This pic on the left is tropical cyclone NARGIS as it devastated Myanmar about a year ago.  I wrote about this in a previous blog entry mentioning that when I was a kid during the Second World War this part of Asia was called Burma.  Remember the BURMA DEATH MARCH?   I imagine the lowlands today are much like they were then, shown in the center pic.  Progress is slow in third-world countries.   

            One of the great innovations of the advent of HDTV, which I receive with a small disk antenna on NEREIS, my sailboat home for over a decade and a half, is that there are four versions of Public Television available twenty-four hours a day.  Not so for the children pictured above on the right who look remarkably like two featured in a program shown this weekend. They were part of a family of three consisting of the male leader, ten-years old, his seven-year old sister and toddler brother, perhaps two-years old.  Their parents were drowned during the cyclone and these three live alone together in a shack near the water.   Their home was pictured as the one above with holes for insect intrusion in the primitive stick house.      


                                                              


            The pic on the left shows what they see from the mud street in front of their only protection from the elements, much like the picture on the right.  The middle picture is probably occupied by a family headed by adults and is similar to those I once putted by in my launcha in a tributary of the Rio Dulce in Guatemala.  I wrote about that area and you can see pictures of those abodes in TILLER TALES in the chapter titled RIO DULCE DICHOTOMY.  You can read excerpts elsewhere on this site.


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            Their mother was cooking a meal for them when disaster struck, food brought from the proceeds from her occupation as water bearer.  She was paid to bring water to others.  This was her job!  A different world from one many of us are used to.  The pic above on the right is a water purification system used today to supply water to these hapless children who are living now, just as yours do in a far different environment, I imagine. I doubt there are many computers in this part of Myanmar. The pic on the left shows an aerial view of their community.  The center pic shows a still devastated shoreline from which small boats put out to catch fish and other denizens of the shallow lagoon, such as crabs.



                                                                              


            This pic depicts a visit from the leaders of Myanmar, the ruling junta, military men, who are well fed and probably have access to the Internet.  In the documentary I saw last Saturday they were seen explaining to the cries of hunger and despair in the aftermath of Nargis that they were just visiting and would see about helping them later.  As it happens much later.  Actually little or no help has been offered.  In fact these uniformed "leaders" refused much of the world's offers of food and water and confiscated much of what they did accept for monetary gain.  

            I saw lots of poverty in the third world nations I've visited in my travels around the Caribbean, single-handing NEREIS.  I remember sailing from Cuba to Marathon in the Florida Keys in 1996.  The day after arrival I walked up to one of the supermarkets in that sleepy village and stood transfixed at the largess strewn before me.  In Cuba, even the Dollar Stores, those catering to foreigners who had dollars, little of the World's goods were available.  The peso stores had mostly empty board shelves.  There was perhaps some straggly produce and maybe an unrefrigerated chicken or two, hanging for those lucky enough to find.  I had tears in my eyes viewing the multicolored wonders in that store in Marathon.  Not much has changed in the decade passed in Cuba and apparently Myanmar.  Progress is slow for the downtrodden in third-world countries, and most are downtrodden.  Third-World rich are reluctant to allow a middle class to develop, I guess in fear of sharing the wealth.  

                             THE POINT OF THIS ESSAY

        Well, last Saturday watching the documentary about Myanmar one year later after Cyclone Nargis ,the well-fed camera team interviewed the little family of three headed by a ten-year old boy with his sister and little brother.  They were asked about their life and what has happened since they've lost their parents.  These are the last questions and answers I heard before switching channels in an inability to continue watching through near sobs were as follows.  

           The family leader, ten-years old, was asked, "What do you want to be?"  He replied, now this was via an interpreter.  (I wonder if they speak Burmese in Myanmar.)  He said, "I want to catch crabs." 

           Not I want to be a fireman or policeman or doctor or lawyer, none of that.  I guess this was a natural reply as there were none of these in his life to admire and his role models were indeed fisherman and crab-catchers.  Then I heard what his seven-year old sister said.  

            She said, "Then I'll cook the crabs for the boy."  Referring to her toddler brother who with her ten-year old brother she was raising. This is the life they envisioned for the future. This was to be their adult existence.  I couldn't watch any more, it was just too much heartbreak.  

            What kind of world is this that children are raising children and aspire only to be crab-catchers and crab-cookers in order to feed their child/toddler/brother?  

            This is not a plea for support for these three living in the same world as your children, Myanmar military "men" would not accept it or perhaps steal it for themselves.  No, this is just a tale of what reality is for many in a World of relative plenty, for those privileged to have it.  


                            NOW THE MORAL.  


            Could this happen in the United States?  Ask those folks living in New Orleans still reeling from Hurricane Katrina.  Still reeling!  Disasters can return all of us back to a Stone Age in almost an instant.  In some future time you too may aspire to crab catching as your only possible occupation.  Don't scoff.  Civilization's veneer is thinner than any of us can imagine.  Water bearer for the community in good times.  What happens in bad times?

            How can you save your family from disaster?  Look elsewhere on this site for tips on hurricane preparedness and think about down loading the HURRICANE SURVIVAL GUIDE .   


                         THATS THAT FOR THIS.  


                                  TAKE CARE,  


                                          JB