Haiti quake jolts hearts of humanity
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Maswood Alam Khan
Desperate to place a hand on the shoulders of the earthquake victims in Haiti in a bid to take a share of their pains, millions of people living far away pressed their fingers on the keyboards of their mobile phones and laptops to text not only messages of condolences for the victims but also donations of money for them in the form of electrons.
Digital fundraising has replaced the old fashion of gathering donations in a tithing basket or in a donation box. Red Cross officials were stunned last Thursday when a fundraising campaign to help Haiti victims was responded by $3.0 million done solely through text messages on a single day.
The campaign, posted in popular networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, has raised already more than $8.0 million by the end of the last week, thanks to thousands of people routing their small donations electronically through their mobile devices. Many more millions of dollars are expected to be texted. Humans have discovered a digitized window to steam off their feelings of sympathy and empathy!
Mobile phones have also been helpful to send S.O.S message from deep down the piles of rubbles in Haiti. Nearly a week after the massive earthquake leveled much of Haiti, dozens of trapped victims who survived without food or water have been rescued. Last Monday a Peruvian search-and-rescue team pulled a university student out of the remains of the flattened school. Text messages had been sent from beneath the rubble, drawing rescuers to the scene. The student, Maxine Fallon, 23, said she had prayed fiercely for someone to find her beneath the ruins of what was once her university.
American Express, MasterCard and Visa said they will waive transaction fees when people use credit cards to donate to charities helping in Haiti and any transaction fees already collected in earlier transactions will be given to the charities.
The Red Cross says up to three million people--- roughly one in three Haitians---have been affected. Not less than 200,000 are feared dead though the final official death toll has not yet been declared. The cost of the damage could run into billions of dollars.
Updates of poignant news about Haiti earthquake through radio, television, computers and cell phones have kept people, at work or home, posted round the clock. News about hunger, groans and agonies of thousands of victims, especially of those trapped and pinned down under rubble, struggling for life touched hearts of people thousands of miles away in America, Europe, Asia and in all other continents.
The other day a group of men freed an 11-year-old girl who was trapped for 48 hours in her Port-au-Prince home. Using an electric saw powered by a generator, the men cut a metal beam that was pinning her right leg. But the girl has been laid to rest in a tearful ceremony a day after. She died after she was unable to receive proper medical treatment.
A Brazilian doctor, Zilda Arns Neumann, 75, whose work in Haiti earned her comparisons to Mother Teresa was killed. Zilda founded a charity providing education and aid to children, pregnant women, and families in Haiti. She was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. There are so many heart wrenching news items trickling down through media!
Here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred some rescue crews to carry on their salvage operation, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off the crumbling buildings. But, hopes for possible survivors buried under rubles have dimmed with six days and nights already passed after Haiti had been shaken. People are tired of watching dead bodies. Survivors are choked on the stench of death.
Nearly a week after the devastating earthquake, donations for relief efforts are still pouring in---in excess of $200 million. Charities, companies, individuals and celebrities across the world have been rallying and their efforts are paying off.
People of Bangladesh have watched the tragedy in awe and wish they could be by the side of the aggrieved. The Bangladesh Prime Minister expressed her deep shock and condolence at the devastation caused by the earthquake. Instructed by our prime minister a medical team along with medicines is already on their way to Haiti.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have agreed to help the Obama administration's efforts to help bring swift aid to Haiti. The two former presidents will reprise the role that Clinton and Bush's father played after the 2004 tsunami, and are expected to travel to Haiti.
In an emotion-soaked statement President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa, their ancestral abode, where their roots lies and offered his country as a safe and hospitable refuge to any Haitian who voluntarily wants to return to their home of origin.
The Roman Catholic archdiocese in Miami has proposed airlift of hundreds of Haitian children to South Florida, in an echo of the exodus from Cuba in the early 1960 of some 14,000 Cuban youngsters.
The U.S. government announced Monday that it has eased the requirements for orphaned children from Haiti to enter the United States on a temporary basis The US and the Netherlands are aiming to speed up the process to allow dozens of Haitian orphans to join adoptive families as quickly as possible.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "The Canadian government will look into easing the country's immigration process in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti". The Obama administration is temporarily suspending deportations of undocumented Haitian nationals who are in the United States.
Now is the time for the rescuers to look after those who have survived the earthquake.
The rich and the poor countries of the world including a multitude of philanthropic organizations and world bodies including the United Nations have responded spontaneously to the S.O.S call from Haiti and embarked in full throttle upon campaigns to aid the quake victims. But damaged roads and infrastructures are delaying the flow of aid to the needy. Despite many obstacles, the pace of aid delivery has picked up.
Emotions are profusely spilling over how to help the Haitians. Speaking at the United Nations, its Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "one of the most heartening facts in this otherwise heartbreaking story is the dimension of the international response".
At this moment of emotional outpouring for the hapless Haitians it is very difficult to believe that 'a man can afford to have a heart of stone and the world could ever be full of hates'.
There seems to have been a huge rupture of human hearts in response to cries for help. Haiti earthquake has amazingly captured and stunned the hearts and minds of millions of people all over the world. Having watched the global spate of emotions one onlooker may now ask: "Was the Haiti earthquake a periodic litmus test ordained by God to gauge the human fellow feeling?"
