Queensland: Reality Check
January 26th, 2011 // 9:09 pm @ admin
Not so long ago I made a status update on Facebook that caused a bit of a stir, I admit I could have chosen my words better, in fact I should have as what I said didn’t describe my true feelings.
The update was a reaction to others spurring the Australian and Queensland governments for donating a measly $1 million AUD to the people of Queensland while recently making larger donations to foreign countries.
I realised that like my update the ones from others were equally half cocked, $1 million was never going to be the first and last response by either government, crying foul over it was completely pointless. The government will provide relief that will allow Queenslanders to rebuild the lives they had, people will struggle but it is unlikely we’ll be seeing people dieing of starvation or disease in the aftermath.
Another complaint was that insurers would claim an “act of god” or use differences in the wording of policies such as “storm event” instead of “flooding” to avoid making payouts. However it is unlikely this will happen and if it does it will be investigated officially with potential for class actions. Compare that to places where insurance is a. not available, b. not affordable or c. not likely to cover you even if you have it.
Some compared it to the Asian tsunami and while the area affected is huge, I’m not sure it is as big as the tsunami even if it is the loss of life and number of people directly effected is in comparison minuscule. The economic impact is huge, no question, the human cost while tragic is not our and our priorities lie with humans not money.
I can’t help but feel that differences in reporting on the floods in Australia and what I saw while I was in Cambodia was mostly motivated to sell newspapers, the images of devastation are the same, what is different between the reporting in Oz and abroad is the emotion, and emotive headlines sell newspapers. I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit to being a bit miffed that the recent flooding in Thailand and Cambodia was completely unreported in Australian media unless you went looking for it, even then it barely garnered a paragraph.
Finally there were the cries that these are “our own people” and here I will try to avoid stirring any further emotions other than to ask why? Family and friends who might be affected are one thing but the only connection we have to the others are that for the most part we are white, we speak English and we live in the same country, to me that isn’t enough of a connection to make me want to help them more than someone where the local government isn’t capable of providing a quick response and assistance or where the locals don’t have access to, can’t afford or will likely be left to fend for themselves by insurers and international NGOs are probably going to be the first assistance they see.
Last years fires and these floods as bad as they are just don’t compare to events such as the Tsunami, Hati and Pakistan where 10′s to 100′s of thousands died and millions were directly effected. Yet in monetary terms local disasters DO receive MORE in relief than what is publicly donated to disasters abroad. It is only logical that more disasters will happen around the world each year than will happen in Australia so of course more money will go overseas in the course of year than there will go to individual local disasters, don’t worry we CAN afford it.
I look for value in everything, even in charity so if I’m going to send say $100 I look at what it can do. In Oz that might help one Queenslander for a day, if it goes to Brazil it’s going to make a much bigger difference and could help out a whole family.
Lets not skirt the issue, there’s a bit of racism going on here, at the very least Australia has a bad case of xenophobia.
Paupa New Guinea and Indonesia have both donated to Queensland, not a lot and why should they? I’m pretty sure there are far more Indonesians in need of that money than flood affected Queenslanders. I’d rather be homeless in Australia than living in poverty in Indonesia. I’ve just read about a small Indonesian village that managed to raise $58 for the Victorian bushfires.
Get real people, do you think Australia should cease all international aid? Do you think we give too much? The UN doesn’t think so, we don’t even meet the 0.7% of GDP the UN recommends. Should we just let 3rd world countries languish without assistance and development? Get out of the house, see how people with little prospect to improve their standard of living live and come back and tell me we should stop donating to them.
There are always going to be complaints about how this disaster has been handled but in all honesty the response has been pretty good and while some will complain at least their voices will be heard.
There is no simple answer to foreign aid, but anyone saying it should be stopped is an ignorant fucktard and is rich saying I lack compassion.
People and the economy are slowly, very slowly waking up to the fact that we don’t just live in Australia anymore, we are part of the world where borders are in terms other than geo-political are becoming very blurred, the result of only being concerned with our own backyard will result in turning into a country calling out for the Aid we currently give.
Category : Blog &Musings and Rants
