My friend Jim McNalis writes that the news from people inside Burma confirms what we've been hearing on the outside: that the military government is aggravating the suffering caused by the cyclone.

They have sealed off the disaster area and outlawed massive relief efforts. There are reports that when the military finds supplies that have gotten through, they confiscate them. And that when they see people with cameras, they arrest them.

George Orwell, author of Burmese Days as well as 1984, should be around to describe a world in which humanitarian aid is seen as subversive.