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In case you hadn't heard
Charity workers have gathered at Myanmar's embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, with vehicles, emergency food supplies and medicine, waiting for their visa requests to be approved.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 7, 2008 at 04:14 PM in Current Affairs, Law | Permalink
Comments
Aren't the consequences of delay worse than the punishments for improper authorization?
Posted by: JH at May 7, 2008 7:04:19 PM
...reminds me of instances of aid food rotting on the docks because of governmental standards imposed to curtail this or that "illegal" activity.
Posted by: shawn at May 7, 2008 8:08:54 PM
Remember, JH, priority #1 for dictators is staying in power, so they often run pretty paranoid.
I don't see force being used here - the more so since, by the time it could be approved, planned, and moved, it'd be way too late.
On the other hand, I do see a possible threat to the government here.
Posted by: Jon Kay at May 7, 2008 9:15:13 PM
First things first. I sure hope the authorities are making sure to confiscate all the victims firearms.
"Aren't the consequences of delay worse than the punishments for improper authorization?"
Maybe, but not for the decision-makers. Authority minus responsibility.
What if they just dropped supplies from airplanes. What is the government going to do? Shoot them down? Include a nice little note with each brick of freeze-dried ice cream saying we'd like to bring you more but your government won't let us in. It seems we need a non-government, non-U.N. relief agency with no agenda and absolutely no respect for governmental BS willing to just do these things and not wait for monogrammed invitations from bureaucratic hoodlums, like FEMA. I'm thinking Wal-Mart meets Green Peace.
Posted by: Andrew at May 8, 2008 4:54:32 AM
Posted by: Sean at May 9, 2008 10:58:28 AM
