IN HIS recent book, Courage: Eight Portraits, Gordon Brown praised the Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi as a fearless prisoner of conscience battling a state with one of the worst human rights records in the world. So, where is Gordon Brown now Burma has been devastated, and the generals discredited, by cyclone Nargis? Courage seems suddenly to be in short supply in Number 10.
Apart from a token denunciation of the junta’s “unacceptable” behaviour, Brown has largely absented himself form the worst natural disaster since the Asian tsunami. Yet we all remember how Gordon Brown leapt onto the international stage after the Boxing Day inundation in 2004. Then, he commanded the international stage; challenged the conscience of the developed world; campaigned, not just for emergency relief, but for the elimination of the debts of poor countries. for more click here