MYANMAR: THE OTHER DISASTER!

"It is not the critic who counts, but the brave men and women who for survival instincts do all that is needful for their selves and their loved ones, alas this quest gets the very core of the Guchin region killed. Opium is the plant and it is oblivious of the lives it cuts short. The torn region is in a protracted war with the Myanmar army leaving devastation in its trails. With virtually no means of livelihoods, families engage in cultivating opium, which is bought from them by laboratories for the production of heroin, it is estimated that the region accounts for nearly sixty percent of the global heroin. The people who themselves are poor, strive to break away from all the chaotic situations and uncertainties by taking heroin ending up as addicts, added to the prevalence of HIV among them. These two lethal combination makes the life span of this young energetic people so short that they hardly live to develop full AIDS.

 Parents are helpless as they watch those who would take care of them at their old age waste in addiction, men and women alike, university students and mine workers; no one is spared. Tales of entire family wiped out by this menace. Shattered dreams and lives lost are un-quantifiable

 Although the effects of these plants is known and felt by the people, yet the cultivation continues because of the pecuniary gains accruing from it. Even government crack down which I my opinion is ineffective, still does not deter them from the practice. Life expectancy has dropped drastically to an average of thirty five, yet not much is done to encourage a change in the trend, not even much publicity is on it, these people are just left to to take the path of perdition, in search of livelihoods.

 Charities like Young Christians who are are with out funds, do preaching of the gospel to addicts, lock them up in cells with no drugs to aid their withdrawal, soon after they are released; with no means of livelihoods they only take a while and they are back to where they were. Another NGO  is training and convincing farmers to cultivate coffee which takes three to five years to mature for sales compared to the poppy which grows faster with a readily available market, whereas the coffee market is international; it is daunting and uphill getting farmers to enroll for the project, but as little as these are, they are rays of hope for a lost generation of people

Efforts must be galvanised to bring succor and help to this lovely people whose circumstances are just beyond what they can handle and cope with.
As the country opens up, it will be easier for aid to get to the people of the region. Cartels and brokers of this stock and trade must be aware of what this plant is doing to people. As government destroys the the opium in the front, the people still are growing it behind their homes.
One can only hope that change drives the people towards better lives, better source of livelihoods and longevity.