I have always followed world events; needing to know what is happening in the world is crucial to the understanding of the world around me. Therefore, when natural disasters occur, I am following the situation. However, on May 2nd, 2008, the catastrophic cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, killing over 100,000 people in a small area of the country. Unfortunately, the media did not report extensively on this, and I, therefore, did not learn about this cyclone until recently. Everything is Broken by Emma Larkin explores the events of that day through the stories of survivors and investigates the historical and political implications that lead to the blockade of humanitarian aid. The purpose of this paper is to help understand my learning of global health
…show more content…
This book is an account of her time spent in Myanmar following the days, weeks and months in the country collecting stories from survivors. In the first section of the book, she retells how the cyclone hit Myanmar, with graphic details of the destruction and death. At this point, the reader learns that the military junta initially refuses international humanitarian aid that would save thousands of lives. Once humanitarian aid was allowed into the country a month later, Larkin explores how these agencies had to work together efficiently to reach an area of the country that the government was preventing foreigners from entering. In part two of the book, Larkin takes the reader on a historical journey starting with British Colonialism of Myanmar to the Japanese occupation of World War Two. This sets the reader up for an understanding of the historical and political climate on how the occupying foreign powers may have created distrust in the ruling party towards other countries. Also, Larkin explains recent events that highlight human rights violations, such as the massacre of monks who protested for democracy in 2007. The final section begins to put the pieces together from part two. As a result, the reader starts to understand the historical background of Myanmar’s current situation. And therefore, a context to the government’s reaction to humanitarian aid, which was a fear of invasion of foreign powers using …show more content…
I did not realize how much I depend on mainstream media for my news, and if the press is not reporting it than I have no idea it is happening. This book has taught why it is important to explore beyond the headlines and search out further information because plenty of global issues goes unnoticed. Conversely, when global problems are brought to our attention, if the events are not progressing or staying relevant, the media moves on and collectively we forget about the events. I also learned that if images of the events are hard to transmit out of the country, it does not make headline news and is mostly ignored by media. In 2004 when a massive tsunami hit this region affecting multiple countries, killing over 200,000 people, there was news coverage for days to weeks. For Cyclone Nargis, there was a small amount of footage and over 100,000 people were killed in a single country. I feel that if there were a greater extent of coverage of this cyclone and the politics surrounding this storm were highlighted in mainstream media, there would have been more of an outrage from around the world. This outrage may have resulted in swifter action to negotiate with the government of
This book is an account of her time spent in Myanmar following the days, weeks and months in the country collecting stories from survivors. In the first section of the book, she retells how the cyclone hit Myanmar, with graphic details of the destruction and death. At this point, the reader learns that the military junta initially refuses international humanitarian aid that would save thousands of lives. Once humanitarian aid was allowed into the country a month later, Larkin explores how these agencies had to work together efficiently to reach an area of the country that the government was preventing foreigners from entering. In part two of the book, Larkin takes the reader on a historical journey starting with British Colonialism of Myanmar to the Japanese occupation of World War Two. This sets the reader up for an understanding of the historical and political climate on how the occupying foreign powers may have created distrust in the ruling party towards other countries. Also, Larkin explains recent events that highlight human rights violations, such as the massacre of monks who protested for democracy in 2007. The final section begins to put the pieces together from part two. As a result, the reader starts to understand the historical background of Myanmar’s current situation. And therefore, a context to the government’s reaction to humanitarian aid, which was a fear of invasion of foreign powers using …show more content…
I did not realize how much I depend on mainstream media for my news, and if the press is not reporting it than I have no idea it is happening. This book has taught why it is important to explore beyond the headlines and search out further information because plenty of global issues goes unnoticed. Conversely, when global problems are brought to our attention, if the events are not progressing or staying relevant, the media moves on and collectively we forget about the events. I also learned that if images of the events are hard to transmit out of the country, it does not make headline news and is mostly ignored by media. In 2004 when a massive tsunami hit this region affecting multiple countries, killing over 200,000 people, there was news coverage for days to weeks. For Cyclone Nargis, there was a small amount of footage and over 100,000 people were killed in a single country. I feel that if there were a greater extent of coverage of this cyclone and the politics surrounding this storm were highlighted in mainstream media, there would have been more of an outrage from around the world. This outrage may have resulted in swifter action to negotiate with the government of