Mourn for the Dead; Hope for the Missing

People often find it hard to relate to natural disasters that take place in foreign locations, beyond their own eyes. The numbers then startle these same people and force them to realize that the truth is taking place right on the other side of their same world. When Cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar less than a week ago, thousands of citizens were taken by complete surprise without the warning systems that we have developed in the United States. National News Stations are now informing us that around 25,000 are already dead with around 41,000 Myanmarans still missing in the rubble. This kind of destruction is only available to us in the United States through traumatic pictures and the short video clips from newsmen.

Unexpectedness of such a disaster struck a country that was already high in financial deficits. Many citizens live in poverty and have to deal with religious and social restrictions involving high levels of violence. After such a horrendous work of Mother Nature even more citizens are going to be living in poverty. The conditions that Myanmarans are living through currently will end up killing even more people, anywhere from starvation to infection. Now various countries have been sending multiple types of aid to the citizens and their home country so that they can recover from the disaster.

The one problem with all of this is that Myanmar is not accepting any money from the United States. They are refusing any form of aid currently because they would like to prove that they have the capability to support their own citizens and social conflicts. This part confuses me; I don’t have faith that Myanmar has a government that is organized enough to plan out a very cohesive recovery plan. There is a lot of hope to find all of the missing peoples but it is highly known that many of these people are already dead and stuck under the tremendous amounts of rubble on the coast. There is going to be years of recovery that will take millions of volunteers and billions of dollars to repair. There is no way that it can by done without the U.S.

Looking at the pictures of crying mothers and baby boys, I automatically feel remorse for not being able to help these Myanmarans. If a disaster were any closer to the United States many more Americans would be caring about these citizens who are living in torturous conditions. Currently there is nothing to do but hope for the citizens and their loved ones who have either perished or are still undiscovered. Even though we are not directly related to these Myanmarans we must mourn for their dead and hope for their missing. It is our duty as Americans to care and help others who are in need of any type of aid. We must always give what we would hope to receive in return.