I have changed the border of the blog to black to express my deep condolences to those who lost loved ones or have otherwise had their lives blighted by the two great catastrophes of this week.
Probably the biggest of these, in terms of lives lost, is the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of the southern U.S. We don’t know how many have been killed there, possibly some or even many thousands. In addition many hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave their homes, many of which have been– and are continuing to be– destroyed by nature’s wrath. The living conditins of millions of people in the affected areas are frightful. Relief operations are complex and slow.
(Later, we can think more about the longer-term effects of the hurricane on oil prices and the economy; the wisdom of many of the engineering and zoning decisions that have been previously been made in that region; and other weighty related matters. For now, the human tragedy just seems paramount to me.)
And then, today in Baghdad there was the horrifying stampede on the bridge to Kazemiyah, that left a reported 960-plus people dead. I can barely believe how terrible it must have been to be caught up in that. The chaos, uncertainty, and loss suffered by the survivors must be terrible. I just hope that some authority– whether mosques, local parties, government authorities, or whatever– is able to deliver the aid and emergency services that the survivors now so desperately need.
It seems particularly tragic that those who drowned, were crushed to death, or suffered injuries in that incident met their fates while participating in a religious pilgrimage. Bill the spouse reminded me there have been a number of analogous incidents during the Hajj in recent years– and that there, too, it is often particularly dangerous when procession participants are channeled into the relative narrowness of a bridge. This site tells us that in 1990, 1,402 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during Hajj time in Mecca. (I think that one was on a bridge.) In 1994, 400 were killed in a stampede there; and just last year, another 244.
But now, this week, maybe the concurrence of these two events in Iraq and the southern US can remind everyone that there are more important human values to attend to than the pursuit of foreign wars?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the concurrence of these events served– as last December’s tsunami in Asia did, too, in its way– to turn people’s attention away from wars of conquest and back to the needs of human survival and human solidarity?
I guess I mean there particularly the attention of the US citizenry. We US citizens could use our country’s rich resources and fine capabilities so effectively to help our fellow-humans in our own southern states, in Baghdad, and in other places where people are sick, hurting, and in need– if only we could cure ourselves of our addiction to this doomed and ultra-violent war.
If we really want this, we can make it happen.
15 thoughts on “Catastrophes: the best response”
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Saddened by such destruction, heard somebody say that we got our US Tsunami. Still waiting to see the moslem country whinners that complained about the size of our aid to the 2004 Tsunami to send a single check to New Orleans. Please wake me up when that happens. Maybe a humanitarian gesture from the Saudis…
David
David,
The tsunami hit mostly third world countries whose population and communities were too poor to support relief efforts.
With the level of development and wealth of the US who is the first power in the world, she should be able to take care of herself. At least if your right wing government wasn’t diverting money to wage aggressive war in Iraq and elsewhere, or if it wasn’t destroying the state by tax cuts only benefitting to rich people.
The American media speak of the dramatic stampede of Baghdad as Iraq’s deadliest disaster
While it’s a big and sad catastrophe, it seems to me that the US media have an incredibly short memory. This stampede adds more sufferings to the already long list of Iraqi sufferings and it hurts a lot of people. At least as much persons have died during the assault of Falludjah : the inhabitants had to dig hundreds of graves in a football playground in order to burry the victimes of Fallujah. The last catastrophe adds to the suffering it doesn’t cancel the others ones.
Wow. I wouldn’t have believed it if someone had told me that David could even use a post that prominently features the catastrophic death of 900-plus Muslims to express some of the Islamophobia that marks so many of his posts here.
moslem country whinners that complained about the size of our aid to the 2004 Tsunami…
I can’t even think what you’re referrng to, David. Indeed, most international aid then probably went to countries that are predominantly Muslim, like Indonesia; and other Muslim countries were big donors then.
I expect that rich Muslim (and non-Muslim) countries will make offers of help to our Gulf disaster.
But really, David,I can’t believe you take advantage of this post to make your sick, hate-fueled points.
Aid HAS been offered to the US. However, as you know, no one just walks into the US anymore, regardless of how noble the cause. I am sure most countries would not want to have their citizens stopped at the border and shoved off to Gitmo or Abu Ghraib or God forbid, “rendered” somewhere for trying to help, no ?
