(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-08 07:16

With local communications still in paralysis, we have ample reasons to believe the scale and magnitude of the havoc that Cyclone Nargis has wrecked are far beyond not only what we have anticipated, but also what has been reported.

According to latest figures from Myanmar, the ruthless tropical storm has left 22,500 dead and 41,000 more missing.

Let us pray that the tragic lists do not grow too much longer in the following days as relief workers get broader access to disaster zones, and that those listed missing now end up being found safe.

Geneva-based United Nations sources put the number of Myanmarese victims of Cyclone Nargis, the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, at 24 million. That is almost half of Myanmar's population.

No words of sympathy or gestures of humanitarian concern can match practical aid at this point. Nor is this the right time to assign blames. The Myanmar people themselves will reflect on what has happened, find out whether or not anything has gone wrong, and mend their fences against future misfortunes.

Now, hundreds of thousands of victims rendered homeless by the cyclone are suffering from lack of shelter, food, medicine, and safe water.

Such shortages constitute clear and present dangers to the disaster-hit areas. The most sensible way to show support, therefore, is to meet the emergent needs.

It is heartening to see compassionate responses from the United Nations as well as from individual countries. Generous aid offers are crucial for ensuring that the anguish of the victims is not prolonged indefinitely.

The current imperative is not only to honor promises of assistance in time-bound ways. Efforts have to be organized and coordinated efficiently in order to make sure relief materials reach where they are most desperately needed. For this alone, immediate measures are needed to ensure that life-saving supplies are delivered to the most inaccessible destinations.

As was true in similar cases, prevention of epidemics is an equally, if not more, important task in the relief process. Given the limitations of Myanmar's domestic medical resources, outside assistance will prove indispensable in coping with such a debilitating onslaught.

As the first batch of aid materials our government has promised arrives in Myanmar today, more organizations are lending their helping hands..

Our compassionate public will like to prove that their talks of friendship and good-neighborly ties are no empty rhetoric.

(China Daily 05/08/2008 page8)