Four natural catastrophes have touched our hearts theselast years: the tsunami hitting the coastlines of the Indian Ocean; thehurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, USA; the cyclone hitting\u00a0Myanmar; and the earthquake hitting Sichuan in China.\u00a0 All four clearcases of natural violence, nature’s violence, against us, humanbeings.\u00a0 Of course, we sometimes attribute intent to Nature as revengefor our crimes against her.\u00a0 Or, beyond that, some intelligent design,some god out to punish us for our sins against His commandments.\u00a0 Or,even designed by The Evil Himself with Nature as His chosen tool.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may.\u00a0 I feel like mediating, dialoguing with Nature, as usual searching for a solution:<\/p>\n
JG: Nature, what you have done lately is unacceptable.\u00a0 But what was onyour mind, what went on inside you?<\/p>\n
Nature: Nothing particular.\u00a0 Like women I have my rhythms. Maybemoods.\u00a0 A US president once said, Let Poland be Poland.\u00a0 How aboutletting Nature be Nature?\u00a0 Take me for what I am.<\/p>\n
JG: But there is so much suffering in the wake of your rhythms as youcall it, so much death.\u00a0 How about some moderation?<\/p>\n
Nature: Wait a little!\u00a0 My rhythms are well known; you call yourknowledge of me “laws of nature”. I feel bound by them.<\/p>\n
JG: So many poor innocent people die when you go wild!<\/p>\n
Nature: Listen, I am also studying you. “Laws of humans” I call it.\u00a0One law is this: the more in my way, the poorer the humans, and themore shaky their habitats.\u00a0 Do you have to put your poorest people andworst built houses in my driveways?<\/p>\n
JG: Touch\u00e9.\u00a0 But, less fundamentalism, more moderation?<\/p>\n
Nature: When you are drilling, pumping, excavating, exhausting me?\u00a0Incessantly?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Change your ways and mine will change.<\/p>\n
JG: The Laws of Nature seem to be non-negotiable.\u00a0 But so do the lawsof Humans, making Nature’s violence ride piggy-back on human structuralviolence.\u00a0 We sacrifice poor people to Nature’s whims.\u00a0 Not Satan, wehumans use Nature as our tools.<\/p>\n
Catastrophes strike, poor people are sacrificed. And then what do wedo?\u00a0 We come to the rescue of course, aid, even across borders when thecatastrophe is beyond some magnitude.\u00a0 And then an interesting drama isunfolding: from the human duty to help to the human right to help. Fromoffer to demand.<\/p>\n
So the US government refused Cuban physicians entry to help out in theNew Orleans disaster, and Myanmar’s rulers did the same for muchWestern aid – but not for Thai, nor Indian, it seems.\u00a0 Whereas allalong the Indian Ocean coast-line all countries were welcomed.\u00a0 Like byChina after the earthquake.<\/p>\n
Of course to Washington Cuba, often called “Castro”, is an enemy.\u00a0Maybe the West is the same for the junta ruling Myanmar?\u00a0 The West hasonly bad things to say about them, no word for their ability to keepthe country together.\u00a0 By brutal means, but not more so than whatWashington applies around the world, and in Burmese hands, meaningjunta hands.\u00a0 Maybe neither Washington nor Myanmar want their enemiesto see them with their pants down, humiliated by Nature?\u00a0 Maybe thatcuts across the democracy-dictatorship divide?\u00a0 Maybe they are equallyconvinced, and probably rightly so, that whatever teams come will beheavily stoked with spies and other agents?<\/p>\n
But China was hit at a high point of heavy critique from all quartersfor their suppression of the Tibetan people; and yet provided entry fortheir critics.\u00a0 From the Indian Ocean area this was not a majorproblem.\u00a0 Aid flowed freely.\u00a0 But not inside Sri Lanka; not fromColombo to the Tiger areas.<\/p>\n
Good arguments can be adduced in favor of the Beijing and against theWashington and Junta line.\u00a0 Humanity badly needs occasions todepolarize, to let down mental and structural barriers, to let humansbe human.\u00a0 One such occasion is often made use of: a statesman passesaway, mourners fly in from all corners of the world, there areencounters, or at least speculations thereof, in death’s shadows.\u00a0Something is above our petty divides in our untidy human landscapes.\u00a0Our finite existence may make us smaller than our divides.\u00a0 Deathunites.<\/p>\n
So do catastrophes, in principle.\u00a0 You may not love those who stretchout a helping hand, and you may rightly assume that there is somethingelse in the hand hidden behind their back.\u00a0 And yet, receive aid.\u00a0 Playthe game of Nature unites, and by playing that let the game come true.\u00a0Give the Cubans a chance to show their amazing skills.\u00a0 Give the West achance, they also have much to offer even if more material than human.<\/p>\n
And then, maybe a miracle could happen?\u00a0 That all those teams,struggling to extract the live, the semi-alive and the dead from thedebris, may start reflecting on why most victims are so poor?\u00a0 Poorlyhoused, indeed, poorly clad, underfed.\u00a0 Maybe Nature is right in herstudy of the Law of Humans?\u00a0 Maybe that could lead to some reflectionon why poor fishermen are over-represented, or pupils in a badly madeschool?\u00a0 And maybe one day, miracles above miracles, the common factormay dawn upon them all, some kind of Structure unites?<\/p>\n
A catastrophe is, indeed, a calamity.\u00a0 But it also spells opportunity,like a famous Chinese character.\u00a0 So do receive aid, do admit you needit, celebrate what unites: death and human suffering, an overpoweringNature and–at times–how unjustly we humans have distributed the risksin Nature’s way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four natural catastrophes have touched our hearts theselast years: the tsunami hitting the coastlines of the Indian Ocean; thehurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, USA; the cyclone hitting\u00a0Myanmar; and the earthquake hitting Sichuan in China.\u00a0 All four clearcases of natural violence, nature’s violence, against us, humanbeings.\u00a0 Of course, we sometimes attribute intent to Nature as revengefor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}