Welcome to my cosy little attic. I hope you feel at home. Feel free to navigate. I hope my insanity is catching. Comments are more than welcome.
What's Up (so don't ask)
30/10/04 The Dude left us - RIP
15/03/05 I turn 18... start counting my grey hairs
16/05/05 Last Exam. Forever, I hope.
21/05/05 Jack Johnson Concert - KickAss
25/05/05 I graduate... maybe
07/06/05 Kaz turns 18. About time bro.
I know that for most, the issue I'm delving back into is long erased from memory. After all, in a modern world where attention spans are measured in nanoseconds, nobody can be expected to keep death and destruction on their minds for too long. What I'm getting at is that I'm about to make my last statements on the whole tsunami thing.
You may remember (or not) what my immediate reaction was:
"It's a shitload of people.
It's a shitload of shit.
It's gonne be a shitload more if we don't help.
And they need a shitload of help."
I mentioned the innumerable death toll, and my disgust that not enough was being done. I was shocked by it all, but as time brings clarity, I have some new thoughts. Don't think me heartless by anything I say, and although you may not agree, hear me out.
The tsunami relief has been impressive. So many nations and individuals have raised an enormous amount of money. Just in our school, a cheque of nearly 9000 euros was handed over to a UNICEF representative last week. The US raised their contributions from $15 million, to $35 million, then to $350 million, and if it's raised, I don't know. I lost track. I even remember hearing that Thai authorities were asking that donations be slowed, because they didn't know what to do with it all. The death toll has reached an estimated 310,000, which is incredible because pessimistic estimates earlier on were worrying about it reaching 100,000.
310,000... what an enormous number. I won't go into trying to fathom it, because it's impossible. What other single cause killed so many people last year?
Here's one. It's death toll for 2004 is estimated between 2.8 and 3.5 million people. It has never received the kind of immediate help that the tsunami disaster has. It's name is HIV/AIDS. It's not the only international long, long term ailment, but for reasons I'm not going to discuss it's my comparison of choice.
While the UN can comment, only two weeks after the incident, that "This has never ever happened before, that two weeks after a disaster that we have $717 million that we can spend on the immediate emergency effort", at the XIII International AIDS Conference Nelson Mandela could only say the painful truth: "A tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa."At the same conference, the White House AIDS policy director added, "With no vaccine and no cure in sight, we stand to see hundreds of millions of people lose their lives to AIDS before we're able to turn this pandemic around."
So true. I guess all we can do is wait for the US to donate $350 million to that pandemic.
What really ticks me off is not that the tsunami relief is getting so much more than any other desperate cause, but what that shows about people today. Unless they can see images on CNN enery hour of the day, they don't care. Although it's awful that 310,000 people died on and because of that fateful day, it's even more awful that since 1981, over 20 million people have died, never recieving the kind of help that was so desperately required. The $350 million donated by the US was a political move. If it wasn't, they would be doing the same for other places. They don't care.
What I'd said in my first post about how those dead in from the tsunami will be forgotten forever, no plaque on a wall commerating them on any disaster site, still holds true. Everyone's gone. We'll never know exactly how many died.
Those poor souls who died of AIDS also have no plaques remembering their names. Can you imagine a wall high and long enough to write down every single of the twenty-plus million people who've already died? The worst thing is, that wall would not ever finish. With 3.1 million names to add each year, it would be the most depressing and fastest growing memorial site in the world. What I hate most about HIV/AIDS is that often the infected are victims before they die. Even in what we call a civilised world, the amount of prejudice against "the gay plague" is staggering. Often they're left alone to die.
I therefor hope that one day people around the world will realise what a tragedy HIV/AIDS is. We need to do more about it, because although it can't be cured, it's transmission can easily be stopped. That's the only possible solution these days. The spread needs to be slowed before there's nobody left to treat the sick.
I can't possibly claim to have a better grasp of the issue than Nelson Mandela, so I'll let him end this post.
"In the face of the grave threat posed by HIV/AIDS, we have to rise above our differences and combine our efforts to save our people. History will judge us harshly if we fail to do so now, and right now."
for this post, I used the following sources: U.N. secures $700m for tsunami aid http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/11/asia.tsunami/index.html World HIV & AIDS Statistics http://www.avert.org/worldstats.htm 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_Earthquake Mandela: Urgent AIDS action needed http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/07/16/us.aids/index.html AIDS conference ends on note of dedication, hope http://edition.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/AIDS/07/14/aids.wrap/index.html and more, which I no longer can name
The truth? Not enough. Whenever I can, I spread the word, and whenever asked, I donate whatever money I can. It's the only charity that I give to without fail. Hopefull one day, I'll have enough power and money to actually help. Thanks for the question, though.
Geert, I couldn't agree with you more. Extremly well said, hopefully the figures and the horror of both tragedies (Aids and the tsunami) will get through to people soon, and some more very genorous donations will come pouring in... Jessica
