Samantha Cardillo

I.
Title: Burmese storm toll ‘tops 10,000”
Date: May 5, 2008
Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7384041.stm

II.
This article was about the recent devastating cyclones that hit south-east Asia on this past Saturday mourning. Twenty-four million people live in the areas that have been declared disaster zones. Cyclone Nargis hit at 190km/h and has been declared that world’s deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India that killed 10,000 people. The Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win has stated on television that aid to the millions of people who have been homeless throughout the past three days have been delivered. He claimed that everything is under control and Burmese should be back “on top” in no time. However, thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis are lacking shelter, drink water, power and communications, but in many regions help hasn’t even begun. Burmese citizens took video shots of the “skeletal homes” which have been destroyed in Burmese’s’ towns. Images of completely flat buildings, power lines down, and trees uprooted are the horrifying images that are being spread through major news networks all over the world.

III.
a) This article relates to the AP World History Theme of interaction between humans and the environment. This is because Cyclone Nargis gave no warning to South-East Asia, which left its most populated cities to a pile of “skeletal homes.”
b) Burmese has had multiple cyclones since they are located near a rocky area of water. However, no cyclone as large as Nargis has hit the shore, leaving its citizens homeless. In fact reporters say that Burmese citizens feel that their basic needs are not being met and Burmese was not strong enough to have such a natural disaster to occur.
c) The point of view of this article is a British male, looking in towards the issue.
d) It may be hard to fully analyze this situation due to the fact that it was written by a British male. Since he was not there to witness this natural disaster, he can not fully experience the aftermath of it all. Meaning that he may be saying that Burmese isn’t under control, when it actually is, or it may be the complete opposite.
e) It would be helpful if this article was written by a survivor. This is because we would get to see an insider’s view of this situation.
f) I thought that it was horrible that South-East Asia had no indication of this cyclone occurring. However, I do believe that Burmese should have been more prepared, knowing that natural disasters occur quite frequently around that area. It is my hope that all countries are prepared for any disturbance and would hopefully resolve them.