Surely, people the world over are aware of the current emergency situation in Japan. The tsunami and subsequent earthquakes were devastating and awesome, in the true meaning of the word. No doubt, the situation is deserving of attention. The problem though with disasters such as these is the sensationalism of the event, and the ability of natural disasters to overtake all forms of media, resources, and attention. Human lives are human lives, and are intrinsically equally valuable and deserving of the compassion and help of other humans. However, we must consider that for each natural disaster that kills hundreds, or regretably, even thousands of people, there is ongoing war, poverty, disease, and strife, killing hundreds of thousands of people daily.
This is a grim realization. If there is anything that can make someone feel more helpless, insignificant, and irrelevant, it's thinking that for every aid dollar we give, someone else is in need of it. For every doctor or nurse or engineer we send abroad, another community somewhere else (perhaps even closer to home) is equally deserving. The point is not to be full of despair or hopelessness. The point is to be cognizant of what we are spending our efforts on. For instance, the earthquake in Japan is currently getting an enormous amount of media airtime and government international aid. While Canada so far hasn't promised any funds, they are ready to deploy military aid as well as technical and logistical assistance. Other countries have responded in similar manners, with the US making promises of grandiose proportions.
However, if we look back to the earthquake in Haiti, January 12, 2010, we saw an earthquake equally devastating, taking enormous numbers of lives and wreaking havoc upon an already destitute, struggling country. But one year later, despite the aid efforts at the time, the country is not even close to recovering. For instance, there are estimates that up to 800,000 people may be infected with cholera. But before the earthquake, the incidence of cholera in Haiti was close to zero. Indeed, the earthquake in Haiti pushed one of poorest countries in the world into a disaster situation that one speculates could never resolve itself. Not only is cholera spiralling out of control, Haiti's already morbid HIV/AIDS prevalence is increasing, as is the number of orphans, the amount of violent crime and rioting, and economic instability.
Natural disasters are devastating, and they exact remarkable human, enivronmental, and economic costs. But what about those disasters that are induced by humans, onto other humans or the environment. There are hundreds of oil spills we could talk about, and the human and environmental impacts they've had. But even aside from the oil spills, the nuclear disasters, or the overharvesting of fish, forests, or water, there is ongoing strife that humans inflict upon other humans. Why then, are these not responded to in the same manner as earthquakes or tsunamis? The conflict in Darfur has not ebbed, but it seemingly has lost any impact on the wider global community. Over 300,000 people have died in the conflict, and 2.7 million people have been forced out of their homes by the violence.
Of course, U2 and Rihanna have feverishly been working on songs to feature on an aid album for Japan efforts. And this is why Japan will recover: natural disasters are sexy and sensational, and the political and economic relationship of Japan with the west is a very deferent and friendly one. It's easy to wrap up a natural disaster in a fashionable way, to sell it and package it. Wars, genocide, famine, poverty, and diseases on the other hand, are reminders of our human capacity for evil, and we don't like to be reminded of that. We do not like the fact that manmade disasters such as these are preventable - and if not preventable, at least remediable - yet we haven't fixed any of the problems.
While my heart and sympathies and compassion goes to the people of Japan, and all those helping with aid efforts, my attention to Japan's crisis does not come at the expense of holding in my heart and mind the plight of the people of Haiti, Darfur, Libya, Congo, the people living in the slums of Kibera and the pavelas of Rio. I think that every new natural disaster that occurs, we need to respond in a timely and compassionate manner, but we need to ask ourselves what we do every day to help those who live in constant crisis and unending endangerment.
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