No relief, aid agencies blame Myanmar's red tape

NO MERCY: Not even the Buddhist temples have been spared from the fury of Cyclone Nargis.

    

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Southern Myanmar: More than 1 lakh people may be dead in a cyclone that ripped through the Irrawaddy delta on Sunday, a US diplomat in Myanmar has said.

Not even the Buddhist temples were spared from the fury of Cyclone Nargis. Even the venerable symbols of religion have somehow been toppled by the wind.

It brought unremitting fury to this landscape, turning much of the Irrawaddy Delta into a wasteland.

It’s a land where funerals and death are at every turn — some are buried — but many bodies are still lying amid the rubble. And everywhere those haunting hollow faces. The drowned world that feels beyond hope.

But it's not just people's homes that have been destroyed here. The very infrastructure of Myanmar has taken a battering. The state television has shown aid being distributed by the army, but the need here is immense.

So far many foreign aid agencies haven't been able to get their staff and equipment into Myanmar.

They say the red tape of this reclusive country is preventing progress. Food shortages are critical in some areas and opposition groups are cynical about the army's motives.

Another crippling problem that the country currently faces is fuel with the gas price surging to $50 per gallon. But if you don't want to wait in the long queue, you can pay black-market rates of ten times that amount.