bk_Germany
@drkw.com
| Re: Where is the National responce -> Global Help Compassion from "liberal Western Europeans" as well as the willingness to help is there. Many over here follow closely and with compassion what's happening in the U.S. Believers are praying, atheists don't, but everybody wants this nightmare to end soon.
As for practical help: Germany has offered boats, blankets, electricity generators, ... but all of that was turned down. Likewise the German sections of the Red Cross were not contacted by the American Red Cross for help.
Why? I think (and hope) that it isn't because of a sick sense of pride, but because the people in charge realize that the U.S. is not a 3rd world country. So the need for help here in the U.S. is different from other situations when disasters strike in poorer countries.
For that same reason India turned down help after the Tsunami. Many mistook that as India trying to prove that they are better than the rest of the affected countries. But their prime minister just did his part to make sure that international efforts are distributed in the best manner. And compared to others India was strong enough to help itself. India would have been better off accepting international help. But they saw that others needed this help even more.
To put this into perspective: Thousands are near death today in Africa of hunger and thirst and malaria and AIDS and they need more but have less help, although a continuous effort of Europeans, North and South Americans, Asians, Australians and yes, Africans, too, is made, directed by the UN, the Red Cross and so many others.
Once more: The world isn't blind when people in the U.S. suffer. We see the pain and get angry in our helplessness when we hear that looters shoot at rescue personnel.
Unfortunately, however, the frequent blindness (as in this case) of the U.S. sometimes does make people abroad suffer, emotionally and physically. Trying to abuse this disaster to build an image of the good U.S. and the bad rest of the world doesn't help. |
