YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - As individuals and aid agencies around the world dig into their pockets for funds to help Myanmar’s cyclone victims, the country’s ruling junta said Friday that such assistance from the United States could not be trusted.

State media has previously said Myanmar feared Washington was using the cover of humanitarian aid to invade the country and steal its oil reserves.

The suspicion continued Friday, when a media mouthpiece for the regime warned that “the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine” - a clear reference to the U.S.

Myanmar rejected humanitarian aid aboard naval vessels from the U.S., Britain and France, which sailed toward the Southeast Asian nation after Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Friday that aid from nations who impose economic sanctions against Myanmar and push the United Nations Security Council to take actions against it come “with strings attached.”

Despite the junta’s regular attacks on Western donor countries, celebrities, ordinary people and aid groups there have donated generously to help the cyclone victims.

However, the U.N. said Thursday it has received about half the money it requested for cyclone relief, with some nations apparently delaying their donations because of concerns about restrictions imposed by the military government on foreign aid workers.

Full Story Here:
Myanmar says US aid can’t be trusted

Myanmar, aka: Burma, is in a terrible fix as a nation needing help goes, they have people that are still hurting and that are still hungry yet their ruling military Junta would rather see them dead than to accept aid from the U.S.A., well, hell of a way to go but you know, we tried, we did our part, once in a while a people has to stand on their own feet and do for themselves.

The entire nation of Myanmar wasn’t affected by this cyclone, the area that was hit was, without a doubt, nothing less than devastated, but the rest of Myanmar was pretty much untouched, and I am fairly certain that the good citizens of Myanmar are painfully aware of the type of government thy have running that nation and exactly what it’s doing to them.

Myanmar isn’t an Islamic nation nor a non-working and uneducated nation, Myanmar is majority Buddhist:

Religions: Buddhist 89%, Christian 4% (Baptist 3%, Roman Catholic 1%), Islam 4%, Animist 1%, other 2%

Literacy rate: 83% (1995 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $76.36 billion; per capita $1,600. Real growth rate: 1.5%. Inflation: 25%. Unemployment: 5%. Arable land: 15%. Agriculture: rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products. Labor force: 27.75 million; agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001). Industries: agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel; wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement; natural gas. Natural resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper, tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones, natural gas, hydropower. Exports: $3.111 billion f.o.b. (2004); note: official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled to Thailand, China, and Bangladesh: clothing, gas, wood products, pulses, beans, fish, rice. Imports: $3.454 billion f.o.b.; note: import figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of consumer goods, diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from Thailand, China, Malaysia, and India (2004): fabric, petroleum products, plastics, machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil; food products. Major trading partners: Thailand, India, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia (2004). SOURCE

And take special note of their exports, narcotics is a source of national income substantial enough to be figured into surveys and economic assessments.

So, the people of Myanmar aren’t a poor, impoverished and illiterate bunch, they live under the rule of military dictators and have done so for quite some time now, since 1988, SOURCE, maybe we’d be better off to save our relief supplies for another disaster, maybe we’d be better off to give those supplies to a people that are in more desperate need and put the welfare of their citizens above their hatred and mistrust of the U.S.A.

I’m all for helping nations in a time of need but when that helping hand is spit upon, repeatedly, well, bring it home and let them sit in their own stew, maybe Buddha helps him that helps himself.

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