Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. - Rabindranath Tagore
I moaned to myself, and to others, about the weather at the weekend. Dark, dreary wet and dull; definitely not a good way to have your weekend restricted.
However my moaning and groaning soon changed when I saw the story on the news where a cyclone killed more than 3,100 people in Bangladesh. For all my complaining about injustices in the Western world, and there are many, I count myself fortunate that I have never had to experience anything as shattering as such a tragedy.
Hundreds of hands go up to grab just one food packet. This is a mad rush but a tragic reality on the entire coastline ravaged by the cyclone.
A relief operator in the Patuakhali district of Bangladesh
I look at all of this and wonder how anyone of us could even comprehend dealing with 155mph winds that whip anything up to 16-foot tidal surges? How, the rations are so poor, that thousands scramble for a simple morsel of food for either themselves or there families? How millions cannot be reached by rescue workers and because of this the worst is presumably feared.
There are many things we cannot explain and many have tried to since the dawn of time. Many will look to believe in someone or something to help them through it, some may even say it is meant to happen and therefore God’s will. Who knows?
What I do know is that there are things that can be done to prevent tragedies like poverty and crime but I’m not sure what we can do for something that Mother Nature seems to be creating all by herself.
Are we in the middle of another change of the Earth? When we talk about global warming helping the environment and inconvenient truth’s are we really determined to do something because we know, deep down, that there is little we can actually do?
Yes we can stop the various emissions that are meant to be harmful but is it not more of a case that this change is happening no matter what we try and do to prevent it? There have been many ages and it’s quite possibly we are seeing one first hand.
We can send money, and hope that people who genuinely need it can be helped and that life in Bangladesh can be restored to what it once was, but some will say it is not good enough.
To tell you the truth I do not know what the answer really is. All I can say is that my heart goes out to those who are struggling and fighting for their lives in areas such as this.
Let’s hope there will never be another incident like this again; I say the same thing about war and I would love it if it my wish became more then just a hope.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.
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