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    Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma
    Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma
    Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma
    Audiobook8 hours

    Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma

    Written by Emma Larkin

    Narrated by Emily Durante

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    On May 2, 2008, an enormous tropical cyclone made landfall in Burma, wreaking untold havoc and leaving an official toll of 138,300 dead and missing. In the days that followed, the sheer scale of the disaster became apparent as information began to seep out from the hard-hit delta area. But the Burmese regime, in an unfathomable decision of near-genocidal proportions, provided little relief to its suffering population and blocked international aid from entering the country. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese citizens lacked food, drinking water, and basic shelter, but the xenophobic generals who rule the country refused emergency help.

    Emma Larkin, who has been traveling to and secretly reporting on Burma for years, managed to arrange for a tourist visa in those frenzied days and arrived hoping to help. It was impossible for anyone to gauge just how much devastation the cyclone had left in its wake; by all accounts, including the regime's, it was a catastrophe of epic proportions. In Everything Is Broken, Larkin chronicles the chaotic days and months that followed the storm, revealing the secretive politics of Burma's military dictatorship and the bizarre combination of vicious military force, religion, and mysticism that defined its unthinkable response to this horrific event.

    The Burmese regime hid the full extent of the storm's devastation from the rest of the world, but the terrible consequences for Burma and its citizens continue to play out months after the headlines had faded from newspapers around the world. In Everything Is Broken, Larkin-whose deep knowledge of the Burmese people has afforded her unprecedented access and a rare understanding of life under Burmese oppression-provides a singular portrait of the regime responsible for compounding the tragedy and examines the historical, religious, and superstitious setting that created Burma's tenacious and brutal dictatorship. Writing under an assumed name, Larkin delivers the heretofore untold story of a disaster that stunned the world, unveiling as she does so the motivations of the impenetrable generals who govern this troubled nation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 10, 2010
    ISBN9781400187041
    Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma
    Author

    Emma Larkin

    EMMA LARKIN is the author of the ‘Izzy’s Magical Adventures in Sport’ series. She is originally from Cork, but now lives in Kerry with her husband and four children.

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    Reviews for Everything Is Broken

