As I learn about the tragic tsunami, I am at a loss. While I ache for the children, I’m not clamoring to donate my money. Before you call me callous, take a look at pre-Tsunami Indonesia here.
I’ve been reluctant to voice this opinion because almost everyone I know donated money within the first couple of days. I was beginning to feel like a horrible person, until I ran across this.
“As tragic the events are- America should not be sending money it doesn’t have– especially to countries that are hostile to us.
The original gesture of 35 million was more than enough. After all, these countries have been very indifferent to us- and have been ardent supporters of America’s enemies.”
And this fable made me shudder:
“Once upon a time there was a serpent who was badly injured in a fight with another animal. It managed to slither away to safety but would have surely died if a benevolent man had not seen it suffering by the side of the road. The goodly man carefully wrapped the snake up and took it to his house, where he bestowed the kindest and gentlest care on the snake until it was healed and could return to the wild. Just as the man was releasing the serpent back into the grass, the ungrateful snake turned and bit him on the hand.
“What did you do that for?” cried the man, who knew that the bite of this particular snake was usually fatal. “Didn’t I take care of you when noone else would?”
The snake shrugged (no small feat for a snake!) and replied to the benevolent–and now doomed– man, “What did you expect? You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”
Time will tell if the moral is applicable.”
Hopefully, we won’t regret our generosity.
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I’m still worried about pictures I saw that showed the waves coming in….
With thousands of people lined up on the shoreline watching it, and then running away.
I’m sorry, but when I heard about the disaster, I imagined people going about thier buisness, unaware that the storm was that bad. Not that people were stupid enough to WATCH the damn waves come in.
And I still stand by my beliefs that just because I have the ability to send money to people who don’t care if I live or die doesn’t mean I will. When these same countries help us through a natural disaster, maybe I’ll start thinking differently.
Comment by maskedfencer — January 7, 2005 @ 11:27 am
Because we can.
Because it’s in our nature.
Because we turn the other cheek.
Because if we didn’t, really, nobody else would.
Depressing, isn’t it?
Comment by rasputinaxp — January 7, 2005 @ 11:53 am
People are, in general, that stupid. I have read many, many stories about people witnessing other people at smaller tsunamis who have died going “wow, lookit the size of THAT one!”
I’ve been yelled at for being matter of fact about my feelings on this:
Run, you dumb motherfuckers. Run like the wind. If I see the ocean’s gone, my mind doesn’t say “HEY, FREE FISH!” it says “oh, sh– GETDAFUGGOUTNOW!!!!!”
I don’t think this is a vague or difficult reaction. Harsh? Possibly. I recall a video I saw from this tsunami of people at beach level. “Wow, hey, look…at…wow, that’s… *waits a while* uh…RUN”
No, dumbass. No, no, no. See, my ass was gone when you were registering “wow.”
I’ve had this discussion at the office today in light of the train crash in South Carolina that claimed 8 who breathed chlorine fumes. Crash and fumes? I’m not breathing in lungfuls. I don’t have charcoal, but I’m smashing somethign and getting out if I can. Or I die trying.
Not on the beach, pointing and saying “FREE FISH.”
Comment by rasputinaxp — January 7, 2005 @ 11:57 am
I have to admit I haven’t coughed up any cash yet either for similar reasons. I’m still mulling this one over though. The other side of the argument is that after this is all over and if we don’t help the America haters will strut around and say how they were right. “After all that look at all those rich Americans who stood by while we suffered and did nothing.”. I wish I was more eloquent about explaining these things. I’m reminded of I think it was Kem’s post on the nest recently. Where she asked if you saw someone who hated you drowning would you help?
If he climbs out on his own he will only hate us all the more if we don’t help. However if we do help maybe just maybe it might be the start of change.
I know I will probably get some grief for over simplyfying this but with situations like Ireland, Israel & the middle east maybe it just needs one side to put down the gun and put a hand out instead to start to change things. Would it fix the world in one day/week/year? Nope but it might just help.
All that said I’m very undecided on all this. *ponders*
Comment by tarss — January 7, 2005 @ 12:02 pm
I suppose my argument has nothing todo with politics or anyhting. After I make my house payment I will have 49.78 cents to do me till I am paied in 2 weeks. I am sorry for the suffering but well I just do not have it to give.
Mags
Comment by magdollna — January 7, 2005 @ 12:10 pm
Because we can.
Because it’s in our nature.
Because we turn the other cheek.
Because if we didn’t, really, nobody else would.
And yet, deaths in Africa (Congo, Sudan) go unremarked and unaided. 2.5 million people have died in the last 2 years in Congo, alone. The World press decides who’s worthy of help, it seems.
Who controls your sympathy?
Yarha, Drop in the Bucket
Comment by yarha — January 7, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
The thing about America is that people expect us to help. Sure, we can’t afford it right now but we’re still rich and large. So we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. And since most of the world hates us right not it’s certainly a good idea to help.
Also, you can’t judge an entire country based on a few people. I’m sure a lot of them are just simple people who couldn’t care less about politics. Even if everyone there really does hate America and/or Bush, why should they suffer for it? There are plenty of people in this country who hate Bush too. And what they know of America is only what their media tells them, just like what we know of them is what our media tells us.
Bottom line, I think it’s good that America helps them. Whether individual people help is up to them. I didn’t donate money to any other disaster ever, so I’m not going to donate money now. But I certainly wouldn’t exclude them because of who they are. If someone I hated was suffering, I wouldn’t say, “serves you right”.
Comment by transientmind — January 7, 2005 @ 1:02 pm
This is only a response to Rasputin’s because I’m quoting him; it really applies to the original post as well. After I wrote this, I realized it came off pretty harsh toward the people who didn’t donate. This is something I feel strongly about. I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty, though it might seem like I am. I’m just writing down the thoughts that went through my head that caused me to donate.
