I am reminded of Shoghi Effendi's comment in The Promised Day is Come, "This great and mighty wind of God invading the fairest and remotest regions of the Earth." However, I've posted about that before.
In New Orleans people are dieing, going hungry, and thousands are displaced. Each and every one of them a unique human with an individual soul. Families have been seperated children from parents, wives from husbands. Those who are suffering the worst are the poor who don't have the means to escape easily. A poorly organized rescue and aid effort is floundering around embarrassing any perceptions of governmental efficacy. New Orleans is a tragedy.
I am curious is there a significantly larger number of people suffering in the world today than there were two weeks ago? Only if we function by traditional neo-imperialistic standards and count Americans as one hundred brown people living on another continent. The tsunami, the hurricane, the earthquake in Bam when I was in Gambia, these are all tragic events yes. However, they are Hollywood tragedies. Captured by the popular media, dwelt upon because they are good for ratings, because they evoke the common sympathies of the general public. We watch, captivated, as the world, or parts of it, are destroyed by an unrelenting outside force.
We must remember that the suffering of these individuals, however, is due to impersonal forces. The world is not self-destructive, hateful, and spiritually sick because of impersonal forces of nature. What is far more relevant are personal hurricanes. From my perspective, and I think that maman and Abdu'l'baha agree with me, just like spoiled children, Americans could do with a little accustoming to hardship, it will make them better for it.
What is far more relevant is the torrent that kills more each day, maims, and spiritually destroys humanity. It is silent, it is pervasive, and it is the most lethal force in world. Hatred, which breeds contempt, murder, rape, beatings, alienations, ostracization. Hurricane Katrina is a spit in the ocean of human suffering. Ask me to shed a tear for the victims of a hurricane and I will ask you to bleed to death for humanity's sins against itself. That is our obligation as Baha'is.
A hurricane we can do nothing about but ameliorate the after effects. The atrocities of people we can take action against. However, it is more pleasant to sympathize with those in the path of a storm because when responsibility is attributed it cannot be the victim's. Blame is easily placed squarely on something that is not human. But to lift the finger to accuse the oppressor is much harder. It is a challenge to realize that both the murderer and murdered are individuals with individual souls. It is much more difficult to forgive someone who has molested their own children and to focus on healing both the victim and the victimizer. No hurricane ever did to humanity what humanity has done to itself.
I'm sad that the chief victims of Katrina are those who have been suffering from the wrongs of an unjust and prejudiced society. To them, my heart goes out.
Posted by Mendon at September 5, 2005 8:11 AMThe hurricane is intricately wedded to the very destruction you are describing, as you yourself explain.
But your disdain for Americans, although I understand where it is coming from and sympathize, well, I don't think it is constructive.
I recognize that the destruction we are seeing "because of impersonal forces of nature" (that'd be God's creation), is not what has caused the ongoing suffering of the people in the Gulf Coast.
Posted by: Mara at September 5, 2005 11:41 AMIsn't there enough blame floating around? Do we really need to blame, to hold responsible? It is only constructive in the light of finding the source of the problem and then to fix it, as an engineer would do. We joke about engineers having no emotions (and remember, I come from a family of engineers), but there are times when dispassionate analysis is much more productive.
Posted by: ma at September 6, 2005 8:32 AM