The PC troubles are not the only reason I've been quiet lately. I don't know what it is, but somehow I think the tsunami has just shut me up for a while. Here's a brief synopsis of what's been running through my head:
- Give a little, give a lot, still feels too easy to do, but there's nothing more I can do
- I've heard a lot of about how poor Sri Lanka and Aceh are yet I can't help thinking that if the people who live in those areas could bury the hatchet with their neighbors maybe they wouldn't be so poor. None of that changes the fact that thousands of people have been killed and millions need help.
- Is it really the role of the Irish or US or any western government to 'give aid'? Yet, I can't imagine how the aid could be distributed without the logistical support of the military. As a Christian, I want to do all I can - I feel an obligation. I don't really feel that same obligation as a citizen of either Ireland or the US.
- I've given money in one or two chunks, but also in small change when passing people shaking buckets. Still, I won't give one penny to Trocaire all because the man in charge there couldn't keep his anti-American bile to himself after the September 11 attacks.
- Anthony McIntyre has a critique of the response by the "forces of capitalism". Capitalism is often unseemly, particularly at times of massive disasters and images of horror. Yet, capitalism is also the primary reason that we in the west have the resources for tsunami warning systems and why eartquakes of 7.5 on the Richter scale don't cause wide scale death and destruction. Capitalism operates according to its own rules, but the people who work in these organizations are more than employees. There's nothing stopping an inusurance company employee from doing what he has to do for his business, but then turning around and contributing to or organizing relief aid. He can also lobby his government to do more, if he so chooses. He can even present the case to his company that doing something to help in the aid effort is good for business. No person is bound by the rules of capitalism in all aspects of his life.
