Post by asso on Nov 15, 2004 3:01:10 GMT -6
So I'm sitting here and I'm reading this story about what's going on in Haiti. Reading about the political problems, hence, civil unrest that's taking place over there. I started thinking about the things that could be done to help them and the fact is that I just don't have a clue. I mean, of course we, and when I say we, I mean the US govt., could help them, but the US govt. doesn't want to help them. They have just been hit with a major catastrophy, to add that many more problems to the ones they already had. The hurricane season has demolished the country. The press isn't even covering it because there are things going on in the world that they are more interested in right now, such as this fiasco in Iraq. Because Haiti is not getting press, they aren't getting aid from anywhere. The aid workers that are there now are packing up and coming home because there's nothing more they can do. If they can't do diddly squat to help then I sure can't do anything.
So it occured to me, I have a habit, as most of us do, of sitting around and B*tching about in my life, and I've got quite a few things to b*tch about. I've got a career that's stalled, I'm broke, I'm not in the best shape, I'm a liberal, heh, and the list goes on with a few more minor things. As well, there are some things that we as Americans all have to b*tch about. We certainly have some problems with our governmental system that need to be worked out here in the states, there's no doubt about that, given this last election, the unemployment rate, healthcare costs, etc. We also have had our share of natural disasters lately, for instance, this last storm season produced three hurricanes that hit the south eastern USA, mainly Florida, and did, I believe, record amounts of damage. I believe the Califonia forest fires have done record amounts of damge this year as well. Not to mention these previously rare diseses that are becoming more prevalent in the US, due to the fact that we are cutting down the rain forests and forcing certain insects and animals to migrate and spread them, but that's all another story, heh.
Here's the thing, yeah, I've got no career, no money, I look like crap, and my political affiliation isn't the most popular right now, heh, but I'm still damn lucky. And yeah, we have all of the previously mentioned problems with our govt. and environmental problems, a lot of which are really still problems with our govt., heh, but we are still damn lucky. At least I have the opportunity for a career, well, once I find the means to get the hell out of this rinky dink town I live in and go where the action, so to speak, is. People in Haiti aren't thinking in terms of a career, they consider it being a success just to survive and keep their loved ones alive for another day. I have the nerve to gripe about money? Well, needless to say, a lot of Haitians probably can't remember the last time they held so much as a coin in their hand. My pot belly, which is indicative of eating too much, certainly wouldn't be considered a negative thing by the thousands of emaciated Haitians who are lucky to get one meal a day, and that's certainly not a good meal at that.
I live in a small town in southwest Michigan, so I'm very lucky, because there really isn't ever any extremely bad whether here. It's not dry, so forest fires aren't a consideration. It's inland enough that you don't have to worry about hurricanes. Hell, I live on the eastern shore of lake michigan, and the lake effect, as they call it, sends cold fronts southward, as I understand it, so we really don't even get a lot of snow in the winter, as compared to just about everyone else. We have an occasional tornado watch, and they usually never develop into an actual threat. As far as a Haitian is concerned, this would be paradise on earth. As I've said, we have our share of environmental troubles, the worst of which has been in Florida, due to the recent hurricane season, and there have been a lot of people in Florida that have been devastated, and I'm certainly not going to make light of that. But the fact is that Florida doesn't begin to compare with the thousands that have been killed in Haiti during the recent storm season.
As well, our governmental troubles don't even begin to compare with the struggles the Haitian people have had to face. I talk about not belonging to the popular political affiliation at the moment, heh, well, Haitian people can be killed for simply expressing their political views. Obviously, things like healthcare and unemployment are larger problems there, being that they don't even have healthcare or employment. Of course, the fact that the legitimate govt. has been overthrown by a corrupt group shows that we do have one thing in common, heh. At any rate, I think my point has become abundantly clear at this point, and I'm probably preaching to the choir to begin with, because from what I've seen, most of the people here at Whoosh are optimists, who are certainly not the type of people that are so self absorbed they think their problems are the only ones that matter. Nevertheless, I know there are a lot of people who are feeling disheartened due to the recent problems that have arisen, so I just wanted to, well, for the benefit of those people, try to put things in perspective.
By the way love, thanks for fixing my sig. I spent an extremely long time getting it to look like I wanted, I'm embarrassed to say, heh, so it would have been a shame for all that time and effort to be wasted.
~Stu Pidasso