May 27,
2008: To put the southern violence in
perspective, the economy continues to grow at an annual rate of six percent. The
Islamic terrorism takes place in a small portion of the country, containing
only a few percent of the population. Fears that the Islamic terrorists might
take their terror campaign to other parts of the country have, so far, not been
realized. Apparently the Moslem terrorists do not feel comfortable, or safe,
operating outside their own communities. The violence continues to shift
towards attacks on pro-government leaders and informers within the Moslem
population. Long term, the government can buy support and information within
the Moslem community, and use that to identify and take down the terrorists. Meanwhile,
the Islamic terrorists face a threat of their own, as neighboring Malaysia
forbids sale of petroleum products to foreigners within 50 kilometers of the
border. Many of the Islamic terrorists support themselves with smuggling, and
bringing cheap (subsidized by the government) Malaysian fuel across the border.
Now it will cost more, and take more time, to get that fuel in Malaysia. That
may reduce the amount of time available for terrorist activities.
The
international pressure on the Burmese military dictatorship, to allow
international aid workers into Myanmar (as the generals have renamed Burma),
finally worked. The May 2nd storm apparently killed over 100,000
people and made 2.5 million homeless. So
far, only about a quarter of the victims have received any form of aid. The
Burmese government wants $10 billion in aid for the victims, in part to replace
the 136,804 buffaloes and 1,250,194 chickens lost in the storm. The Burmese
government finally relented after weeks of constant diplomatic pressure, and began
allowing relief aid, and relief workers, into the country. The military
government is well known for its thieving ways, and one reason they want to
keep foreign aid workers out is to prevent any publicity for diversion and
theft of aid supplies. The generals also do not want any foreign influence that
would weaken their police state control of the population. So foreigners have
to be carefully watched and controlled.
