The good news about the United States is that we are generally good with sending aid and money to countries that have just undergone natural disasters (e.g., Haiti earthquake, Indonesia tsunami/earthquake).
The bad news is that the United States is still working on how to deal with disasters that are not-so-natural, but are still costing hundreds of thousands of people their lives.
As I’ve been witnessing the outpour of aid to Haiti, it’s occurred to me that Americans are very good at getting help for places that need it (fundraisers, donating, spreading awareness, etc), and that’s a very good thing.
But I think we need to work on bringing aid to countries that are undergoing their own disasters. I understand that it’s not nearly as easy to bring aid when the “disaster” is man-made. The political entanglements are complicated and an internal war spanning over five years in an African country gets significantly less attention and thus less public support than a massive earthquake that happens in an instant and is on every news channel for the next week.
In my mind, and judging by the vast response, it seemed as if the Haiti earthquake had been the most devastating event to occur in a while.
But if we compare the approximate death tolls:
Holocaust: depends on definition, but 11,000,000 is the most inclusive while 6,000,000 is generally accepted as the numbers of Jewish people killed.
Rwanda: at least 500,000 (not including HIV positive war rape victims) with some estimates over 1,000,000.
Darfur: Estimates range between 50,000 to 450,000.
Haiti quake: death toll is currently between 200,00 and 300,000.
It’s odd how an earthquake brings us all together, but we can’t pull it all together in time to prevent mass government-sponsored killings (e.g., Holocaust, Rwandan genocide, Darfur). We’ve given aid to these causes, but not nearly on the same scale, and definitely not large enough to prevent these genocides before the worse occurred.
In the Holocaust, we were slow to react, probably because of the disbelief. In Rwanda, we were both stung by defeat in Somalia and once again, did not take into account the reality of the situation. In Darfur, we were held back by lack of international support. But I believe we, as Americans, who pride ourselves on our system of “liberty and justice for all,” should treat a life lost in a genocide with the same weight as a life lost in an earthquake. I believe we should learn from the mistakes we have made in dealing with past genocides, and do everything in our power, whether trying to convince other world leaders to support intervention, or rallying up the public to help provide aid, to stop the next one.
What are your thoughts on the seeming discrepancy between aid? Why do you think there is such a difference in support? Is this something the US needs to work on, or would the US involvement be too complicated?
