Helping ourselves by helping others
Helpless. That’s how we start to feel after days and days of depressing details come out of Myanmar and the sometimes futile efforts to help those whose lives and worlds have been devastated by the cyclone, or hurricane, more than a week ago. It’s not a typical disaster, if there is such a thing. Often, in times of great human crises, there are few questions about whether to help. A donation to the Red Cross or another organization can ease that feeling of “what can I do?” But the situation in Myanmar is deterring many generous hearts from opening up too far.
Many nations don’t recognize the name Myanmar officially. It was changed from Burma by the military-led government nearly 20 years ago. The ruling junta initially refused to allow foreign aid workers into the nation to help save the lives of the millions of people who are in real danger of dying, despite surviving the cyclone’s devastation. They wouldn’t even accept aid goods at first, but then said they’d take the stuff, just not the people. There’s something terribly amiss about that and it certainly makes one wary of giving money because it truly does not seem impossible that it might not end up where it’s supposed to — with the people.
Echoes of the tragedy in Myanmar hadn’t even begun to fade when China suffered its worst earthquake in 30 years. As I write this, officials expect 20,000 to have been killed. Myanmar’s neighbour though, threw open its skies to help immediately. Cynics might say that’s because China’s working hard to improve its image ahead of the Beijing Olympics. But whatever the reason, help arrived quickly to many quake victims, although getting aid to any disaster is slow, frustrating and painful work. The donation process for China has been highly organized as well.
Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee”. Each man’s (or woman’s) death diminishes me. I know I feel that way in the wake of such massive tragedies as those in Myanmar and China. The question is, what do we do to make a difference, for those directly affected and, frankly, to be honest, for ourselves?
If you so choose, you can find links to donate to the people of Myanmar or China by clicking on the 680News Cares icon on this website.