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Wednesday, January 05, 2005Carpy Diem?I've been reading all over the place about how aid to Tsunami victims isn't being distributed as fast as it might, how this or that agency should be doing better and especially about how the United States government just really should have fixed everything by now.Anyone been to the Post Office lately? Our efforts, and those of many nations, are good and noble and worthy. But they're all being executed by governments and government-like institutions. That are "personed" by government employees and the sort of people who become government employees. Not that there's anything wrong with that. These are methodical people who do their work according to established procedures that one hopes, not always in vain, are rooted in a mix of common sense and unconventional wisdom about things that are much easier if you're not the one doing them. The distribution of aid is going to take time. As will its collection. There will be snafus like Canada's creation of a great disaster relief setup whose only flaw is they lack the necessary aircraft to take it outside Canada. Or the U.N. efforts that have all the essential components except people actually working where the disaster is. But there will also be many noble efforts like those being mounted by the Red Cross, WorldVision and too many countries and organizations to count. In the midst will be found bad eggs - lousy aid providers and the occasional fraud. Such is life. And when clean water is again flowing - and sewers!, when hospitals again have power, and so on, there will be plenty of time to bicker about what should have been. For now, let us salute the folks who have made it there and are on the ground, helping out, and the ones who are on the way. The news, folks, is not that humanity is again running up against the limitations of only being human. The wonder is that thousands of people have set up shop thousands of miles from home to help complete strangers in their hour of need. And tens of thousands more have reached for their checkbooks to help finance the effort. That, I'd say, is good news. 
posted by gbarto at 2:26 AM |
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Day By Day© by Chris Muir.Old TurkeyBlog here.
