Putting everything in perspective

Oftentimes I find myself choosing the logical side of an argument, unfortunately to a fault. I will almost always opt for numbers and figures over emotions and empathy, which is why I find myself doing a lot of contemplating and people-watching from the two major events of the past month – the Christmas underwear would-be terrorist and the earthquake in Haiti. I’m going to try to discuss the two and try to sound rational and not heartless, but I suspect the latter won’t come across…

For starters, I’ve never been a fan of the TSA or any airport security to begin with. Their asinine baggage size and quantity rules and excessive delays have caused me countless numbers of headaches. “What, miss overpaid airport security agent? If I have my camera bag on my shoulder that’s two bags but if I stuff it into my carry-on, that’s permitted then? You do realize it’s the same bag, occupying the same amount of space? Why don’t you go yell at the people dragging their carry-on suitcases that need assistance putting it into the overhead compartments?”

I’ve also sweated profusely running to my gate only to have to wait in line to be screened while I watch the second hand on my watch tick by, nearing the closing time of my flight. I will admit that’s my fault but I refuse to acknowledge a need to get to the airport more than an hour before my hour-long flight (London to Dublin).

Airport security lacks common sense through and through and they don’t even do anything to protect us. I’ve gotten onboard with an empty water bottle and an unscreened bag-full of 100mL liquid bottles because I chose not to take it out of my carry-on bag (never once was I asked to take it out and have everything rescanned). If I wanted to pack a chemistry set and then bust it out in the onboard lavatory, I’m sure something could have been concocted. There I go again; I probably will get blacklisted from flying because of this…

Which brings me to the inordinate amount of money spent on airport security and the “War on Terror” in general. The Department of Homeland Security has been green-lighted for a $55 billion 2010 budget. That number doesn’t even register with me. $55 billion? I know that’s less than 10 percent of what the economic bailout was, but what will it buy us? More safety and security? Probably not.

This will probably buy us more invasive and unnecessary scanners at the airport; it will probably fund more grumpy and untrained idiots giving us unnecessary pat-downs. To put things in perspective, you are safer flying through the air than pretty much anywhere else on the ground. We have a 0.000014 percent chance of dying while flying vs. a 50 percent chance of dying at cardiovascular disease, yet we’re okay to being patted down but not running a mile or two everyday.

“Fewer people have died from terrorism in the past thirty years than quarrelsome Americans with handguns in the last eight months.” In fact, if terrorists started bombing subway cars, coffee cafes, public events, or places where I consider a part of my everyday routine, then I would be scared. But if they’re not trying to attack my everyday life, then the government that’s supposed to help the people should stop harassing the people. The American government needs to read up on the Intifada, where Hamas was bombing buses and coffee shops and night clubs. Those are real concerns, not what the American public is scared about.

Stolen from Gizmodo.

If only we cared about the things that actually killed a large number of people. Like earthquakes. I guess that means Mother Nature’s ass is next in line to be waterboarded. (These jokes sound vaguely familiar and I will acknowledge that I probably am just reciting what John Stewart said. Oh well.) But in all seriousness, there is a huge humanitarian disaster going on in Haiti right now. Tens of thousands of people have died with estimates going up to over 100,000. Over three million people are displaced and people are genuinely concerned with what’s going on there. So why is this senile old bat raising this issue in a blog about perspective?

Well, in this age of Twitter and Facebook, I feel like I’m drowning in Haiti awareness campaigns. At least before it was calls to action by donating money, but now they’re bordering on the stupid with “Haiti solidarity events” and “wear red for Haiti” campaigns. Wearing red for Haiti will no more help them than telling your Facebook friends the colour of your bra will help cure breast cancer, but no ones ripping on Haiti and everyone’s ripping on breast cancer, except me.

The closest natural disaster I can remember that reached this level of notoriety was the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed over 230,000 people. Back when it happened, I was living at home and was able to get a constant stream of CNN and NBC. It was 24-hours-a-day, non-stop coverage of death and mayhem. But still, it felt smaller in comparison to the earthquake in Haiti. I guess back then I didn’t have Twitter and I had just been getting into Facebook. Now we’re drowning in this kind of information.

But wasn’t the tsunami a greater disaster affecting more people than the earthquake in Haiti? You bet your ass, but I don’t remember calls for donations from everyone and their mother. I do remember plenty of campaigns, but these were people that had direct ties to the affected countries, so I could understand their need to solicit aid.

Putting things in perspective, take a look at the List of Natural Disasters by Death Toll on Wikipedia. The tsunami registered as the 9th deadliest ever, and it’s the only one to happen in the 21st century, yet I feel that Haiti is getting more airtime and more support than South Asia ever did.

And let’s move past the tsunami. How many people do you know that donated to the people in New Orleans when Katrina hit? Just because they’re in a developed nation, does that prevent them from receiving your help or foreign aid? Instead, we just watched from our TV screens as their city was submerged and lives uprooted. Sure, the death toll didn’t even reach 2,000 people, but they deserve your support too.

To put things in perspective, in 2005 there was an earthquake in Kashmir which killed over 85,000 people. I remember hearing about it on the news because I watched the nightly news back then. How many people donated to them? They’re not as poor as the Haitians but I bet they’re pretty damn poor. Lucky for the Haitians that they’re geographically closer to the USA and Canada, right? And what about the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China that killed 70,000? Admittedly now I’m just pulling numbers out of a list.

From a utilitarian (and some would say heartless) perspective, we shouldn’t be allocating such a large sum of money to benefit the Haitians. What a heartless thing to say! But let’s analyze the numbers. Looking at the List of Causes of Death by Rate from Wikipedia, you can see that there are many types of preventable illnesses that kill several times the number of Haitians per year. I’m no doctor, so I’ll pick the ones I know. Diarrhea kills 1.8 million per year while malaria kills 1.1 million per year. Together they kill 2.9 million people per year. And you know what it takes to prevent diarrhea from killing people? Salt, water, and sugar. What about malaria? Fucking bug nets. And the list goes on.

In conclusion to my multi-directional rant, I’m going to say this – I really feel sorry for Haiti. It does suck for such an economically impoverished nation to be hit by such a natural disaster. At the same time though, for those that have donated money, why have you donated money to that cause? Do you have a vested interest in the country? If you do, I feel for you and understand your donation. But if you don’t, why donate to Haiti? Why not donate to the an organization working to prevent diarrhea? Your dollar will go a lot farther than in Haiti. It’s certainly not the immediacy of it because there are people dying of those preventable causes right now – approximately 57 per second by diarrhea alone. And I certainly hope it’s not because it’s the “it” thing to do right now, because if it is, then I hope that through my brutal honesty (along with my sobering heartlessness) I’ve been able to put things in perspective.

Thanks for reading to the end. I’m sure the first half of this blog doesn’t connect well with the second half. As well, if I read this blog through and through, um… I’d be confused as hell as well. I wish I took more English classes. There, I said it. Well, ones that didn’t focus on Shakespeare.