The latest news is that the UN has suspended aid shipments because the govt. is confiscating it instead of letting it reach the people affected. Un-freaking-believable.
My brother works in the relief business in South Asia, (Burma is not his region, but close geographically). The Burmese govt. is only allowing visas for aid workers to enter the country who are ethnically Asian. My brother is in the process of sending them every Asian person in their organisation. Can you believe that schit? 100k people have died and they care about the ethnicity of emergency relief workers. It would be exactly like being shot and bleeding to death on the street, then refusing first aid because your do not like the race of the EMTs that show up. Astonishing.
The biggest obstacle to helping people in the developing world is always the governments.