Thursday, December 01, 2005

Charity Fatigue



The past 12 months have been hell for all the countries around the world affected by natural disasters. I know I will leave some out but there was, the South Asian tsunami, earthquake in Kashmir and Iran, hurricanes in North and Central America, famine in West Africa, flooding in China... All these disasters have been too much for the affected country to cope with on their own (with the exception of the US) and so have relied on the kindness of donor nations to help them out. With each disaster competing with the next for media time, out of sight is effectively out of mind. This means charities are fighting a losing battle when the disaster they are collecting for leaves the headlines.

This morning on the BBC, they showed the situation in the country of Niger is dire. Whether it is lack of aid or the more serious problem of corruption, I am not sure. What I am sure of is that people are dying. Without reports such as this, we would never know. What worries me is how many other problems around the world are going unreported? It is a sobering thought. I can only hope that things get better for our fellow humans, everyone deserves a life without suffering.

San Nakji for President!

3 comments:

Deepa Bhasthi said...

i agree with you. one of the worst disasters to go totally unreported is the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. the atrocities are terrible but most people dont even know where darfur is!

Anonymous said...

There's two things that bother me about that picture:

1 - Why aren't we making sure people are fed in this world?

2 - Why are the people in that country getting pregnant in the first place? I understand that perhaps the people in this situation do not believe in abortion, which is fair enough... but why not just avoid getting pregnant so as to stop bringing children into the world only to starve?

San Nakji said...

The power of the media Deepa! Keep that in mind!

KS, Good question no.1 . Number two, having children is the most amzing thing there is, who knows what tomorrow will bring....