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"Don't ever lose faith in who you are, for that's what makes you different.
Don't try to turn yourself into someone everyone else is, for if that happens, the world is a poorer place."
- Sept 2005

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January vier, zwei tausend und funf, Dienstag,

Sehr regnerisch. Ich ging uhrfussball. Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspurs. Null – Null.

Ich ging hinastadt einkaufen. Ich kaufe reis und sossen. Sehr schwer.

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Potentially controversial post. Not suitable for everyone.

Aid.

In the wake of the tsunami crisis in South Asia, I wake up every afternoon (yes I wake up in the afternoons) to a barrage of newspaper reports asking for money, donations, and pictures of stricken children. Let it not be mistaken. I am not a heartless person, but this entire episode set me thinking. And here are my thoughts.

When I first heard of the tsunamis, my first reaction was that of indifference. After all, I am in London and far away from the tsunamis. But after a while, I realized, hmm, could any of my friends be there? Highly possible, so I kept watch on my msn panel. All accounted for, in one way or another. Then I thought, geographical case study? Perhaps. My vested interest in the subject of geography remains. If only people knew more about geography. Read about the 11 year old British girl who evacuated an entire beach in Phuket, because her teacher had taught them about tsunamis. Then after that, as the media frenzy heightened, it slowly became irritating.

Firstly, here come the repeated appeals of aid. Yes yes, I know everyone needs aid. Let’s not talk about the people who couldn’t escape the tsunamis, Bless their souls, but now the issue is how to help the survivors. But let’s see, people are dying because the rescuers can’t cope with the number of wounded. That, as I understand it, is the main problem. So shouldn’t some focus be to administer proper medical care to these people? It appears logical. So how do we go about it? What is happening now is they’re throwing out medicines to the common folk and asking them to administer it themselves.

Can they build hundreds of hospitals in a day? Or a couple of weeks? No, I don’t think so. So where does that 1 billion odd in aid go to? Food for the people? So now you’re buying stuff like rice to distribute. Note. BUYING? Probably at some exorbitant price. Spending money to try to clear the flooded areas. From the television pictures, it looks impossible. I did think. Why not just do a landfill? Bury everything? Seems to be a logical solution, and one that can be carried out much faster than clearing up the affected lands. if the money goes to that. Then perhaps it makes sense.

Some people may argue that we should do all we can to help those people. But what’s in it? Are the people going to be grateful and appreciative? I don’t doubt that those affected would be appreciative, but what other consequences would it lead to? Are the Tamil Tigers going to stop killing innocent people like the much-insulted and dammed tsunami did? Are the people of the Free Aceh movement going to spare the lives of an innocent soldier trying to suppress them? Are the muslim radicals going to recognize the millions and billions of dollars in aid and kind the western world, (and Japan) have donated to help people of their cause? Does it mean the end of fears of terrorism because the global efforts to help their Brothers in Allah?

My answer is a big fat no.

Why did I go into this, because I am starting to think, governments are giving aid because it seems imperative they do so. Is it truly humanitarian in nature? I really doubt so.

Did we see such an outpouring of aid during the Kobe earthquake? Or the Turkish one? Nope.

Now begs another question. Do they deserve it?

In the military, we commit an offence and we get charged and court-martialed. In civilian life we break a rule we are not aware of, or even blatantly break a rule we know of, get charged in a court of law and go to jail. People will then say, hey, we deserve it. Now, in the same frame of mind, think about it in this way. The countries affected by the earthquake / tsunami did not have warning systems in place, and now they are paying the price with human life. Isn’t it a lesson learnt as well? And why do we shun convicts and do what we can to help these wailing governments?

It’s pointless sometimes. Like the NKF. Every year they stage an elaborate charity show and screen some pitiful child or elderly folk with tearjerking stories, and people phone in relentlessly. Now, do the public sorta realize that more than half of these people depend on dialysis / NKF because of their excessive intake of sugar when they were healthier? The NKF does not only serve those with birth defects. For those with birth defects, I’m willing to donate and do what I can. But not for those who practically eat cubes of sugar.

Let’s talk about the African continent. We have hundreds of UN aid programmes there. Hundreds and millions of dollars worth of aid go to the African continent yearly. Now let’s see. There’s this King Mswati of Botswana I think. He has about 10 wives ( I swear I’ve seen reports of him getting married almost every year) and he just bought a Maybach (luxury car manufactured by Diamler Benz), and would have bought an airplane if the commonfolk had not protested. And Botswana is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an embarrassing GDP. Three quarters of the population live below the poverty line and the other quarter hover slightly above it. And here we have a horny King living a life of luxuries.

We talk about caring for all those people and babies with AIDS and stuff. But what is going to happen? These people, without knowing they have AIDS, or horror, knowing they have AIDS, go round fucking everyone, and in the end everyone gets the AIDS virus. Short of sterilizing everyone, it’s going to be a continuing epidemic. It’s beyond hope. For all sense of rationality, why pursue lost causes?

You know what should be done? Maybe pick out 100 babies from each African country, and carefully screen them for any funny disease or what not, then ship them off to somewhere, maybe the UK/US or Singapore, and give them a proper education. Send them back to their country from time to time to keep their roots there, and upon completing their education, send them back into the countries and put them in positions of power. Then maybe with properly educated people at the helm, rather than horny bastards or power-hungry warlocks, there will be some hope for that continent.

Economically speaking, it’s simply no longer viable to keep giving aid. It is an outflow of GDP. GDP which can be used to develop one’s country, one’s land. People talk about the rich/poor divide. I think of it as reaping what we sow.

As the common saying goes. Do you keep cooking for someone or is it better to teach someone how to cook?

kelvin was inspired at 3:20 AM