    4/5

    32 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Larkin is a good writer, but after a bit all the writing I'm now reading about Myanmar seems too similar. I appreciate the map at the front of the book, but I do wish there was more crucial detail about the actual event. I'm reminded of Simon Winchester's Krakatoa and the depth to which he went surrounding the explosion. I realize the book was designed to be an expose on the military in Myanmar, but that whole concept could have been done better by making the approach more scientific and linear. The humanistic side would still have been presented, but it could have been a better book if she had not tried to include material that honestly can be found elsewhere. Still good, but could have been better....
    • 5/5
      Wake up America and smell the lack of liberty. A deceptively small book that tells you all you need to know about how a country can slid into a military dictatorship. Everything is controlled so when a natural disaster occurs the government just waits and eventually offers just enough help for people to live but not enough to succeed. Control the TV , radio and newspapers and the ruling junta (whether military or political) will reap the benefits be they financial orpower
    • 3/5
      This part is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the immediate aftermath of the cyclone that hit Burma in 2008 and how it was dealt with by governments and aid groups. The second section is more of an historical look back on how government works in Burma and the events leading up to the cyclone and the third section is the stories that the author personally collected in the aftermath of the cyclone. Before I finished the first section, I almost gave up on this book. For the subject matter, I found it dry, a little disjointed and very business like. I was glad I didn't--the next sections, particularly the third section, really pulled me into the book and held me rapt.
    • 4/5
      A heartbreakingly grim portrait of life inside Burma. Excellent insight from a writer who is well-acquainted with country's dictatorial regime, Buddhist beliefs, and cultural traditions.
    • 5/5
      After Cyclone Nargis devastated southern Burma in 2008, the military regime ruling the country did not allow the international aid community to enter the country to conduct relief efforts. The U.S., France and other countries stationed an armada of military ships offshore, awaiting permission from the generals to begin transporting supplies and personnel. Permission was never granted; conservative estimates figure that hundreds of thousands likely perished during and after the cyclone, and many could have been saved if the rulers had not falsely claimed that they had the aftermath under control and that foreign assistance was not necessary.Larkin doggedly entered Burma several times after the cyclone and managed to travel in the devastated areas, collecting untold stories of horror from the survivors. Her unflinching reportage shows that Burma's rulers have nothing but disregard and neglect for just about all of their citizens.Larkin is too good of a reporter to make the case that France, the U.S. and other countries should have disregarded Burma's denial of permission to enter the country; doing so might have been the first time in history that a military force actually invaded a country to conduct relief operations against the will of the country's rulers. But this clearly would have been the moral course, even if it violated every diplomatic rule and protocol.This is one of the saddest books I've ever read; the fate of many of those killed and the scars on the survivors was so unnecessary, and so preventable. Yet somehow, Larkin winds this book down with a small glitter of hope and beauty during a boat ride away from an area flattened by Nargis. This moment crystallizes the spirit and strength of the Burmese, and stands in stark contrast to the banality, evil and greed of the ruling junta.
    • 5/5
      In May of 2008, a Category 4 cyclone dubbed “Nargis” reached the coast of Burma and charged through the Irrawaddy Delta (a flood basin for Burma’s main river). Hundreds of farming and fishing villages which were home to thousands of people were devastated. In some cases, 90% of the people living in a village were killed. But it was not the storm itself which shocked everyone, but the response of Burma’s government.The Burmese government denied foreign aid in the critical weeks following the storm – a time when most experts believe people might have been saved. Instead tens of thousands perished. Even when aid was allowed into the country, the regime restricted the movement of aid workers into the hardest hit areas, allowing only untrained Burmese employees to distribute supplies and provide assistance to the people in the Delta area.Burma is controlled by a military regime headed by Than Shwe, an uneducated village boy who rose through the ranks to become the country’s top leader. Fueled by the need for complete control over its people, the Burmese regime ignores human rights, restricts freedom of speech, quickly eliminates any organized protests, and imprisons anyone who dares stand up against its actions.Emma Larkin has been traveling to Burma over the last fifteen years. She writes under an assumed name to protect her contacts there. In Everything is Broken, she reveals the history of the Burmese government and how that history impacted the response to cyclone Nargis. Not only does Larkin cover the nationwide uprising against the government in 1988 (where soldiers shot into crowds of people killing an estimated three thousand citizens), but she also takes a look at the events of September 2007 when a mass protest by Buddhist monks ended in a government crackdown where monks and citizens were beaten, killed and imprisoned – made more shocking because of the revered status of monks in Burmese society. She also introduces readers to Aung San Suu Kyi, a Noble Peace Prize winner (1991) and Burmese opposition party leader (she won the general election for Prime Minister in 1990 but has never been allowed to serve), who has spent most of the last twenty plus years under house arrest because of her political stance.But perhaps the strongest element of Larkin’s reportage is when she illuminates the people and culture of Burma. In the months following the storm, Larkin managed to travel through some of the most devastated areas. She spoke with villagers who had lost everything, and recorded their stories. She experienced first hand the grief and loss.The dead had become indelibly etched into people’s memories and onto the landscape. The bodies of people and carcasses of farm animals that floated in the waterways during the weeks after the cyclone had now sunk beneath the surface, but at low tide the waters would recede and reveal anonymous piles of bones slick with the fertile, alluvial mud of the delta.