Everything Is Broken

A natural disaster, a human tragedy and a close-up view of the clash between an isolationist regime and an often ignorant outside world

On 2 May 2008, an enormous tropical cyclone made landfall in Burma. The cyclone wreaked untold havoc, but the regime, in an unfathomable decision of near-genocidal proportions, blocked international aid from entering the country, and provided little relief themselves. Emma Larkin, who has been travelling to and secretly reporting on Burma for years, managed to arrange for a tourist visa in those frenzied days and arrived to chaos. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese citizens lacked food, drinking water and basic shelter. In Everything is Broken, Larkin not only exposes the extent of the damage, but provides a singular portrait of the generals responsible for compounding the tragedy, examining in revealing detail the historical, religious and superstitious setting that created Burma's tenacious and brutal dictatorship.