May 18, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Myanmar government is still refusing to allow foreign aid workers into the cyclone-devastated country. Doesn’t the world have a responsibility to deliver aid? And couldn’t aid groups drop supplies into the country?
Ruth Gidley, a former aid worker and journalist, asks those questions on the AlertNet blog. But she says there are some good reasons why air drops have so far been ruled out.
“Unless there’s someone to meet the aid and organize its distribution, it end ups with the ones who are most able to scramble and fight for it,” she says. “That’s why reputable aid agencies don’t throw aid out of the back of trucks, either.”
Aid drops are also expensive. And humanitarian organizations are quick to point out that they wouldn’t work in Myanmar without the government’s permission.
But are aid drops better than nothing?
“If it’s an emergency, and people are at risk of death, you use air lifts,” says an aid official who didn’t want to be quoted. “But you have to have staff on the ground.”
Jane Cocking, humanitarian director at Oxfam said: “At best air drops can only be a partial solution, at worst they give the illusion that somehow we are addressing this ever worsening humanitarian crisis.”
What do you think? Does the world have a responsibility to help cyclone victims in Myanmar, despite the government’s refusal to allow foreign help?
