Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Haiti Musings: Man is small in front of Nature

The recent calamity in Haiti and the aftermath makes one wonder about the best and worst of mankind that shows up at times of crisis. The good part is that most of the energy in emergency management, especially from western governments was galvanized to support victims in Haiti. However, the lawlessness boiling over seems to be bringing out the ugly side of some humans who look to benefit from a crisis.

The crisis also makes one wonder about other past ‘acts of god’and how societies and governments in the east and west respond to them:

* Tsunami in South Asia
* Hurricane Katrina devastating
* Cyclones in Bangladesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa
* Floods in Gangetic plains
* Famines and drought due to monsoon failures

Bottomline: Even in a flattening world, with all the technology and global communication at our disposal, man is pretty small in front of the fury of nature.

The techie in me is intrigued by the ‘Tweeting’ fad. Obama’s first ever tweet happens to be on Haiti quake. Wonder if Obama’s administration seems to be going back to a tested strategy to revive Brand Obama using the internet. They were already quite hi-tech in using technology to reach out to Grassroots of Anytown America, bringing out the best of Obama during his presidential campaign a couple of years ago too!

No comments:

Post a Comment