So easy to be critical

There have been a lot of natural and man made disasters in the last couple of years. It is getting hard to keep up any more. Just in the last 10 months alone there has been the Sunami in Asia, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the earthquake in Pakistan. Not to mention humanitarian crisis in the Dafur Sudan, Sahel Malawi, Niger, Somalia, and many more locations that I don't even know about.

So what do we do about it? What should our response be? How can we possibly help everyone?

In my experience there are a few responses that most people in the US use in these situations. The ostrich in the picture is a good example of those responses.

1) Bury their heads and pretend not to listen
2) Run away from any news if possible
3) Start pecking at anything that you can hide from or run away from

Think for a moment about your personal response to each of the disasters. I know my own response to Katrina was not something I am proud of... At first I did not want think that this storm was going to be any different from all the other storms to hit the gulf coast. Yes it would be bad, but not THAT bad. Next once I began seeing images of the flooding and the people in need, it was too much for me so I tried to hide from the news. Finally, once I realized I could not hide, because the news was everywhere, I began to point fingers.

Once I started to think about it, I realized something. Much of my personal response was because I could not do anything personally to help. Sure I could send money to the Red Cross, but really how much of that helps the immediate need and how much lines the pockets of Red Cross executives? I couldn't go there myself and help. So I thought I would do the only thing left... critize the people who were trying to help. Somehow, this seemed to make me feel better. I mean "if they had just done it my way" a lot more people could have been saved. "If I had been in charge of FEMA" the response would have been faster.

Really all this does is make me feel better, and only for a short time. I have worked with a lot of relief workers in Africa. Some from groups that most people critize a lot. The trouble is, I don't see any of the critical people actually working over there. The people who do get critised are really trying their best. It is not easy doing this stuff. The work is full of compromises. Much of the relief work around the world requires moral compromises on a daily basis.

For example, I feel very strongly about obeying the laws of the land, which ever land I am in. However, in order to deliver food aid to starving people in South Sudan, I regularly bent the rules of the Northern Sudanese Government. We would often deliver food to desperately starving people, knowing the that the rebels would come and take most of it for their army.

Unless you are willing to take that person's place in these disasters, don't point any fingers. Help them, help them to make better decisions by offering them a choice that doesn't require moral compromise. If you can do that you are really helping the people who need it.