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Insurmountable Agony
By Scott Straley
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
In story after the story the news becomes numbing. On Saturday, a powerful cyclone, the same things we call hurricanes here, slammed into Myanmar. A friend of mine, who works for a Burmese refuge relief program, quickly had to switch focus as they desperately tried to get aid into the beleaguered and paranoid country. Monday, he got an email from aid workers in the region. Attached were photos of swaths of debris strewn with bodies and rivers filled with corpses — mostly children.
Around that time the news of the devastation in China became evident as a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Sichuan Province of China. With the death toll from the Myanmar Cyclone topping 100,000 and over 13,000 killed in China, the numbers become almost meaningless. Then, we were assaulted by images of collapsed schools and pleading parents. In a middle school in Juyuan, nearly all of its 900 students were killed. In nearby Beichuan, a high school collapsed burying and killing most of its 1,000 students and teachers. In Hanwang, two schools collapsed, burying 200 more students.
And, with each passing hour, the death toll rises, and we become more and more numb to the news. We worry about primary elections in West Virginia and Barry Bond's 15-count indictment, and which David will be the next American Idol. Missing is the outpouring of sympathy like after the 2004 Tsunami that claimed over 300,000 lives. We've grown numb. With 6 billion people in the world, we seem to care less and less.
Maybe, it's not apathy, but just insurmountable agony to think about the loss, to conceptualize it and feel powerless. After all, what can we do?
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Scott Straley is the founder of RIMOFTHEWORLD.net. As part of the RIMOFTHEWORLD.net team, he is dedicated to keeping our community informed and engaged.The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of RIMOFTHEWORLD.net. This column is copyrighted by Scott Straley.
