The scale of the destruction from the cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma) a few days back makes Hurricane Katrina look rather tame in terms of human misery. Upwards of a hundred thousand people have likely perished and over a million have been displaced - many of these people won’t have anything to come back to and were struggling as it was before the cyclone hit.

They need our help.

Burma has enough problems as it is and this cyclone has just added an incredible strain to an already heavily oppressed people. Aid is starting to be distributed, but it’s nowhere near enough.

While this has been headline news, it doesn’t seem to have had the impact on the public’s consciousness that the tsunami of a few years back did. Maybe this is because there weren’t a lot of Westerners caught up in it. Maybe we’re just getting jaded by these things, which is rather sad.

Can you spare a few bucks for the people of Burma? Some NGO’s are operating within the country and are desparate for funds; such as Foundation for the People of Burma. The FPB team have been working around the clock to try and assist and would greatly appreciate your contribution. You can do so (securely) here:

Even if you can’t afford to give; if you have a web site or blog, consider posting an item like this requesting donations be made to legitimate organizations helping in the country.

Just on that point, if this disaster is anything like Katrina and the tsunami, the bottom dwellers of the online world are probably gearing up to send out scam donation requests. Please be careful to check out any email solicitations for donations carefully; let’s try and get as much to the people who really need it that we can.