As the true size of the catastrophe caused by the cyclone in Myanmar begins to emerge, so also does the size of the problem regarding the provision of aid to a country where the borders are firmly closed by a dictatorship. Today (9th May 2008) we heard that the World Food Programme had, effectively, walked away from the problem because two shipments of food aid had been impounded by the military government. So, were they right to do so, and if not, then what is the best way of resolving such an impasse?

The world is already aware that, inside that country, there is a peace-loving population that has been repressed for over twenty years by a military government that eliminates or imprisons anybody who stands against it, including democratically-elected politicians. The western world has done little about this, except wring its hands via the United Nations. So is the current impasse the result of the actions of a brutal and uncaring government, or the uncaring inaction of a pretentious and shallow outside world?

Right now, outside of the country, there are three factions that are heavily involved in pressurising the junta to accept assistance. These are the media, governments and people of developed countries, and the aid agencies. All of these have an agenda, but is it a common agenda?

The media is important in such situations to provide some information to a world that, by and large, wants to provide humanitarian aid to any people who have suffered the results of an event that was entirely beyond their control. This disaster is clearly on a similar scale to the Tsunami back in 2004, and the horrific pictures provided through the media of the aftermath of that event were the main drivers in motivating the fund-raising and offers of assistance that poured forward within days. This time, the media is being held back from providing this information, and their frustration is written in the body language and facial expressions of every TV journalist currently sending a report back from their bases in the surrounding countries.

But I am not sure that this obvious frustration has as much to do with the denial by the Myanmar government of the provision of aid, as it does with the movement restrictions that have caused them to be unable to obtain first-hand information. Listening to some of the hacks, one almost feels that they are really thinking that, just over the border, there is the basis of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning article waiting for them,

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