Hanna Ingber Win (M.A. print journalism, '08) delivered a May 8 essay on National Public Radio, saying that it has been nearly impossible for people outside of Burma to check on friends and family members in the aftermath of the cyclone that recently hit the country.
"For my husband and Burmese friends living in the United States, this means days spent trying to get in touch with families back home," said Win, who has lived in Burma and whose husband is from there. "They call for hours. Send frantic e-mails. Most of them have had no luck. They have no idea if their family is safe or has enough food and water."
She also said the thousands dead make the cyclone in a third-world country as much of a tragedy as in any other place in the world.
"And when such disasters happen there, when their government refuses to sound a timely alarm, when it doesn’t provide food, electricity, shelter or medical care, when it prevents aid from getting in, when it leaves people to live with almost nothing or die, it is also a tragedy," she said. "Just because they live in a poor country doesn’t make it less tragic."
