Over the past few weeks we’ve been inundated with images on our television screens of such loss and heartache due to natural disasters and man-made mayhem that are difficult to comprehend.
For those of us fortunate enough to not live anywhere near a water source, a decision I came to many years ago after living in Queensland, we can only look on in horror at the devastation caused in these latest unprecedented floods in Queensland and New South Wales. The 2011 floods were supposed to be a one in one hundred year event, but here we are eleven years later and in an even worse situation than before. And that’s not counting the floods in between, smaller in size but equally as devastating to those in the thick of them.
The cycle of drought, fires and floods and the occasional cyclone has always been part and parcel of Australian existence, but their severity and increasing regularity must surely galvanise us into much more action than simply dealing with the emergencies as they occur. Mobilising and coordinating emergency response teams, military aid, and volunteers by the thousand is all well and good, and we have an admirable record in that regard, but at some point before it’s too late, someone has to do the hard work of planning how we move forward in terms of property development and environmental management if people and infrastructure are to survive the ravages of climate change.
And for those of us who live far from the conflict zone in Ukraine, we throw our arms up both in despair and prayer as a whole nation is routed and bombarded before our eyes. There may be many who do not particularly see eye to eye with our own Prime Minister, but at least he doesn’t rule with an iron fist in an atmosphere of terror and recrimination, where any semblance of opposition could well be your death sentence. We are truly fortunate to live in a country not bordered by another whose leader appears to have completely gone off the rails, even by his usual somewhat dubious standards. Where are his advisors? Does he have any, or does he simply surround himself with only those who will do his bidding?
As he sits at the end of those interminably long tables, distanced as far as possible from those he is supposedly engaging with, what is he thinking? Is he thinking at all, or is he just making it up as he goes along? There is obviously a strategy in there somewhere, but at the very outset, before even the first truckload of troops and weaponry were dispatched towards the Ukraine border, did anyone in the room ask “Why?” Did anyone dare to question such a directive and remind their leader that the rest of the world probably wasn’t going to simply stand by and look on with disinterest at such an aggressive move. I’d like to think someone raised their hand and offered an alternative solution, but somehow I doubt it.
It’s not often we find ourselves in critical situations beyond our control, and certainly not on the scale of what is occurring right now. To those on the front line who regularly put their own lives at risk to help others, all power to you. Mother Teresa said…
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
And that is what we’ve seen, both with this latest flood emergency, and with the growing number of Ukrainian refugees desperate to escape this unprovoked merciless onslaught. The magnitude of the crisis can paralyse us, and almost make us immune to the scale of human suffering we are witnessing. When we’re far from the problem one simple thing we can do is financially support those agencies on the ground that are doing the hard yards of rescuing, feeding, sheltering, relocating, protecting, giving medical assistance, cleaning up the aftermath.
Whether it be flood victims or refugees in a war zone, the response has been nothing short of amazing. Neighbours helping neighbours when the speed and intensity of the flood meant emergency response services were totally unprepared and overwhelmed, taking matters into their own hands in order that they hopefully all survive and live to tell the tale. Then there are the individuals who have come from right across Europe, volunteering time and resources as Ukrainians flee their homeland and cross into neighbouring countries, even going so far as to invite people back to live in their own homes in countries far from the conflict.
The physical scars in such disasters heal over time, but the mental ones take far longer. How do you address the enormity of the task ahead to help the healing process? The mind boggles at what has to happen in order for people to feel like they have their lives back, that what has been taken from them can somehow be restored.
In a world which battles with so much discord, it’s not hard to understand why people would want to crawl into a cave and live a hermit’s life, but I maintain my faith in God and our little planet and its people and their capacity to come together. There is still plenty of goodwill out there, we see evidence of it every single day. Being conscious of and caring for that one person who might be in need of a helping hand is always a good place to start. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, though one of those would certainly be very welcome at present in Ukraine.
