities, colleges and departments on campuses with active women’s and ethnic studies programs to make certain that the History department is redundantly stacked with tenure track positions in these same subdisciplinary areas two or three deep.

I can attest from personal experience that military history classes are the most popular on any campus I've attended. A good friend, a long time tenured (39) years professor, always tells the grad students he advises to stifle their military history interest until they get past their goal in education and if planning to teach, have a tenured job. Then he says "let it rip, after they can't drive you out."

Historian Victor Davis Hanson has written on this same subject Why Study War?

It’s no surprise that civilian Americans tend to lack a basic understanding of military matters. Even when I was a graduate student, 30-some years ago, military history — understood broadly as the investigation of why one side wins and another loses a war, and encompassing reflections on magisterial or foolish generalship, technological stagnation or breakthrough, and the roles of discipline, bravery, national will, and culture in determining a conflict’s outcome and its consequences — had already become unfashionable on campus. Today, universities are even less receptive to the subject.

And continues with this quote.

Those who want to study war in the traditional way face intense academic suspicion, as Margaret Atwood’s poem “The Loneliness of the Military Historian” suggests:

Confess: it’s my profession

that alarms you.

This is why few people ask me to dinner,

though Lord knows I don’t go out of my

way to be scary.

Historians of war must derive perverse pleasure, their critics suspect, from reading about carnage and suffering. Why not figure out instead how to outlaw war forever, as if it were not a tragic, nearly inevitable aspect of human existence? Hence the recent surge of “peace studies” (see “The Peace Racket”).

He concludes his article with an appendix of books that can help one start their study of war.

It is in part:

While Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, a chronicle of the three-decade war between Athens and Sparta, establishes the genre of military history, the best place to begin studying war is with the soldiers’ stories themselves. E. B. Sledge’s memoir of Okinawa, With the Old Breed, is nightmarish, but it reminds us that war, while it often translates to rot, filth, and carnage, can also be in the service of a noble cause. Elmer Bendiner’s tragic retelling of the annihilation of B-17s over Germany, The Fall of Fortresses: A Personal Account of the Most Daring, and Deadly, American Air Battles of World War II, is an unrecognized classic.

To his appendix, I would add my own endorsement of the quality of his reading recommendations and offer a couple, from Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn : The War in Africa, 1942-... and The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and I....

To add to this discussion, is a this follow up post by Lexington Green at Chicago Boyz ,Academia’s Jihad Against Military History: Further Thoughts.