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This Week
Speaking on the problems of Myanmar – or Burma as most remember it – Richard Lawrence from Essendon Rotary Club described the poor conditions of so much of the country in nearby Asia that gained its independence from Britain in 1948.
``Much of the country’s infrastructure dates back to the British – and it has not changed,’’ he added. The hospital to which equipment is supplied by Essendon Rotary Club was built in 1937.
Essendon Rotary Club had been supplying a children’s hospital with modern equipment that is unaffordable for the population of the world’s fourth poorest country despite the hospital being in the country’s new capital, Yangon, and the average age of the 48 million people now being a surprisingly young 28 years old.
When the members of the club visit the hospital, they check to see the equipment has not been spirited away for their own hospitals by the military Government that has ruled Myanmar since 1962.
So far, the Government has not had a lot to do with the hospital work done by Essendon Rotary Club – but neither has Rotary International. Rotary today is apolitical, Lawrence told the Balwyn Rotary Club, and the Australian Government did not believe in sanctions but Rotary International supported the American foreign policy of sanctions against Myanmar’s rulers.
``However, Essendon Rotary Club does not agree with that policy so we supply the children’s hospital with modern equipment to go with the 1960s beds which have no sheets or covering over the mattresses,’’ he said.
``Water is not safe to drink so we have given them four Aqua-boxes to provide clean water for the patients. The hospital does not feed the patients properly and real nourishment remains the main responsibility of their parents,’’ he said.
``Other equipment includes items like a syringe pump, a defibrillator and other pieces of vital equipment for the new cancer ward,’’ he explained.
One useful function formed by the military and the government it controls was holding the whole country together. There were some 100 different ethnic groups in Myanmar and without the glue of the military, it would explode, Lawrence said.
Problems occur when disasters are followed by a lack of follow up. In the river delta one ethnic group was concentrated. The government hoped that the cyclone that flowed into the delta would ethnically cleanse the area of the Karen people that were concentrated there. More than 70,000 people drowned in the cyclone’s floods.
Myanmar was rich in petroleum gas and, being surrounded by India, China and Thailand, was courted by them to acquire the resource that flowed from the Bay of Bengal just off the Myanmar coast.
Second in the list of exports from Myanmar was poppy seeds and it was still the world’s second biggest supplier of drugs such as heroin to the world.
Lawrence showed images of the Myanmar he knows and calls Burma. One picture showed a school which was labeled `Drug Free School’ but that did not mean that the school was drug-free. Inside the school by upside down logic that would do Monty Python proud, that meant that it was supplying drugs free.
The drug sodden Golden Triangle was in the north of Myanmar alongside China and Thailand borders.
Distribution of wealth in Myanmar was heavily skewed – of the 48 million people, about two million were extremely rich and the rest extremely poor. There was little in the middle which made it easier to ensure the incarceration of the leader of the opposition – who arguably won the 1990 election.
Desperate poverty, unsafe water, floods with mosquitoes bearing Dengue fever were all part of the Myanmar that the Essendon Rotary Club was trying to help, he said.
Richard lives in Essendon and has been a member of the Rotary Club Essendon for the past 13 years, having been President in 2007-2008. He runs a small company RKW Petroserve which works in the Petroleum Equipment industry both locally and in South East Asia.
Richard has travelled to Burma over 20 times in the last 9 years and says that little has changed for the better for the people of that country.
The Burma Government does not allow any Rotary Clubs or any service clubs to be established in their country. The constant yearly presence of the Rotary Club of Essendon is therefore so important, and Richard feels they have been able to influence the Burma Government in understanding the need for aid in the Hospitals, Schools and Orphanages .
Rotary International does not recognise Burma (due to USA sanctions against Burma) The RC Essendon opposes RI’s lack of recognition, however that has not stopped RC Essendon continuing to help the people of Burma.
Richard ( below) is married with two adult daughters and enjoys Tennis, AFL – Bombers of course and fine Red Wine.
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