Dear friends,
I too, was puzzled about why there is such a huge new international response to
this earthquake and tsunami. Blue Sky, (bttom731127) asked this question
on 05.01.01 headed "why are internation paying attention to the earthquake?"
He concluded it was because westerners care about westerners, and not about others. I think the dead being from so many countries certainly drew the attention
of people from those countries to the situation, but I don't believe that is the
real story for the change. There is something else involved this time that has
never happened before. Others must have been puzzling about it, too, because I
found this information on our 6 pm news, along with horrific live videos to prove it.
The difference is that so many tourists were present, and they could afford, and
had with them very small, newly available digital cameras which were easily switched over from still picture taking to video taking complete with full sound.
Since the cameras are small, and the people were on vacation, they carried them
with them everywhere. When strange things began to happen, thousands of people
quickly began making films of the situation, even as they ran, or took refuge wherever they could.
There are many live videos of the terrible scenes then, and of the intense misery that is still increasing and are now being taken by people who are there to assist.
In Africa with the starvation and AIDS, and in your country when the terrible earthquake happened, there weren't tourists present with such cameras. As a matter of fact, fast communications like the internet didn't exist at the time of your earthquake in 1976 and the tiny new cameras were only invented recently.
It is much more moving to the heart and soul to see such sufferingas it is happening, and even to the very people doing the filming. It is so immediate and live, and it comes into your own living-room without warning of what
you will see and hear. These terrible, moving pictures, with full sound, flowed
directly into the hearts and minds and shocked everyone, in east and in west.
I am surprised though, that the rich and untouched parts of the Muslim world aren't yet listed among those countries contributing. Maybe it is still coming. I
expect they will want to help their fellow religionists. I see China has increased her contribution greatly. So have Canada and the USA, Germany, and many of
the others. Our Canadian government pledged to match all donations from the public with equal ammounts of cash from the government.
There is a great wave of compassion flowing out everywhere, and here and in the
USA there is even frequent borrowing of money through credit cards in order to give, and children opening their piggy-banks, or donating their Christmas gift money. Our 13 year old grand-son, his 18 year old sister with the help of some of
their friends and of our daughter and son-in-law, held a car-wash and earned $5
,000 to give to the Red Cross for aid to the suffering in Thailand. They worked
all day long until they were cold and wet and tired. Many people came who were
grateful for the chance to help. The car-wash was held the second day after the
tsunami happened. Other things like that are taking place now so that money can be earned and sent.
Most of the tourists who are alive have flown home now. Or they are certainly dead. Too much time has passed. I think this proves that the help that is flowing mightier than ever from the west is not because of the tourists being there.
It is because of the compassionate hearts that want to help the poor people who
live there. If it was mostly because of the westerners involved, the money would begin to flow less and less. Instead it is flowing more and more.
This surely must be the main reason for the difference between your terrible earthquake with little or no help, and also the world's much less response to some
famines and other disasters. There wasn't that little camera to bring true understanding of the disaster, and there were not tourists there, to take the pictures and send them home.
Now it is possible almost to be present, and that is very painful to me and most
other people. The tsunami is being talked about everywhere among the common people here. The pain and sorrow is deeply understood and felt, due to those thousands of little cameras being used to take those pictures, by people who were in
danger themselves as they filmed. I think this little camera, along with the internet and its increasing speed, simplicity and spread is changing the world.
We can finally be close to each other, no matter where we are. That brings greater knowledge, and greater intimacy, and also much more
responsibility for each other, to all of us.
Baha'u'llah said that the time would come when people on one side of the world wouldn't be able to sleep if a person was suffering on the other side of the world, until they did something to relieve the situation. We are moving in that direction. The human race is maturing, and beginning to show it. "We are all the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch."
Warmly and with affection, Mary, writing to you from Canada