The writer is Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express. Email:
maswood@hotmail.com
Desperate to place a hand on the shoulders of the earthquake victims in Haiti in a bid to take a share of their pains, millions of people living far away pressed their fingers on the keyboards of their mobile phones and laptops to text not only messages of condolences for the victims but also donations of money for them in the form of electrons.
Digital fundraising has replaced the old fashion of gathering donations in a tithing basket or in a donation box. Red Cross officials were stunned last Thursday when a fundraising campaign to help Haiti victims was responded by $3.0 million done solely through text messages on a single day.
The campaign, posted in popular networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, has raised already more than $8.0 million by the end of the last week, thanks to thousands of people routing their small donations electronically through their mobile devices. Many more millions of dollars are expected to be texted. Humans have discovered a digitized window to steam off their feelings of sympathy and empathy!
Mobile phones have also been helpful to send S.O.S message from deep down the piles of rubbles in Haiti. Nearly a week after the massive earthquake leveled much of Haiti, dozens of trapped victims who survived without food or water have been rescued. Last Monday a Peruvian search-and-rescue team pulled a university student out of the remains of the flattened school. Text messages had been sent from beneath the rubble, drawing rescuers to the scene. The student, Maxine Fallon, 23, said she had prayed fiercely for someone to find her beneath the ruins of what was once her university.
American Express, MasterCard and Visa said they will waive transaction fees when people use credit cards to donate to charities helping in Haiti and any transaction fees already collected in earlier transactions will be given to the charities.
The Red Cross says up to three million people--- roughly one in three Haitians---have been affected. Not less than 200,000 are feared dead though the final official death toll has not yet been declared. The cost of the damage could run into billions of dollars.
Updates of poignant news about Haiti earthquake through radio, television, computers and cell phones have kept people, at work or home, posted round the clock. News about hunger, groans and agonies of thousands of victims, especially of those trapped and pinned down under rubble, struggling for life touched hearts of people thousands of miles away in America, Europe, Asia and in all other continents.
The other day a group of men freed an 11-year-old girl who was trapped for 48 hours in her Port-au-Prince home. Using an electric saw powered by a generator, the men cut a metal beam that was pinning her right leg. But the girl has been laid to rest in a tearful ceremony a day after. She died after she was unable to receive proper medical treatment.
A Brazilian doctor, Zilda Arns Neumann, 75, whose work in Haiti earned her comparisons to Mother Teresa was killed. Zilda founded a charity providing education and aid to children, pregnant women, and families in Haiti. She was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. There are so many heart wrenching news items trickling down through media!
Here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred some rescue crews to carry on their salvage operation, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off the crumbling buildings. But, hopes for possible survivors buried under rubles have dimmed with six days and nights already passed after Haiti had been shaken. People are tired of watching dead bodies. Survivors are choked on the stench of death.
Nearly a week after the devastating earthquake, donations for relief efforts are still pouring in---in excess of $200 million. Charities, companies, individuals and celebrities across the world have been rallying and their efforts are paying off.
People of Bangladesh have watched the tragedy in awe and wish they could be by the side of the aggrieved. The Bangladesh Prime Minister expressed her deep shock and condolence at the devastation caused by the earthquake. Instructed by our prime minister a medical team along with medicines is already on their way to Haiti.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have agreed to help the Obama administration's efforts to help bring swift aid to Haiti. The two former presidents will reprise the role that Clinton and Bush's father played after the 2004 tsunami, and are expected to travel to Haiti.
In an emotion-soaked statement President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa, their ancestral abode, where their roots lies and offered his country as a safe and hospitable refuge to any Haitian who voluntarily wants to return to their home of origin.
The Roman Catholic archdiocese in Miami has proposed airlift of hundreds of Haitian children to South Florida, in an echo of the exodus from Cuba in the early 1960 of some 14,000 Cuban youngsters.
The U.S. government announced Monday that it has eased the requirements for orphaned children from Haiti to enter the United States on a temporary basis The US and the Netherlands are aiming to speed up the process to allow dozens of Haitian orphans to join adoptive families as quickly as possible.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "The Canadian government will look into easing the country's immigration process in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti". The Obama administration is temporarily suspending deportations of undocumented Haitian nationals who are in the United States.
Now is the time for the rescuers to look after those who have survived the earthquake.
The rich and the poor countries of the world including a multitude of philanthropic organizations and world bodies including the United Nations have responded spontaneously to the S.O.S call from Haiti and embarked in full throttle upon campaigns to aid the quake victims. But damaged roads and infrastructures are delaying the flow of aid to the needy. Despite many obstacles, the pace of aid delivery has picked up.
Emotions are profusely spilling over how to help the Haitians. Speaking at the United Nations, its Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "one of the most heartening facts in this otherwise heartbreaking story is the dimension of the international response".
At this moment of emotional outpouring for the hapless Haitians it is very difficult to believe that 'a man can afford to have a heart of stone and the world could ever be full of hates'.
There seems to have been a huge rupture of human hearts in response to cries for help. Haiti earthquake has amazingly captured and stunned the hearts and minds of millions of people all over the world. Having watched the global spate of emotions one onlooker may now ask: "Was the Haiti earthquake a periodic litmus test ordained by God to gauge the human fellow feeling?"
The writer is Editorial Consultant of The Financial Express. Email:
maswood@hotmail.com