by Tyche Hendricks, San Francisco Chronicle
Burmese residents of the Bay Area were organizing themselves Monday to provide aid to victims of the catastrophic cyclone in Burma and to help each other cope during the agonizing wait for word of their loved ones back home.
Several local grassroots associations of Burmese exiles planned to meet tonight to coordinate their fundraising efforts and to plan for a Friday rally at the San Francisco Federal Building and a Saturday prayer vigil at a Buddhist monastery in Fremont.
Anxiety was high for many Burmese people here, as personal anguish mixed with political frustration that the Burmese military regime was moving so slowly to allow relief workers into the country.
"It's a really bad situation right now. The numbers of dead keep going up," said Ko Ko Lay, a San Francisco photographer who fled Burma in 1988 but whose parents still live in Rangoon, the nation's largest city. "International aid cannot go through without government permission, but in a natural disaster there isn't time for permission. ... This is humanitarian aid, not politics. People around the world are trying to help Burma." READ MORE»
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