I must have heard that comment spewed forth so many times today that I can see the people who said it to me saying it when I close my eyes. You would think that after 100,000 people are killed in a tragedy the likes of which we have never seen on the face of the earth it wouldn’t be. But this is humanity, not some ideal species.
In the short span of Sunday through today almost every single thing we’ve seen is politics…
Some UN pencil pusher said the US and other western nations have been too stingy with the funds.
I find that to be one of the more ironic claims. Almost half of the relief budget (that includes money and or logistical aid, and equipment use) is on the shoulders of the United States. The argument? $11 billion dollars was spent by the United States Government rebuilding Florida after multiple high intensity hurricanes ravaged the state.
Imagine the pair of stones it takes to tell a country that they’re spending a disproportionate amount of their own money on their own people!?.
Frankly, the US had better spend more money on its own people. The US economy is built on the back of taxes from the people it was spending money to help out. Some people in this country whose lives were destroyed and homes uprooted and who lost all worldly posessions have not seen a single penny from FEMA. Yet the United Nations sits on its high horse saying we should tax our people more and we could afford to shell out more to help people halfway around the world, all the wile half of that relief budget is from us undertaxed ingrates.
I also noticed that UN pencil pusher didn’t look inward in his reflection. Funny how he singled us out for not unilaterally helping out Sri Lanka and India and Thailand all by ourselves. Unilateral action being demanded from an organization who decried the unilateralty of Iraq. Imagine.
Sri Lanka refused help from the Israeli military.
You heard that right. One of the countries most devastated refused help from a country who doesn’t, as of this afternoon, have a single solitary confirmed death in this tragedy. Why did they refuse the help? Because the muslims in the country were all bent out of joint about it. I can’t put this any more frankly. If you can’t put aside stupid little cultural differences and accept aid from a country in an excellent position to help you, then you can literally go to hell. There’s no room for egos here, and there’s no time for pride. Yet that’s exactly what we have.
As it turns out, Israel, evil bastards that they are, are still sending aid workers to the areas most affected, just not military. I don’t know about the Jewish population in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, or Thailand, but I can pretty much guarantee it isn’t very high.
Now muslims? There are lots of them in Indonesia. How many Middle East countries other than Israel are rushing to help their fallen brothers? The Saudi royal family, Kuwaiti royal family, the Iranians, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians. How much help? Aren’t hearing much about them, are you? That’s because muslims only act as brothers to each other when they can unite against Israel or the United States. Other than that, they don’t really care about each other at all. Don’t believe me?
Name the one country in the Middle East where muslims have the right to vote and don’t live in refugee camps of any kind.
While people are dead hanging in trees, swept into the ocean, washing up on beaches, and so on, leaders like the ones in Sri Lanka are playing politics in an effort to keep the filthy Jews out of their country.
Lest you think this isn’t a political situation, get your head out of your ass. It is. By the very fact that nation-states are involved it has become a political football. Hell, even the Red Cross has its hand out hard core begging for cash. If you think really hard, the last time they made a hard call for cash, they took the money people donated thinking it was going to help survivors of 9/11 and spent it on art programs in Detroit. There are plenty of really good organizations to donate to. Don’t just blindly donate to the one whose name you’re most familiar with, lest you find out one day that the money you donated paid for a limo ride to the airport for some bureacrat in the Red Cross heirarchy.
It’s very nice to say this isn’t political. It’s not about ideology. It isn’t about conflict or ethnic differences. It isn’t about rich versus poor. It’s a human story.
But all the cliches in the world don’t change the fact that it is, for the most part, only about politics for a large number of people involved. For the rest of them, help is needed. Israeli or American… Muslim or Jew… Regardless of your beliefs, the people need your help. Just because it’s political and nasty doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hand over some cash for the relief effort.
Donate to these organizations:
Americares
Christian Aid
World Vision
UNICEF