– from Everything is Broken, page 196 -In a country where speech is controlled, and even the peoples’ memories of events are rewritten, Larkin’s dedication to giving voice to the people of Burma is moving. The Burmese government does not allow for collective memory because to do so might give the people power to rise up. Larkin eloquently writes of the effect this silencing has on the Burmese people:By maintaining a effective gag order on all public forums, the regime ensures that there is no space for any collective remembrance. Only the regime’s version of the truth remains to be seen or read. As a result, recent historical events – no matter how earth-shattering or all-consuming – are remembered only in private. Because people cannot compare their experiences easily or openly, past events become distorted and intensely personal. In isolation, these memories evolve into the kind of twisted secrets that can end up breaking people. – from Everything is Broken, page 219 -Larkin is a gifted writer who writes with sensitivity and authority about a country which is divided by the moral, nonviolent principles of the Buddhist tradition, and the intensely oppressive rule of the government. The contrast between these two aspects of Burmese society is stunning. Larkin captures the beauty of the culture and the gentleness of the people of Burma in her narrative. Everything is Broken is not simply a summary of Burma’s history, but it is an exploration of a people who are still struggling to find hope in a broken society.In a society where nothing can be taken for granted, distorted truths, half stories, and private visions are, by necessity, woven into the popular narrative of events. Burma is a place where the government hides behind convoluted smoke screens. It is a place where those who sacrifice themselves for their country must go unrecognized and can only be lauded or remembered in secret. It is a place where natural disasters don’t happen, at least not officially, and where the gaping misery that follows any catastrophe must be covered up and silenced. In such an environment, almost anything becomes believable. – from Everything is Broken, page 258 -Everything is Broken is a difficult book to read. It uncovers the suffering and desolation of a country and its people. But it also offers up the beauty found in Burma – the beauty of an ancient culture, of the people who find ways to keep going in spite of the oppression, and of the stories of redemption and hope which cannot be silenced. Emma Larkin’s book is a must read for those who want to know the truth about Burma and its people, and for those who do not want to close their eyes to the injustices in the world. Eloquent, marvelously crafted, and expertly researched…Everything is Broken is highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      i don’t read a lot of non-fiction. i am also notoriously bad at keeping up with current events. so, it isn’t a surprise that i missed hearing about the storm that this book was written about, or that i was completely unaware of the political turmoil within the country of Burma. to be honest, before reading the book, i wouldn’t have been able to point Burma out on a map, but, i did grow up in Florida and have many hurricane filled memories, though none with any devastation resembling that experienced by those struck by the major hurricanes of the recent past. i am very familiar with the power of natural disasters and can absolutely appreciate what it meant for a nation that was unprepared and unresponsive in its wake.in my ignorance, this is what i was absolutely shocked to learn: Cyclone Nargis was the second deadliest named cyclone of all time and it was the worst natural disaster in Burma’s history. it struck the Irrawaddy Delta of Burma two years ago this month, on May 2, 2008, resulting in over 130,000 deaths and another 55,000 missing – making it nearly as deadly as the 2004 tsunami that struck Indonesia and India. and yet, it went vastly unnoticed by national media in large part due to the restrictions set by the Burmese government on foreign aid, as well as the censorship of information entering or exiting the country.shortly following the disaster, Emma Larkin managed to gain access to the country, where she had done research for her first book, Finding George Orwell in Burma. though it had been weeks since the actual disaster, she was able to discreetly travel through the delta and witness firsthand the long lingering effects of the cyclone, from the devastatingly poor conditions to the oddly impassive media representation (or mis-representation). villages were lacking in even basic needs – clean water, food, medicine, and shelter and very little relief was being offered. and yet, the media was already indicating that the country was recovering successfully. it became clear that much of what was communicated publicly was unreliable, due to strict regulations on media representations and “staged” appearances of political figures in areas that were cleaned up prior to their arrival. as such, stories circulated by word of mouth and had varying degrees of truth and reliability."Perhaps none of these stories were true; perhaps all of them were. In the hothouse environment of Rangoon, where the truth was malleable and facts and figures could be plucked out of thin air, anything seemed possible. A there are so few reliable sources of news in Burma, rumors take on an added significance and act as a barometer of people’s hopes and fears. What becomes important in this context is not whether they are true but whether people believe them to be true."through her conversations with survivors, Larkin uses her descriptive and sharp, journalistic writing style to give a vivid portrayal of the tragedy and unbounded optimism of the people of Burma, despite the circumstances. though many had lost their entire families or villages, they managed to have hope for a better future, both for themselves and for their country. by reading the heavy imagery used to describe the aftermath of Hurricane Nargis, a clear picture can be brought to mind of the wreckage strewn throughout the flooded plains. be prepared for the graphic details, because this book wouldn’t be honest if it didn’t include them. but, also be prepared for an underlying sense of joy in life, because it is also part of the honesty of the people of Burma.in addition to the detailed account of the disaster itself, Everything is Broken spends some time delving into the history and political situation of Burma, as well as the cultural innuendos that significantly impact the nation and its citizens. the book was well researched, but Larkin herself admits that so little of the information is considered reliable, so it leaves a feeling of uncertainty and mistrust towards the entire situation. and it definitely leaves a gaping feeling of sadness for the large number of people that are impacted by the national imbalances.i don’t know if there is a specific reason why pictures weren’t included, but i think that images would have provide an intimacy to the situation that wasn’t obtained. in their absence, i found that i often would disengage from the facts and move into a sort of fiction mode, either because i rarely read non-fiction or as a handy defense mechanism, to avoid facing the reality of the portrayal. but, if you’re ever curious (like i was), a simple google search will pull up plenty of images to serve the same purpose.all in all, this book is well written and moving. i would definitely recommend it for anyone with the least bit of curiosity.