CAMBRIDGE LETTER
`Suffering with'
BILL KIRKMAN
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Many in the West are familiar with the places affected by the tsunami, which can explain the unprecedented response of ordinary citizens to provide aid.
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REUTERS/HULHUMALE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The Hulhumale island and the Male airport -- most of the places affected are popular tourist locations.
UNIMAGINABLE horror was the reaction throughout the world as news broke of the earthquake and consequent tsunami that has devastated so many communities. The scale of the disaster is incomprehensible. The still rising death toll, and the growing awareness of the continuing consequences, keep all our minds focused on what has occurred, and what is still happening.
If the earthquake had happened 100 years ago, the disaster would obviously have been no less serious. Awareness of it around the world, however, would have been much slower in developing. Modern communications have brought the whole thing, quite literally, home to all of us.
The personal element
Furthermore, the fact that so many of the places affected are popular tourist locations, and the fact that so many people now are affluent enough to be able to enjoy travel on a scale undreamt of even 50 years ago, have brought many families personally close to the horror. Their parents, their children, their friends have lost their lives, or have miraculously been saved. The heartrending television pictures of homeless and bereaved people, desperately waiting for food, water and medical supplies, are not just a record of disaster; many in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, know these places, have met these people. To some extent, sympathy is, quite literally "suffering with".
This goes a long way to explain why the response of thousands of ordinary citizens here to the appeal by charities for support in their efforts to provide aid to the stricken region has been unprecedented. Millions of pounds were given in the first two or three days after the earthquake. Money still continues to pour in. There has been a similar response to requests for different kinds of help. For example, the district council serving the area in which I live decided to open its offices on New Year's Day to receive gifts of medicines and food to be sent to the region. A steady stream of people drove to the offices with their gifts in response.
Reactions of affluence
Everyone is of course aware that gifts in cash and kind can do only a little in a crisis of this magnitude. They cannot begin to alleviate the grief and suffering of the millions whose lives and livelihoods, whose families and homes, have been destroyed. Supporting the aid effort, however, is a small way of giving shock and sympathy a tangible expression.
As the size and scope of the disaster began to become apparent, there were other reactions as well. The earthquake occurred in the middle of the Christmas holiday period which is, traditionally in Britain, not only a time of family celebration but a time also of frenzied buying of consumer goods. Newspapers and television programmes have been carrying many reports about spending levels, and about their effect on the profits of the major retail chains. They have also carried features about "celebrities" grumbling and moaning about the pressures of the season — pressures which, of course, they could easily avoid. Complaint, rather than celebration, has been a widespread theme.
This kind of thing is a good example of the selfishness and self-indulgence which can easily become the hallmark of a largely affluent society. Most of us have all the things we need, and so we complain about the temptations to buy still more, and to indulge in conspicuous consumption which brings us no real pleasure.
The disaster as leveller
News of the earthquake has gone some way to bring us to our senses. Seeing and hearing each day more and more grim details of what has happened has forced us to put our own petty inconveniences into perspective. We have seen pictures of people who had little, and who have suddenly and terrifyingly lost everything. We are quickly coming to realise that the provision of immediate aid to stricken communities is only the beginning of what will be a long and painful process of trying to rebuild lives and hopes. We understand, too, that we have a responsibility to do what we can to help and nurture this process.
Those of us who have not been affected directly by the disaster, who do not have close friends or family who have died, cannot begin to understand the depth of suffering which has followed the earthquake. All we can do is to offer our sympathy, and provide whatever help we can to those who have been directly affected. We have been given a stark reminder that we are all part of the same human family. We must not allow ourselves to forget that.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, U.K. E-mail him at: wpk1000@hotmail.com
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