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The Evil of Banality

I am just sick to my stomach today from reading about the ongoing trouble with relief efforts in Burma. The details keep changing, but the United Nations had to at least temporarily suspend its relief effort because the ruling junta has seized food and other relief supplies to "distribute on its own." More like a "shakedown," as blogger Spencer Ackerman calls it. The end result? One U.N. official says he "has never seen such delays" in a relief effort, and the New York Times is pointing out that it took only 48 hours to set up an "air bridge" of flights to Indonesia after the devastating tsunami in 2004 while only a handful of flights have been allowed into Burma in the six days since the cyclone.

It seems like a cover for either nefarious purposes or utter incompetence, but the junta is claiming the delays are being caused at least in part because of complications in issuing visas. Are you telling me that paperwork is holding up the efforts to save tens, if not hundreds of thousands of lives? No one can work on the weekend to issue some visas? Or, even better, can't a military dictatorship issue a decree putting a temporary moratorium on the need for visas?