Haiti and After

Going through accounts about how the earthquake brought down the already poor nation Haiti to the ground, I felt a sense of dismay at what the world has made of this poor nation. If Haiti had been branded as “one of the poorest nations” in the world, then who could be held responsible. If there are over 200,000 people have been killed alive within minutes of the earthquake, everyone on earth is responsible for their lives. It is true that the government was literally defunct, and there were no social structures which were working, and to add fuel to the fire, the natural calamity. I was saddened as I read The Tablet cover story on the aftermath of the quake in Haiti.

The international community rushed in aid and personnel to help the people of Haiti to recover from the loss of lives, of all that they had earned for years, but if one per cent of the population had been enjoying 50 per cent of the national wealth, who is responsible? You and me! We are no longer citizens of our own little worlds; the boundaries of our worlds had been broadened by the advent of modern technology. Within a few minutes after any major calamity in any part of the world, we are able to see the victims and hear the cries, as if they were our next door neighbors. It is the speed of communication to transmit information, which has made our world a global village.

One of the greatest obstacles to justice and equality in the world is the stubbornness of the developed countries, alias the First World, to open the floodgates of their wealth to reach the deserving populations of the world. We now know that the excessive wealth of the developed nations does not belong to them, and if they are honest, they would acknowledge that the wealth was ill-gotten. Doing charity or dolling out a pittance is not going to help the poorer nations to come to the level of self-sustenance; what they require is not charity, but sharing on equal terms. The wealthy nations may feel superior to come to the aid of the poor nations; but it is their responsibility to do so.

It is not at all impossible for the United States to commit itself to rebuild the ravished Haiti, and they have all the resources and technology to do so, and the international community would welcome the US if it had come up with such a stand. But unfortunately there would be too few takers for such bold steps, and they would find a hundred and one reasons why they should never do such a thing. The international community is helping Haiti to come to terms with it, to rebuild their houses from the scratch, and deep down no one can remove the constant fear lurking deep within them, if nature would show her wild face again.

But there is a saving grace; the major natural calamities have brought the nations to come together to rub shoulders, to put their heads together to find amicable solutions. Tsunami was one such moment, and today it is Haiti’s earthquake, and that is not the end. Even as we rebuild Haiti, we know something more drastic may take place soon, and the world has to be prepared to face it. If the rich nations are able to feel deep down their bones that the men and women suffering across the borders are their own brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, then there will not be a need to dole out a pittance as charity to help them, they would keep their doors wide open for the poor to enter in, and make it a better place to live in!

Beauty and Beast

Today the Indian subcontinent witnessed one of the most spectacular diamond rings in the sky, when the annular solar eclipse was sighted from the Southern most tip of the country, and there were a lot of people flocking to Dhanushkodi and to Kanyakumari! One may still remember that these are the very places which had witnessed some years ago one of the worst onslaughts of tsunami! The spectacular show has come as a consoling factor to the tsunami ravaged coastal region of Tamil Nadu, which is still to rise from the harvest festival Pongal slumber. So the wonderful celestial sight was a feast to the star-gazers, if not the coastal fisherfolks, for whom the eclipse was nothing more than a sophistication of a natural event.

But day before yesterday nature showed its ferocious face in Haiti, when an earthquake devoured over 50,000 men and women. Seven richter scale is nothing so low to bring down buildings, and there were people who were buried under the debris, and never to see the light of day. There are more and more natural calamities over which the human beings have too little control. Nature however had its own mechanism to avert major calamities which would cost the earth dearly; but the human intervention has undone these mechanism, to such an extent that it is hard for nature not to be stern. And when nature is hard, the first casualty is the human persons en masse!

If the earthquake has shaken Haiti day before yesterday, our turn may come any time; we are called to be prepared to face the tune of the angry earth. The human race which had mercilessly killed nature’s sap, are to replace them with their own blood, and yet it is doubtful if the earth would tally the accounts and start life anew! But one of the most nagging questions which disturb many of the underdeveloped or developing nations is, why they be held responsible for the destruction of the earth and her resources by the developed nations? Who are the people who have plundered the earth’s resources and filled their pockets? Is it not unfair to make the innocent people held responsible for what they do not know?

The irony of earth’s divine sport is that on the one hand she reveals herself as one of the most charming, beautiful of all created things; and on the other side is her ferocious side! Beauty and beast seem to co-exist, and who else but Lord William Blake can try to reconcile these contradictions. Without contraries is no progression, Blake was to have told, and that is why he brought in Lamb and Tyger (Blake’s spelling), representing innocence and experience. True, the humanity was innocent some centuries ago, and today the experienced men and women would only find ways of exterminating any beauty still left on earth, and it is proper that we see the beastly face of earth!

Humanity is all in praise for the wonders of the earth, and they will make melodies to sing her praises, so long the charm is still there, and she shows her beautiful face, spilling innocence. Humanity is frightened of the other side of the earth, the angry planet, ready to teach humanity a fitting lesson, so that they do not play with fire, which can devour all that is, and is yet to be! As we admire the most spectacular diamond ring of the century, let us not forget the hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti, who are fighting with their lives for no fault of their own, and bring them to our consciousness, so that their cry, pain and anguish may heal our greed and selfishness, so that we may in turn heal the wounds of the earth!