I am sitting in class watching a documentary about the earthquake in Haiti and my min is spinning. I must be crazy to want to do this work. The issues that come with relief and development work are infinite. Just in examining this particular disaster, the whole thing seems impossibly complicated.
It is difficult to imagine destruction and tragedy of this scale here in America. Until something like this happens, how can anyone wrap their head around it? How could you even begin to understand until you are standing in the middle of it? Even the devastation of Hurricane Katrina pales in comparison. It is difficult to imagine any disaster big enough to wipe out the resources and infrastructure of a country as large as the U.S. As States and regions experience catastrophic events, the impact is absorbed by the rest of the country. But, in the case of a small nation like Haiti, a single earthquake can wipe out an entire country - the government, hospitals, infrastructure, communications, existing aid agencies... everything gone. They are dependent on the international community, Additionally, you have in this situation a nation that was already devastated by poverty and political unrest. The U.S. is a fine specimen of modern architecture, retrofitted for seismic disruption, engineered to be strong and resilient, while Haiti is a crude building, built with sub-par material and no building code to adhere to. One can imagine the incredible difference in effect the same earthquake has on these two buildings. The same earthquake that damages the one, flattens the other (and every body inside).
Then there's the question of America's role in contributing to poverty - political decisions weakening small economies and governments. Then, when disaster strikes and people are suffering, the "villains" become the "heroes", desperately trying to flood a country with aid. What were we doing before the earthquake? Were we helping people then? Do our actions (or inactions) create a situation in which, during times of crisis, allow the consequences to be far greater than if we had made wiser choices in the past?
And now, how to go about really helping. Can we just go in and throw money and resources at an issue without looking forward to the potential consequences? How do you balance the heart to do good with the reality that in some cases humanitarian efforts can have negative effects as well? How do you help, in a way that is responsible? And as I'm considering all of these things from an academic standpoint - prioritizing needs, balancing acute care with long-term public health concerns, the challenge of working in a resource-limited situation, the issue of providing food for aid workers when the people they are trying to help go hungry, the disruption to existing systems when outside agencies and groups come in and impose their own systems, the problem of aid becoming a crutch and making a country dependent on it....... the list goes on and on - I know that I cannot ignore the call that I have to try to make a positive impact on the global level. I have been blessed with the mind, heart, and education to be a leader in my field, and the question is where to start.
If examining one event in one country is this overwhelmingly complex, how impossible do things look on a global scale? There are catastrophic situations going on all over the world at any moment and there doesn't ever seem to be the "right" answer in addressing them. So what small role am I going to play in this? What task has God set aside for me... what role have I been assigned in the greater plan?
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