The aid is there, but the people can’t get it. Early reports out of Burma last week revealed that the military junta–infamous for decades of oppression, censorship, and murder, and in the news again last fall for brutally squelching civilian protests–was seizing food and supplies that came into the country in the aftermath of the cyclone. Now, reports have surfaced that government officials continue to seize aid and are lining their pockets by selling it in the market to desperate civilians. Think Katrina times thousands. While New Orleans paid the price for a stunning level of governmental incompetence and blundering mismanagement, the people of Burma are suffering, once again, from government corruption on a massive scale.

Meanwhile, the news from China in the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude quake is dismal.