BY C STONE | STONE NEWS NETWORK ||| MYANMAR
The earthquake that struck Myanmar a few days ago has killed at least 2,000 people to date. As international teams rush to help pull survivors out of the rubble, a quiet and sad moment when there was no ground aide from the U.S.A.
The U.S. did contribute $2 million dollars to help - along with a small U.S. agency for international development emergency response team - to assess the situation. But officials have not yet been able to enter the country.
China, Russia, and others are filling the absence by putting their teams on the ground.
No more can you spot the Disaster Assistance Response Team that is part of USAID. In the past, USAID used to take hours, or maybe a day or two before arriving onsite. No longer since President Trump cut USAID into pieces.
About 80% of the programs are closed and lack of funding has also closed it's headquarters. China arrived 18 hours after the earthquake and brought more than 400 people to help. Beijing sent in planes with supplies and $14 million in aid. We do not have the statistics for Russia available.
It is hoped the U.S. will reclaim their foothold as the world's helping nation. But so far, after this disaster, it appears quite short to what it used to be.
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