Deconstruction and the development it engenders

The big news of the day is, of course, the earthquake in Ica Province, Peru, which at an initial count has left 450 dead. Much like quakes in Pakistan and China, the death toll is expected to rise and many people have died because their houses, made of clay, stone and mud brick, were never really meant to withstand anything like this.

It brings to mind questions of the resilience of a society when that society's material basis is involved in a tabula rasa event, and everything the citizenry has worked for is reduced to rubble. The usual accompaniments of catastrophic events, disease, water deprivation, and so on, are sure to follow unless prompt action is taken.

I wish there was something more substantial than the Red Cross/Crescent, Oxfam, etc. etc. network of NGO's that could offer immediate relief. Some sort of global emergency fund from which any country affected by a disaster of this magnitude could request assistance.

It's easy for us to sit behind a computer screen and donate money when the suffering is so far away, and doubtless it is a good thing to do (in fact, I have a challenge for anyone who reads this: next time there is an earthquake or a tsunami or a volcano explosion with a death toll higher than 100 persons, donate at least 1% of your last paycheck to a relief organization. That leaves you with 99% of your financial capital and a higher proportion of social capital than you had to start with;^) .

When I was flying back from Boston, where I had gone to visit friends and conduct some business of a confidential nature, we flew over Mt. St. Helens at the exact time that it was releasing a large cloud of steam. It reminded me of 1980 when, living in Portland, I saw half the mountain vaporize in front of me.

My point in bringing this up is that the next earthquake, tsunami, heat wave, volcanic eruption, could be here. Could be on the coast, could be where your cousin lives, could be where you're living 5 years from now. And without continuing donation to build up emergency funds, we as a people have no recourse to aid. So let's build it up, if we can, as we can.

I guess this embodies that ideal of 'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs', and I guess that makes me a flaming idealist, and possibly categorizes me as fulfilling any number of preconceptions of other people's. So be it. If we are going to live in a lifeboat society, let's make that lifeboat as big as possible.