In Solidarity: Myanmar (Burma)

We want to take the opportunity to express our sympathies and offer our prayers for the people of Myanmar (Burma) that have had their lives devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

Here in the U.S. we tend to measure every situation in comparison to ourselves, and the most recent example we have is Hurricane Katrina. The devastation and loss of life caused by Cyclone Nargis seems to be exponentially greater than that inflicted on the Gulf Coast by Katrina.

I'm late to this story, but luckily others have been on top of it, like the Texas Liberal. Follow the link to find all types of information regarding this tragedy, including Burmese bloggers, country information, and this bit:

The Times of London writes about an added crisis from the storm—

The features that made the stricken area vulnerable to this disaster — its low-lying geography and proximity to water — also made it Burma’s rice bowl. The cyclone has undoubtedly wrought terrible damage on the country’s agriculture. World rice prices are at a record high already, provoking food riots in more than 30 countries. Burma is a net exporter of rice, and the destruction of crops in the Irrawaddy delta will only add to upward pressure on international prices. The country may be unable to keep its promise to sell rice to other needy countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

With the current global food crisis involving rice and other staples, this can't help. So please do what you can to assist the people of Myanmar (Burma) in their recovery effort.

Could've Just Asked Me

Well, it's confirmed, Black folks aren't feeling to great about the way things are going in this country.

Really.

They conducted a study and found out what your average brother or sister on any street could have told them for free. I mean, Sometimes, you just don't need an expensive survey.

Anyway, I'm sure other Afrosphere bloggers are all over this, but just in case you hadn't heard:

From MSNBC: Growing numbers of blacks say they’re worse off than five years ago and don’t expect their lives to improve, a study released Tuesday shows. Black pessimism about racial progress in America, according to the study, is the worst it’s been in more than two decades. The survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based research organization, paints a mixed picture of race relations following Hurricane Katrina and the Jena Six case…

…It found that just one in five blacks, or 20 percent, said things were better off for blacks compared with five years ago; that is the smallest percentage since 1983, when 20 percent also made that claim. In-between, the percentage of blacks who said things had gotten better had grown, only to drop back to 20 percent. Another 29 percent of blacks said things had gotten worse as opposed to staying the same, the largest number since 32 percent made that claim in 1990.

In addition, fewer than half of all blacks, or 44 percent, said they expected their prospects to brighten in the future. That’s down from 57 percent in 1986, during the height of the Reagan administration when the Justice Department actively sought to curtail affirmative action in favor of race-neutral policies.

Before anyone starts looking for the nearest bridge to jump off of, wait, because there's an opposing point of view, according to the same survey.

Whites have a different view about black progress, according to the survey. Whites were nearly twice as likely as blacks to see black gains in the past five years. A majority of whites polled, or 56 percent, also said they believed prospects for blacks would improve in the future.

Well, this is one time where I have to agree with the majority population. With the benign neglect displayed during Hurricane Katrina, blatant disregard of safety concerns in our cities, inadequate funding for education and any other programs not involving war or prison building, and the unequal justice dispensed upon our communities, I have to believe that things can't help but to get better.

Right?