Statistics pile up, painting a grim picture of the depth of the loss among the struggling survivors in the Irrawaddy delta... "LAPUTTA, Burma — FIFTY-year-old Ko Thein stands on the embankment of a paddy plot studying his rice fields near the Laputta River. A light rain falls, and the wind begins to blow. His soiled T-shirt and longyi are wet, but he?s too worried to feel the damp weather. He is tired, and his eyes show his dismay. Ko Thein, a farmer in Yway village in Laputta Township, is depressed because he sees that the rice seeds he planted in his paddies, which were contaminated by salt water in the tidal surge from Cyclone Nargis, show no sign of growth..."