I think most of us have heard the reports on the havoc wrecked by cyclone Nargis in Burma. The official death count is now at 22,464. But, with 41,054 missing and large areas, usually the hardest hit, yet to be researched and accounted for, some estimate 100,000 may have lost their lives. Over 1 million people will be profoundly affected by this disaster, their sources of food disappearing with the coastline. As survivors mingle with the bodies floating in the now murky villages and towns, water sanitation and disease are becoming real threats on the lives of many more people. To make matters worse, the military dictatorship of Burma (to the junta it's Myanmar) has closed their borders to most foreign aid agencies and foreign governments looking to lend a hand.

From the New Yorker: The junta wants the money and supplies, but it doesn’t want the foreigners with their helicopters and expertise, for the same reason that it doesn’t allow journalists to enter Burma: the regime survives by smothering the truth, from its own people and from the outside world. Its sense of threat from the population is so great that the military is refusing to allow monks to shelter refugees in monasteries, fearing a repetition of last September’s peaceful demonstrations.

Some have invoked the UN "responsibility to protect" mandate, which justifies what we might call a humanitarian intervention in the event the local government is either unwilling to defend the basic rights of their citizens, or is the cause of its violation. This, however, is being met by criticism from countries close to Burma, like China (obviously, because if it allows the precedent of humanitarian intervention, it would have to answer for its own abuses) and Indonesia.

One course of action is suggested at the end of the New Yorker article I cited:

Both the Burmese government restrictions and U.S. economic sanctions make it very difficult to give money to local N.G.O.s directly, but it is possible to support their work by donating to the international groups that have longstanding partnerships with local N.G.O.s and community-based organizations (including churches and monasteries).

The expatriate’s list of organizations includes ADRA, CARE, Project HOPE, Save the Children, UNICEF, World Concern, and World Vision.