It’s pretty amazing
Seldom in the history of disasters have Canadians, and other nationalities, ever responded to the degree they have to the tsunami disaster. The CBC reports:
Donations to legitimate charities top $65 million
Meanwhile, legitimate charities have been receiving record amounts to help relief efforts in the countries hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami, including one anonymous donor who gave $500,000 to Care Canada.
Canadians have given more than $65 million so far, including:
- More than $43 million to the Canadian Red Cross.
- More than $15 million to World Vision.
- $5.5 million to UNICEF, the United Nations children’s fund.
- $2 million to Care Canada.
That’s almost as much as the Canadian goivernment has pledged ($80 million) and this is “money in the bank” as opposed to pledges. Really astounding, and the money continues to flow in.
I truly hope that this spirit of giving will continue throughout the year and will carry forward to the rebuilding phase. I’m very concerned about the effects of abandoning these countries and their people after the immediate threat is over. I’m even more concerned about how we will all react when the next big disaster happens, which it surely will. Will we be burned out, having spent our bank on this event? It’s a quite palpable risk.
What was it about this particular disaster that caused this exceptional reaction? Was it the scale, spread out over several countries? Was it the suddeness of the disaster? Was it because we could have avoided the majority of the deaths if there was a tsunami warning system in place? Some combination of those or something else?
The only similar outpouring I’ve seen happend 20 years ago. In 1984 there was a huge famine in Ethiopia that threatened 7 million people. An estimated one million Ethiopians died of starvation between 1984 and 1985 despite massive airlifts of food aid by the UN. The BandAid recording of of “Do They Know it’s Christmas” records raised some £6M for famine relief and the following year the Live Aid concert raised around £70M in just 16 hours during a rock concert by 60 of the top bands of the time, simulcast to over 1 billion people. Pretty astounding but it took a rock concert to raise people consciousness to the point.
In 2002 the famine returned to Ethiopia and continues today with some 14 million people at risk now. Where is the outcry for the millions that are going to die slow agonizing deaths, many of them children? That’s what disturbs me. The tsunami was sudden and massive, dynamic and very photogenic from a media point of view. The media could make “brain candy” of it and keep us glued to their networks, feeding our addiction for more information. The tsunami was, if you’ll pardon the expression, a sexy event. People dying slowly of starvation is not.
My hope is that all this outpouring of empathy and help is a sign that as a species we are entering a new age of consciousness. The Age of Aquarius, as it were. That western societies have had enough of the crap fed us by our so called leaders and are doing what’s right instead of leaving it to our governments who will use aid as political muscle, both at home and abroad with the political consequences being more important than the aid itself. But, that’s only my hope and alas I’m far to cynical to believe it’s really the case.
Comment from Kate S.
Time: 1/8/2005, 1:54 pm
I am also very worried about the “next” disaster to come down the pike. The way things have been going in our solar system lately, does not bode well for the healthy weather or stability of our little blue rock. I fear it will become an “every man for himself” scenario as we will not be able to keep shelling out money to bail out everyone hit by natural disasters.
We are tentative guests here on Earth and like Mars, could at any time suddenly watch as our entire atmosphere gets sucked away. All we can do is batten down the hatches and give what we have till it’s gone, I guess.