Top 5: Things To Think About After Katrina

Most people probably still don’t care (physically, emotionally and politically) about the disaster that is now New Orleans and Louisiana (or have probably tried to move on as best one can), and if so, those same people probably haven’t even heard of the recent place crash in Indonesia that killed 148 people. Let’s face it, as horrible as events like these are, these events must happen if there is any hope of uniting the world. Common political events like both World Wars and more realistic events like natural disasters ooze with the potential to bring all nationalities, races and sexes together and try to form a more peaceful world a la Star Trek. Small steps won’t go noticed in the grand scheme of Capitalism (which is why no one ever no-tices anything done by the United Nations), so big steps are needed to help wake the world up to the reality that the human race will only survive if we work together.

I wanted to come up with a list of the ideas that I think come out of Katrina – possible blame, possible personality traits that contribute to bad things happening. Many of these don’t include having Bush or a Republican as president; it’s a little more complex than that.

1. Ignorance – Most of you have probably noticed that many natural disasters have oc-curred relatively recently. Some may claim that global warming is the chief culprit, and to a point it is a very logical assessment. However, as unpredictable as nature seems to be, we have come a long way to being able to see nature’s pattern and routine. Statisti-cally, we can look at the frequency at which natural events occur, and to some degree of success predict when the next one will occur.

Events like earthquakes and hurricanes do happen, but can we prevent them? No, and we probably never will. The only way to protect our selves from natural disasters is preparation, not prevention. If we know that disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes will occur, being prepared for them is the best way to handle them. There is only so much you can blame the government for what has happened in Louisiana. The fact of the mat-ter is that many people had no idea how dangerous hurricanes could be to that region (not to mention the real risk of having most of the region below sea level). That’s really no one’s fault but their own. It’s like living in California and not knowing the risk of earth-quakes or living in New York and not knowing the risk of muggings.

2. Selfishness – The truth is that most people, if not all, are selfish. That belief is reason enough to think that there will not be a happy ending. You can’t expect people to do the right thing when the only worry they have is for them.

3. Greed, Telethons and crap like Live 8 – I might too pessimistic in believing that most people care very little about their fellow man. But when I hear stories that up to 90% of the money that was raised for the Tsunami fund never reached most of the peo-ple that needed it, it kills me.

I have to admit that some people do generally care, and sometimes the only realistic way to help is to donate money. The Red Cross is a very decent organization whose sole purpose is to help those less fortunate. With the devastation that Hurricane Katrina left, many countries have offered to help. The problem with this is that, for political reasons, most of the money and aid will only (if we’re lucky) help those affected by Katrina. These events are still rare, and a one-time gift of money to victims of Katrina isn’t going to help the millions of starving people in Africa or the billions of people living in poverty around the world. People look at donating ten dollars to the Red Cross during a telethon and give themselves a pat on the back. Sure, every dollar helps, but these events ignore the constant year-round need for aid to the hundreds of homeless shelters in the country, the thousands of dis-placed people that lose their homes to fires or to small welfare programs like Meals On Wheels.

4. Time – It’s probably our time to go, and there might not be any way to stop the inevi-table. Humans have always tried to beat the clock and look for that miracle drug to stop aging. Who doesn’t want to live forever? Immortality is mighty tempting. But when you look at the alarming statistic that the Earth is overdue for a doomsday asteroid to hit, we might just be living on borrowed time. My only suggestion is to research the various ideas and beliefs in the afterlife.

5. God – God is angry and there’s no stopping Him.

Anything else come to mind after Katrina, and now Rita?