Tsunami

A 9.0 magnitude quake cracked the ocean floor near the Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering a series of deadly waves that decimated the coastal communities of eight nations bordering the Indian Ocean. Thousands were swallowed by rising waters and hundreds were swept out to sea. Water is contaminated, homes and structures destroyed, and the prospect of rampant sickness and disease looms on the near horizon.

As individuals of conscience, our hearts go out to the victims of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Somalia and the Maldives. In disasters of this magnitude, individuals can offer their collective prayers and sympathy, but only nations with great resources can respond effectively. As citizens of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation, we must understand and accept that our burden is greater than any other nation. We must also accept that disasters of horrendous and unprecedented destruction are becoming increasingly commonplace. We will be called upon more often than ever before.

It is in times such as these when we must understand that we are one people on a small planet. In times of disaster, whether it is born of nature or born of humanity, we must come together to offer whatever aid and comfort we are able to give to our fellow beings. Those nations afflicted by tragedy must know without asking that the world community will rally to their support. We must do so willingly and without hesitation, secure in the knowledge that other nations will come to our assistance when the inevitable tragedy strikes home.

In time such as these, we must also call into question the misappropriation of the world’s limited resources. We must wonder what the world might do with the hundreds of billions of dollars channeled into the nonproductive industry of war. Without the ghost of daddy’s war and Ronald Reagan’s hallucination of a strategic missile defense system, American would be $400 billion richer.

America’s military and police forces are critically overextended and our obligations are fast outreaching our ability to fulfill them. Just as we could not respond effectively to genocide in Sudan because we were mired in Iraq, we will not respond to this disaster as we should.

As this is written, prodded by the critical comments of an undersecretary of the United Nations, the United States has pledged $35 million to the relief effort. Let me be the first to say that this is less than chump change. It is the jar of pennies you cannot give away. It is the price of a pork project doled out at budget time. Given the scale of the crisis and America's economic prowess, $15 billion would be inadequate.

It is a reminder of the inherent interconnectedness of all things. When America goes to war, the whole world pays a price. When America occupies a foreign land, all nations suffer.

At last report, over 90,000 people have lost their lives, several million have been displaced or dispossessed, and the toll is rising. Sadly, evidence is mounting that this was not an isolated event but part of a pattern that foreshadows catastrophe upon catastrophe in the coming years and decades. Fault lines on the Pacific Rim are increasingly unstable. Hurricanes in the Caribbean, heat waves in Europe, erupting volcanoes, floods and droughts, fires and tornadoes, collapsing glaciers and rising tides, all shapes and forms of natural disaster are growing in frequency and magnitude.

So as we brace for an uncertain future, let us come to terms with the fact that the world can no longer afford the extravagant waste of unnecessary war and empire. As we offer whatever aid we can in the present crisis, let us also renew our pledge to end the scourge of war and limit the sheer waste of unlimited military expenditure.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). SEE JACKRANDOM.COM.

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