• China’s New Tiananmen. The Sichuan quake has inspired a powerful, and unpredictable, movement among China’s youth. Hundreds gathered in Tiananmen, as elsewhere across the country, in a “rare youth movement” for China, to commemorate the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. — Newsweek
  • Burma: cyclone, aid and sanctions. In the wake of Burma’s current tragedy, a disturbing misconception has been circulated: that a decade of economic and financial sanctions … has born bitter fruit in the form of cyclone Nargis… [but] it is not sanctions that have crippled the Burmese economy, but the military – the same military that has transferred billions of dollars accrued from overseas sales of Burma’s gas, fishing and mining assets into their private bank accounts, rather than to the government’s budget. — Open Democracy
  • Environmental aftermath of China quake. A week after China’s deadly earthquake killed nearly 56,000 people, environmental and other costs of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake are becoming clearer. In this post we examine posts related to the environmental fallout of the earthquake, and also the plight of animals in the earthquake area.– Ground Report
  • There’s always one idiot. Of course the effects on hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the Chinese & Burmese disasters aren’t the real story – try finding a story on China which doesn’t mention Sharon Stone’s “it was karma” reaction to the quake. What a relief that Jackie Chan is going to make a movie about the Sichuan quake. Mind you, he’s already donated $1.4million to disaster relief, and will donate the proceeds of the film too. Are you listening, Sharon?

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