NYT: A year after storm, subtle changes in Myanmar

The cyclone that struck on the night of May 2 last year was one of the deadliest storms in recorded history. It blew away 700,000 homes in the delta. It killed three-fourths of the livestock, sank half the fishing fleet and salted a million acres of rice paddies with its seawater surges.

In many ways, just a year beyond those horrors, life in the Irrawaddy Delta has settled back into some of its familiar rhythms, the push of the planting and the pull of the harvest. It is a manageable if hardscrabble life, one that the weather controls and the farmers expect.

But something unexpected has happened, too, say U.N. officials, aid workers and foreign diplomats in Myanmar. The storm — and a following surge of humanitarian aid — might have opened a breach in the political wall around Myanmar...

Read more on the New York Times website.