Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

I have been so caught up in the mundane atrocities of my own life that I never addressed the devastation that really matters: over 150,000 people died in a tsunami that swept coastal areas of the Indian Ocean.The magnitude of death and damage is mind-numbing. However, the world response in terms of aid and support has been staggering. The U.S. government has pledged over $350 million dollars to help tsunami victims. Private donations from the U.S. (last I heard) have topped $200 million dollars. I am glad that the U.S. has risen to meet the challenge. Yet, as U.N. leader Kofi Anan and others have pointed out, the measure of a nation's generosity is not how it reacts when disaster strikes and everyone is watching; it's what the nation does when the spotlights are off and nobody is keeping track of whether you are helping.

As an article in last week's New York Times pointed out, Africa loses 200,000 people/year to AIDS and simple maladies like diarrhea, malaria, diseases associated with dirty water and malnutrition. Unfortunately, the problems of the African continent remain just that: problems of the African continent, relegated to infomercials and the usual drone "children are starving in Africa".
Hmmmm.