True colors revealed

Monday, June 9, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Natural disasters have a way of laying bare a region’s innermost, and sometimes most dreadful, secrets.

The more than 69,000 people killed in the massive May 12 earthquake in China included about 9,000 schoolchildren — an especially tragic toll in a nation that allows families only one child.

Grieving parents have said they suspect the schools were shoddily built because Chinese officials have a habit of cutting corners in order to pocket building money. The Chinese government has met parents’ protests with pressure to desist or be considered subversive.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar on Thursday U.S. Navy ships loaded with relief supplies for the 2.4 million cyclone survivors in that nation left without delivering the goods because restrictions imposed by the nation’s military regime prevent aid workers from ensuring that the supplies reach the storm survivors.

The ships left on the same day that Amnesty International released a report that says Myanmar’s ruling junta is forcing survivors of the May 2 and 3 storm to clean up debris and perform other menial labor in order to receive food and emergency supplies.

Such abuses have occurred despite promises by Myanmar’s leaders to stop soldiers and officials from confiscating or otherwise diverting international aid supplies from cyclone victims. Only 1.3 million of the nation’s 2.4 million storm survivors have received humanitarian aid, according to the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Navy Lt. Denver Applehans told the Associated Press that the USS Essex flotilla turned back because the military junta had “done nothing to convince us that they intend to reverse their deliberate decision to deny much-needed aid to the people” of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

The international generosity offered to those devastated by these two disasters has been overshadowed by the contemptible actions of the governments of the two nations that were stricken. Corruption, deceit and self-interest on the part of high-ranking officials in China and Myanmar have worsened the suffering of millions.

Beyond adding its disgust to the growing international discord, there probably is little the United States can do to change the twisted political cultures of the affected nations. But these situations can serve to remind Americans of how ruinous the absence of democracy — and a truly representative government — can be.