Disasters

So, one reporter the other day was happy that Hurricane Wilma paused over Mexico before hitting Florida, because it meant less damage for Florida. Hhhmmm, what’s wrong with this picture???? Why are we happy that the hurricane paused anywhere? And why are we happy that it paused over a country with fewer resources than our own? I don’t want it to pause over any country!

I just read an article about the tired tourists that are trying to leave Cancun… give me a break! What about the tired Mexicans that are already at home in Cancun and are stuck in the aftermath? Why isn’t that the big story instead of the tired tourists? Oh yeah, we only care about ourselves first, and then if we have enough attention span left over we’ll hear about things that affect non-Americans. One American in a shelter in Mexico was complaining about the situation and questioning how much worse could it get. Now this is a valid complaint, but let me take the time to point out how much worse it could get.

Well, go to this website http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/quake.asia.1314/index.html and read about Pakistan and the 10,000 that are in danger of dying of hunger, hypothermia and disease right now. Read about the 45,000 winterized tents they need… winterized tents! I cannot imagine having to sleep in a tent in the winter. Read about the lack of donors from around the world, and about the 3 million homeless in Pakistan, and how Pakistan is getting ready for “a second wave of massive death.” Furthermore there’s somewhere between 47,700 and 79,000 people dead from the earthquake in Pakistan, but they’re not quite sure because they’ve only been able to get to 47,700 of the bodies.

So, I say, “That is how much worse it could get.” It could be so much worse that we could be one of the 6 orphans that died of hypothermia the other night in Pakistan, because they didn’t have a tent or blankets (And that’s just the six that were reported in the story). That’s how much worse it could be.

One man complained that the U.S. should send cruise ships to get them out of Mexico. Well, I’m sorry. The tourists chose to be in Cancun when a hurricane was coming and now someone wants CRUISE ships to go get them, because he’s tired of having to wait for a flight out! Give me a break! I’m sure that it does stink to be there right now. I do feel bad for them, and I’m glad I’m not in that situation. However, I also feel bad for the people FREEZING TO DEATH in Pakistan and the ones that are STARVING TO DEATH in Niger.

So, I guess my point is that disasters happen everywhere, and I praise God that I live in a nation that can help me when my family is faced with disaster. I thank Him for a government that has money to spend to rescue me and the many church groups around that are willing to give so freely to those in distress. I also praise God for giving me the means to help others in distress, and I praise him for pulling my head out of my butt every once in a while in order to make me look at the millions of people in distress around the world everyday. I do not want to be blind. I do not want the media that neglects the atrocities of the world so frequently to dominate my knowledge of what others are going through. I want to be informed, and I want to be MOTIVATED TO DO SOMETHING. I do not want to be someone that watches the evening news and thinks, “Oh how horrible,” and then the next second flips the channel to Friends and forgets that others are suffering in a way that I cannot fathom.

What I have said may make it sound like I do not care about the Americans stranded in Mexico, but that is not the case. I do care about them, but I also just get frustrated when the media does not do justice to other stories of even worse suffering going on in the world.

Facts taken from http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/quake.asia.1314/index.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/25/mexico.wilma.ap/index.html