From the Eye of the storm

An evil reign and evil rains make for a deadly combination in this book based onu00a0 Burma's harrowing cyclonic disaster and its socio-political aftermath in 2008

When Cyclone Nargis ripped through the south of Burma on May 2, 2008, the world turned its attention to the infamous South East Asian country. The Irawaddy Delta had been decimated. Trees and houses had been tossed about like discarded newspapers in the breeze. Dead livestock littered the waterways. People roamed the countryside naked looking for food and shelter.



But the real tragedy of Cyclone Nargis was yet to play out. The Burmese Government through the supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe, failed to even acknowledge the disaster until two weeks after it had occurred and persisted with a pointless referendum only a week after the cyclone hit.

The non-fiction work Everything is Broken is as much an account of the harrowing aftermath of the cyclone as it is a travelogue through the political currents that define the Burmese junta and the international dealings with them. It develops chronologically, tracing the disaster from initial reactions to it, to one year later and the still problematic situation in the country.

We are taken right up close with Emma Larkin, which is the pseudonym of an American writer based in Bangkok, who has been a regular commentator and observer of Burma since she first arrived there in the early nineties. She provides cruel and riveting anecdotes, like the one that opens the book about a young girl searching the unrecognisable countryside for her family. Or later, the story about the human finger found in a fish for sale in Yangon. The anecdotes capture the horrors of the disaster, but also the uniquely Burmese reaction to it.

It is a difficult book to read, but not because it is poorly written. The stories are hard to stomach, as are the actions of the junta.u00a0 At times I felt like I wanted Larkin to be more vociferous in her criticism of the regime, which I think came from a lack of personal opinion in a book which in its nature otherwise is extremely personal. It draws on conversations with friends and acquaintances, home videos made by businessmen, pictures taken by renegade aid workers, and other first-hand accounts. This book is compelling in its proximity.

Apart from this, there is nothing politically groundbreaking in the book. Aung San Suu Kyi's predicament is mentioned alongside the megalomania that characterizes the regime. More exploration of the international relationships would have been interesting, particularly how Burma deals with countries like China or India, who were allowed more lenience with providing aid, or The United States, who were restricted greatly.

Everything is Broken: The Untold Story of Disaster Under Burma's Military Regime
Author: Emma Larkin
Publisher: Granta (London)
Distributor: Penguin India
For: Rs. 599