The catastrophe in Haiti reminds us just how small our world has become. Information on the earthquake, the destruction, the aftermath, the rescue efforts, and the humanitarian crisis have splashed across our newspapers and Web sites, television and the Internet, with the immediacy of an event happening just around the block.
Americans and the world in this technological media age have become accustomed to instant images. We are terribly familiar with learning of cataclysmic events in real time.
But the Haiti catastrophe has struck more personal notes in South Georgia, ones that strike closer to home. Nearby ripples that demonstrate just how small the world has become and, in some instances, to varying degrees of urgency, just how hard times are everywhere.
When the earthquake hit, Cook County businessmen were in Haiti, negotiating a deal to provide indoor basketball courts for youths there. In the aftermath of the quake, one of the Cook businessmen survived and escaped; the other’s whereabouts remained unknown last week.
In the aftermath, South Georgians have learned of Haitians who live in our region. Area families with family struggling with life in the demolished Haiti.
Moody Air Force Base personnel have been placed on alert for duty to provide aid for Haiti.
Local chapters of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army have led drives for monetary contributions. These organizations ask for money because donating items creates logistical headaches and nightmares of misplaced good intentions. For example, someone may wish to donate canned foods to Haiti, but how does the food get to the Haitians, who pays for its transport, where does it go once the food arrives in Haiti, do the struggling Haitian people even have can-openers to open the food?
Still, many local folks wish to do what they can. People give blood. They Facebook and Tweet each other on how to help Haiti. Still, other local folks struggle just to make ends meet in their own lives.
Last week, The Valdosta Daily Times on-line poll asked readers what they were doing in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. As of Friday afternoon, 26.06 percent of 307 respondents were giving money; 2.93 percent planned to give blood; 12.38 percent were doing what they could; 32.9 percent said they couldn’t afford to help; 25.73 percent simply responded they were not giving.
It is a sign of the times, however, to see one-third of all respondents admit they simply cannot afford to do anything.
As for the rest, the world has always had those who will give you the shirts off their backs, and those who wouldn’t even spit on you if you were on fire.
Still, with all of those Haitian images of pain and hunger, of loss and destruction, it is surprising that nearly 60 percent of respondents are doing nothing.
It’s a small world, getting smaller all of the time.
