FLOOD POINT OF ORDER: Get Involved or Out of The Way In the wake of the floods that have left dozens of Malawians dead, scores missing, and tens of thousands misplaced, it has become trendy to point fingers at the affected people by saying that they have themselves to blame for deforesting the country, depleting the river banks, and stripping the soil of its natural protections from erosion and flooding. In my view, these kinds of sentiments, though well-intended and knowledge-based, could not be more ill-timed. At this critical hour when people are destitute, stranded, and coming to terms with the loss of infants, relations, homes, and crops washed away by the floods, these kinds of statements are the equivalent of seeing a man get run over by a truck in the middle of the road and immediately responding by saying, thats what you get for jaywalking! Nobody likes an I-Knew-This-Would-Happen attitude, for often all it accomplishes is distancing ourselves from those who are suffering and whose first real need is a lifeline, not a lecture. And no group of people should understand this better than the Christians, for they claim that Gods primary response to human sin, suffering, and death has always involved getting off his high-horse to enter the pain of sinners as one of them, not riding that high-horse over the pain of sinners as one who has no share of the blame. If this countrys natural resources have been depleted irresponsibility, it has not been done solely by them, whoever they are. We all share the blame for the damage done to the countrys natural resources, some by cutting down trees, some by turning a blind eye when others do, some by using things made from materials acquired through deforestation, some by complaining to the wrong entities and through the wrong channels, and some by using convenient technologies that destroy the environment in more subtle ways than an axe. Were in this together, and right now we must be together in acts of compassion so that later we can be together in rehabilitating ourselves to healthier ways of living. Having said that, to suggest presently that this disaster would not have devastated lives if we had just all been planting trees not only smacks of insensitivity, but also ignorance and exaggeration of the facts. The reality is, even if the soil had been in great shape (which it wasnt), and even if we had been planting more trees than we fell (which we hadnt), receiving a months worth of rain within 24 hours as exacerbated by the effects of a cyclone off the coast of Madagascar would still have caused serious damage. There is simply no full-proof formula for preventing every form of natural disaster on this planet. The conditions are much worse on every other planet we know of. That means we should be good stewards of what weve been given, but it also means that when we havent been good stewards and suffer the consequences, our first response should be to get into the ditches and fox holes to get people out, not look down the mouth of the hole and say I told you so. #EndOfRantAndStartOfNewArgument #OperationWarmHeart
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 10:28:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015