Jackassalope

Compassion for those around you meets cruelty in pursuit of self preservation

"PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – The death toll in the Haiti quake has topped 200,000, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Wednesday as angry protests over the slow arrival of aid flared on the rubble-strewn streets."

I don't want to sound like I don't care. I'm just dismayed at how disasters bring out the best and worst of people.

I get it. Haiti has suffered a tragedy on a planetary scale. However, many countries are doing a great deal to help them as much as they can. It was a fractured region before the disaster, which doesn't make coming to the rescue any easier. The U.S. alone has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the relief effort, yet, all we hear about is how pissed off everyone is regarding the efforts.

You can only bring in so much aid when people are mobbing the streets in anger. They can be mad at their own government but blaming all of the other countries that are trying to help is ridiculous.

As a civil person, I think we should help those around us as much as we can. But it's not a governmental obligation. Don't loot everyone around you. Don't set fire to the streets. And don't get pissed off at the people who are trying to help.

I would never wish a disaster upon any nation, but I can't stand the mob mentality that takes over once one happens. It creates a collision between humanities best and worst attributes - Compassion for those around you and cruelty in pursuit of self preservation.