it's been nineteen days since cyclone nargis swept over myanmar leaving close to 78000 people dead with another 56 000 missing. however, the recent sichuan earthquake which happened nine days ago has completely overshadowed the myanmar disaster. the death toll in china currently stands at 41 353 with tens of thousands missing, approximately 14 000 buried.

by looking at these statistics, we can clearly see that the destruction caused by cyclone nargis is far worse than that of the sichuan earthquake.

i'm not saying that we should focus on helping myanmar and not china; i just think that we should pay more attention to myanmar instead of focusing all our attention on the sichuan earthquake. the earthquake has been hogging headlines consistently since it happened while the myanmar situation has been put to one side. myanmar needs foreign aid & help to get back on her feet but unless the military junta allows foreign relief teams in, the death toll will increase drastically because of the spread of water-borne diseases, hunger and unhygenic living conditions.

people i know have donated thousands of dollars to the sichuan earthquake relief fund but nothing to the myanmar cyclone nargis relief fund. so everyone, please play your part & donate not just to the earthquake fund but also to the cyclone fund so that we can help the people of myanmar get back on their feets.

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Fifty-six hours after being buried in debris, 20-year-old Jia Zhengjiao came out of her coma, slowly opening her eyes to the sight of more than 160 Chinese Air Force soldiers singing Happy Birthday to her. Recounting the arduous struggle to rescue his younger sister and only living family member to Chengdu Evening News on Friday, Jia Zhengyuan couldn't hold back his tears.

Immediately after the quake, Zhengyuan rushed from their hometown Pengzhou, Sichuan province, to the severely devastated Dujiangyan, where his sister was working. He discovered her buried under rubble, calling for help. after failing to rescue Zhengjiao on his own, the brother spent a sleepless night in front of the ruins until a group of Air Force soldiers passed by.

"I heard the general shouting at my sister: 'Kid, hold on! You'll be OK! Can you believe in me?'" Zhengyuan recalled.

Jia was pinned beneath so much tangled, heavy debris the Air Force ended up dispatching 160 soldiers and two experts to the site. After 36 hours of rescue work, the young woman was finally pulled from the rubble, clad in bloodstained clothes. However, she had fallen into a coma and couldn't hear the anxious calls of her brother and the soldiers.

"Yesterday was Jiaojiao's birthday. I had planned a celebration for her," Zhengyuan sobbed. Nobody was quite sure who broke the silence by singing 'happy birthday' but before long, all of the soldiers joined the chorus. "They all crossed their arms over their chests & their eyes filled with tears," Zhengyuan said. Miraculously, Zhenjiao regained consciousness mid-song.

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sarah<3