Wednesday, January 19, 2005
National Security and the Tsunami
So is America more or less secure since the Tsunami struck?
Yes, I too thought it was an absurd question. But a number of network TV, Cable TV and Radio talk shows brought up this question and got guests/panelists to analyze whether America had missed an opportunity to "mend fences" with a part of the world that it had to, well, mend fences with. Indonesia had recently become a hotbed or terrorism and some of the panelists put forth the view that the Indonesian portion of the promised $350 Million that would get to Aceh would help defuse some of the hatred towards the US. Others disagreed and declared that America had missed an opportunity to "win the hearts and minds in the Muslim world" by its initially small aid announcements that progressively got bigger.
If the neighbouring house or the one down the street burnt down and I ask myself how I would be affected in the long term if I helped the people in it and modulate my offer of help accordingly, what is so wrong with that? Surely, what matters is that I am helping out, right? And I might even turn out to be the highest or second highest donor when all is said and done. Surely, the people who live in the house will see that and appreciate my gesture. And besides how else could I make them my friends?
Plausible perhaps. Except, wasn't this about the people in the house? Since when did it become about me? And should I be keeping a balance sheet when starting out to make friends?
The likes of Larry King, Chris Mathews and even Diane Rehm were getting their guests to spar over this grotesque question issue on Prime Time TV and Radio. A few other people were busy in the mean time.
Like a 7th Grade Social Studies teacher who wrote to a friend of mine in Minnesota and asked him how her class could send hand made gifts they had made to show solidarity with children in Southern India.
Or take the case of a 12 year old in Colorado who went through his businessman Dad's Contact list and went on to raise $50K towards relief efforts by picking up the phone and calling all his Dad's friends and business contacts.
Last Sunday, Sunita and I ran into a gentleman who was easily in his 70's who stood vigil at the Randall's in Houston to sell cake pieces in exchange for a donation. And we've all read and heard about all those many employees of Corporate America who pressurized their companies enough to start matching programs to match their contributions, thus making them bigger.
This was a familiar story all across America and unprecedented levels of giving ensued. More than $500 Million has been raised by private donations. The many million people who helped raise that amount did not ask themselves whether they would be safer because of it or whether they would be better because of it or get something back for it in any form. This was compassion at its best - free of selfishness, greed or vested interests.
They gave because they wanted to reach out to a fellow human being in the time of need. It didn't matter that the human in question was on the other side of the earth. Today, there was a bond.
And America is already safer.
Yes, I too thought it was an absurd question. But a number of network TV, Cable TV and Radio talk shows brought up this question and got guests/panelists to analyze whether America had missed an opportunity to "mend fences" with a part of the world that it had to, well, mend fences with. Indonesia had recently become a hotbed or terrorism and some of the panelists put forth the view that the Indonesian portion of the promised $350 Million that would get to Aceh would help defuse some of the hatred towards the US. Others disagreed and declared that America had missed an opportunity to "win the hearts and minds in the Muslim world" by its initially small aid announcements that progressively got bigger.
If the neighbouring house or the one down the street burnt down and I ask myself how I would be affected in the long term if I helped the people in it and modulate my offer of help accordingly, what is so wrong with that? Surely, what matters is that I am helping out, right? And I might even turn out to be the highest or second highest donor when all is said and done. Surely, the people who live in the house will see that and appreciate my gesture. And besides how else could I make them my friends?
Plausible perhaps. Except, wasn't this about the people in the house? Since when did it become about me? And should I be keeping a balance sheet when starting out to make friends?
The likes of Larry King, Chris Mathews and even Diane Rehm were getting their guests to spar over this grotesque question issue on Prime Time TV and Radio. A few other people were busy in the mean time.
Like a 7th Grade Social Studies teacher who wrote to a friend of mine in Minnesota and asked him how her class could send hand made gifts they had made to show solidarity with children in Southern India.
Or take the case of a 12 year old in Colorado who went through his businessman Dad's Contact list and went on to raise $50K towards relief efforts by picking up the phone and calling all his Dad's friends and business contacts.
Last Sunday, Sunita and I ran into a gentleman who was easily in his 70's who stood vigil at the Randall's in Houston to sell cake pieces in exchange for a donation. And we've all read and heard about all those many employees of Corporate America who pressurized their companies enough to start matching programs to match their contributions, thus making them bigger.
This was a familiar story all across America and unprecedented levels of giving ensued. More than $500 Million has been raised by private donations. The many million people who helped raise that amount did not ask themselves whether they would be safer because of it or whether they would be better because of it or get something back for it in any form. This was compassion at its best - free of selfishness, greed or vested interests.
They gave because they wanted to reach out to a fellow human being in the time of need. It didn't matter that the human in question was on the other side of the earth. Today, there was a bond.
And America is already safer.