Donor countries have to wait for the US Govt. to request aid. These are US rules.
And if you check around, money IS coming into NGO’s etc., Why the media chooses to ignore such facts is beyond me – but then again, the media that most Americans seem to watch, is not known for it’s balance and/or fairness or indeed, accuracy.
I would like to recommend that Americans donate blood. That is something only we can do for ourselves, and they are critically short of type O blood.
I want to know how come Havana can evacuate all it’s citizens in the event of a hurricane, but the US cannot?
Imagine how much more expensive (and deadly) it is to pluck them off of roofs after the hurricane, rather than load them up on buses before the hurricane?
And what are they thinking putting 23,000 in the Houston astrodome? You cannot put that many stressed out people in one place and not end up with violence or chaos. This is insane.
It would be nice if other countries offer to help us out, but the fact is that we are the richest country on the planet and we should be able to take care of our own. Money to fix the levees should have been made available and the work finished years ago. Money to get people out of town should be there. Money to provide emergency shelter should be there.
But my charity dollars are going overseas. Americans voted for the folks running the country now, and they are allowing them to run things the way they are being run. Good or bad, Americans should benefit (and learn?) from that choice. People overseas don’t have a choice over US government and US policy and they are suffering worse, in my opinion.
David
Regarding world assistance to the US in the wake of a natural disaster:
in an ideal, or even just a better world, we’d all be working towards strengthening the capabilities of an international organisation that could co-ordinate such assistance.
Of course, Mr John Bolton is working towards weakening the organisation that we have at present. Presumably with your approval?
I’m sorry for the people of New Orleans and all the others in the USA affected by the hurricane. It seems that thousands have perished – but the picture is vague.
But it does seem that the US has a third-world type disaster and is dealing with it in a third-world type way, or actually worse. It has contrived to turn against the victims. I hope I am wrong, but it looks like a bad situation getting worse.
The Superdome has run out of supplies and does not anticipate enough buses.
It did not have to be like this. I just want to bang my head against a wall in response to this (YET AGAIN) extreme example of American stupidity. I have wanted to do this over the Iraq war also, and over our everlastingly stupid foreign policies in the middle east and towards the UN.
If Havana can evacuate all it’s people, WHY COULDN’T NEW ORLEANS?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY??
I just heard one thing about our country that is really great. Jonathan Edelstein told me he spent much of yesterday trying to get down to Louisiana to help the relief effort. But no organizations needed what he could offer there. So he’s going to be volunteering in a Red Cross call center in (I think) New York City, instead. Since the RC does most of the work of tracing lost relatives, putting people in touch with each other etc, his work will be really valuable.
Jonathan, if you read this, know that I really admire you and what you do with your life tremendously. I am so glad the blogosphere introduced us!
“It has contrived to turn against the victims.”
Dominic, the first instinct of the self-satisfied in these situations is to offer charity. But if the afflicted do not display appropriate gratitude and acceptance of their debasement, then the next instinct is violent suppression.
Fresh back from vacation, and confronted by a disaster partly caused by his own policies, our Dear Leader immediately called for “zero tolerance” of law breakers and those who “take advantage of charitable giving” in New Orleans. This is just so typical of him. An ignorant, completely unhelpful, but sort of macho sounding line, delivered in that stiff, patronizing, fake Texas accent. Of course, New Orleand desperately needs law enforcement. But to talk about “zero tolerance” in a situation like this is just stupid and irresponsible. What does he want to do, shoot everyone who steals a loaf of bread? Even the local police are reduced to scavenging for food. Should they arrest themselves?
I also treasured Bush’s comment, upon viewing the disaster from his perch aboard Air Force One, that “it’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” Gee, ya think? Maybe I should cut him some slack, but I don’t feel like it. I’m adopting a “zero tolerance” policy toward criminally incompetent government officials.
I got this by e-mail today:
Media Release: Islamic Relief pledges $2 million for Katrina relief effort
Issued by Islamic Relief
2 September 2005, 16h00
London-based Islamic Relief has pledged US$2 million in relief aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the organisation
Very interesting blog!
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