Tsunami of Guilt
Update 01/14/2005: Given the behavior of both the Indian and Indonesian governments, and the fact that Thai business owners are more worried about Thailand’s image abroad than their dead, it is becoming apparent that those of us in the US care more about what happened than those in the region do. That wipes the last vestiges of guilt away that inspired the post below.
I have been feeling guilty recently about the tsunami of Dec 26, 2004. I have questioned my feelings several times, but the fact remains that as hard as it is to say this, I simply am not moved by the disaster. I am not brought to tears by the pictures, nor am I reflexively reaching for my wallet to shower the region with what little money I have that isn’t owed to Visa.
9-11 moved me. 9-11 shook the very foundations of my belief system, causing many of the illusions I had held on for years to crumble away.
I am not a bad person. I have not given up on caring for others. I donate more than most to charity, and believe that it is my duty to help anyone whom I possibly can help. My conscience twists in my gut until I do what is right when it comes to my fellow man, but this time it has been strangely silent – silent enough to warrant concern.
So what lays behind my instinctive withdrawing from the tsunami relief parade?
1. The scope of the disaster. The disaster is so huge that it has lost much of its humanity in the way that Stalin’s dictum “Kill 5 people and it’s a tragedy; Kill 50,000 and it’s a statistic” holds true.
2. Distance. The Indian ocean is as far away from me – geographically as well as psychologically. I have never been to Indonesia or Thailand, nor have these places ever been high up on my “must visit” list.
3. Racism – NO. I am more troubled by what’s been happening in the Sudan and recent events in Burundi and Rwanda than I am by the tsunami. Skin color therefore does NOT play a role in this lack of…. concern? No, that’s not it. I am very concerned about the people suffering there. It just doesn’t move me.
4. Natural vs man-made disasters. Genocide is man-made; a tsunami is not. Man’s inhumanity to man makes me want to lay the smackdown on the aggressor – no matter what the color of his skin is or where he is. It fires me up and moves me in ways that natural disasters do not.
5. 9-11. I haven’t forgotten that many in Indonesia celebrated the man-made events of that day. I also cannot ignore the fact that many of the people we are helping support al-Qaeda. This fact is conveniently ignored or glossed over by the hope that our aid and help will win hearts and minds over to our side.
Sorry, but history has shown that when it comes to al-Qaeda and Islamic radicals, there is nothing that we can do to win them over. Absolutely nothing. Why? Because we aren’t human in their eyes.
Our aid to Bosnia Muslims did not stop al-Qaeda attacks at Khobar Towers in 1996 and the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. Our arm-twisting of the Israelis during the peace process of 2000 did not stop the attacks on the USS Cole and a year later, 9-11.
Do you honestly believe that showering the Muslim world with aid and money will change their opinion of us?
I do not believe that such a thing is possible until Islam has its own reformation and learns to live alongside the world’s other religions. Until that happens, I am afraid there is nothing we can do to stop their desire for killing us.
And here lies the crux of my detachment from the aid effort. Should another 9-11 happen tomorrow, I’m sure the same people we are helping today will be celebrating our loss of life in the streets.
Am I being too cynical? Too harsh? I wish I could care more – but I just can’t.