If by “our nature” you mean “human nature,” then yes. And people everywhere would, not just Americans. It’s certainly not like all the generous people of the world are gathered between a certain set of artificial borders.
I swear, we’re becoming defined more by our nationality then by our humanity all the time.
How often does our government take a stance of which you don’t approve? Does your government define you? Sometimes it does. Propaganda has a lot of Americans thinking that we’re forming educated opinions when really, we don’t know shit.
These people are uninformed. They think they know what America is all about, but they don’t. And maybe they do hate us. If so, they’d hate us less if they really understood.
And I imagine that if you or I were living in that area, born and raised there, we’d be full of wrong opinions and hatred towards America too.
I invite any person reading this to tell me now that there has never been a time in your life that you felt hostility toward something that, on closer examination, you realized you’d misinterpreted entirely. I don’t think that these people should be punished for hatred born of misunderstanding. That’s just being human.
I’m not talking about what we as Americans should be doing, I’m talking about we as PEOPLE. This supercedes artificial borders and political squabbling. People are watching their children die of disease and starvation over there. Children are wandering around homeless, wondering what to do now that their parents, siblings, and friends are dead and dying. If the $50 I gave can provide a bowl of hot soup for a child who has nothing left in the world but an empty belly, I couldn’t give a shit about what his dead parents political views were.
I don’t particularly care if they don’t like us. I don’t particularly care if this won’t make them like us any more. And no, I don’t believe that this will make the world like us more. Hatred is too deeply entrenched for even a generous humanitarian effort to really overcome. They’ll assume we have political reasons for it, and guess what? We do. When some UN jackass insinuated that the west wasn’t giving enough, we all got in a pissing match. I don’t think this will really effect world opinion. But once again, I don’t care. I care about easing the suffering of people who could have been us if we’d been born over there. Hatred and all.
Comment by kemidra — January 7, 2005 @ 1:16 pm
Ready to have your brain pop?
I won’t donate.
Not for political reasons.
But the government took care of it for me.
350,000,000 times.
Comment by rasputinaxp — January 7, 2005 @ 1:19 pm
I didn’t say I want you to donate. I said why I did.
Comment by kemidra — January 7, 2005 @ 1:27 pm
Helping others doesn’t make them like you. It usually makes them resent you for taking note of their weakness. What makes them like you, is asking for *their* help. Remember when we asked NATO — or specifically: Germany — to lend us AWACS planes for domestic use after 09/11? This made the Germans feel that we regarded them as equals, which is probably the desire of everyone who rightly regards us as a powerful, capable culture.
Now, that said, I think a true cataclysm like this one is a special case, where the victims feel that *anyone* would have needed the help of others.
Comment by inviolet — January 7, 2005 @ 1:34 pm
Damn! Thanks for your post. I already donated. I still don’t know what to believe really.
Maybe we will regret our generosity but I don’t think that all those people were (are) hate mongers. That’s too simple.
I’ll have to get back to this since there’s more thoughts swimming in my head about these articles (but I have no time to really *discuss*).
Comment by xanderschild — January 7, 2005 @ 2:57 pm
When I think about the families over there…(some of them friends of mine), I don’t give a rat’s ass about the government or what peoples views of us are. Hell, I have a pretty fucked up view of us, myself.
How many of us sit around and bitch about how fucked up our government is? How many of us despise how things are run here in America. Consider that all they have to go on when forming opinions about us is what they’ve seen of OUR government..and what the news media reports.
And it’s like that everywhere.
Remember on 9/11 when our news media broadcast Palastinians dancing in the streets? Is that all of Palestine? Is that all of their view? No. It’s not.
We can see the propaganda that we’ve been fed or we can think outside the box and discover that maybe there is more to Thailand and the surrounding areas than we’ve been told.
Visit there one day. See how you feel about it then.
I’m not trying to talk you into donating, but at least consider that it may be very different than what you’ve seen from media and such.
Comment by sichernde_seele — January 7, 2005 @ 3:45 pm
Let me add, because that may have sounded harsh. All I’m really trying to get at is this.
Are your feelings about them being hostile toward us *enough* to withhold aid to those in need?
It seems to me to be a cycle. Their hostility begets your hostility which perpetuates and confirms the reasons why they might be hostile to us in the first place. Make sense?
*hugs*
Holly
Comment by sichernde_seele — January 7, 2005 @ 3:55 pm
True kindness is caring about a world you will never see. Genuine compassion is extending kindness to your enemy. But the bottom line is: would you want the world to judge you based on the actions of your parents, your neighbors or the complete stranger sitting next to you on the bus?
I believe that most of us would rather be regarded on our own merits. My neighbors may be members of the Ku Klux Klan for all I know. They might be selling children into sexual slavery. I have no idea. But I sincerely hope that if our neighborhood were to be hit by a tornado, people would not refuse to help me just because someone I live near is loathsome.
I don’t care whether or not you donate. You have your reasons and I respect (and appreciate) your views.
I donated because I am overwhelmingly grateful to have been spared the nightmare that Southeast Asia is experiencing. I donated because my life is profoundly blessed — and the Big Mac I skip could buy something as simple as clean drinking water for a child who has lost everyone and everything that exemplifies safety and normalcy to her. I donated because I am flawed and humble and selfish and I realize that I am lucky to live in a country where we can afford to give. I donated because I can relate to human suffering without regard to politics or borders or histories or rhetoric.
And, I donated because I need to believe that if I were experiencing something even remotely as horrifying and life changing, someone would cut through the bullshit of this world and help me.
“I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.” ~ Mother Teresa
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
Comment by alwaysthesun2me — January 7, 2005 @ 6:17 pm