Thursday, September 08, 2005
It is kind of weird, and scary. Usually when a disaster strikes, or someone falls on hard times, I have no trouble making a donation to help out. Call it karma, a soft spot, or what ever; I believe that if I am able to help I should. For some reason when this Hurricane Katrina disaster hit, I didn't jump at donating. In fact I only just now made my first donation to help out. Why? Am I becoming callus or heartless? This is really bugging me.
I think one of the problems is when I though Hurricane, I thought of Florida. They get seam to get hurricanes on a monthly basses, and it does not seam to be a big deal. It was only after I saw aerial pictures of the city that I realized the existent of the disaster.
Another problem was the response I started reading and hearing. People were blaming the federal government for not doing enough before or the day after. What does the Feds have to do with an approaching disaster, when we have no idea how bad it will be? That is the responsibility of the state and local government. They are not making a big deal out of the hurricane, why should the feds? Why is the governor on the radio loosing it over the feds? He is the one that need to do his job, keep control, make decisions, and help his people. How can he do that when he cannot even control himself? Every disaster that I can think of in CA, the first responders are local and state. The governor is on the air encouraging and supporting the people. He is encouraging everyone to pull together and help pull each other threw this earthquake, mud slide, or flood. The feds show up a week or two later with a check, and if needed, more man power and equipment. Even in Sir Lanka, I didn't know a thing about the tsunami, until after New Years and our forces were still just responding.
The biggest problem that I see is that the news is reporting every thing that is going wrong, rape, murder, shooting, hijacking, looting, mass chaos; very little of the news is about the good that people are doing. I know they say that bad news sells, but when the only picture I get is people acting like thieves and barbarians, it does very very little to move my heart to make donations to help these 'victims.' Why the hell should I help a person that just looted a Wal-Mart for TVs and Nikes? I say f&ck them, I am keeping my money. Hell they just walked away with a bigger TV than I have and didn't pay a dime. Why should I care if that person may die of dieses when he is holding his TV that does him zero good without electricity? If they were walking out with food and water, my heart would be breaking.
I had to work really really hard at seeing threw all the politicians throwing mud, the media shock effort, and the human nature at its worst. I had to remember that there were still good people, people that are trying to do make the best of a bad situation and get back on their feet after loosing everything. These are the people that really need our help and our generosity. These are the people that that I had to remember are the victims and need our help.
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I think one of the problems is when I though Hurricane, I thought of Florida. They get seam to get hurricanes on a monthly basses, and it does not seam to be a big deal. It was only after I saw aerial pictures of the city that I realized the existent of the disaster.
Another problem was the response I started reading and hearing. People were blaming the federal government for not doing enough before or the day after. What does the Feds have to do with an approaching disaster, when we have no idea how bad it will be? That is the responsibility of the state and local government. They are not making a big deal out of the hurricane, why should the feds? Why is the governor on the radio loosing it over the feds? He is the one that need to do his job, keep control, make decisions, and help his people. How can he do that when he cannot even control himself? Every disaster that I can think of in CA, the first responders are local and state. The governor is on the air encouraging and supporting the people. He is encouraging everyone to pull together and help pull each other threw this earthquake, mud slide, or flood. The feds show up a week or two later with a check, and if needed, more man power and equipment. Even in Sir Lanka, I didn't know a thing about the tsunami, until after New Years and our forces were still just responding.
The biggest problem that I see is that the news is reporting every thing that is going wrong, rape, murder, shooting, hijacking, looting, mass chaos; very little of the news is about the good that people are doing. I know they say that bad news sells, but when the only picture I get is people acting like thieves and barbarians, it does very very little to move my heart to make donations to help these 'victims.' Why the hell should I help a person that just looted a Wal-Mart for TVs and Nikes? I say f&ck them, I am keeping my money. Hell they just walked away with a bigger TV than I have and didn't pay a dime. Why should I care if that person may die of dieses when he is holding his TV that does him zero good without electricity? If they were walking out with food and water, my heart would be breaking.
I had to work really really hard at seeing threw all the politicians throwing mud, the media shock effort, and the human nature at its worst. I had to remember that there were still good people, people that are trying to do make the best of a bad situation and get back on their feet after loosing everything. These are the people that really need our help and our generosity. These are the people that that I had to remember are the victims and need our help.
