Learning from the tsunami

By Michael Pellicio

As 2004 came to a close, Southeast Asia was ransacked by a massive tsunami that left upwards of 150,000 dead. The world community's response to the natural disaster has been nothing short of remarkable. Colin Powell estimates over $6 billion in aid has been donated, including private donations -- the largest relief package ever.

Unfortunately, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Jim Egeland declared that the world's leading nations are "stingy." The United Nations, the organization that ranked the United States dead last in developmental aid among the 30 richest countries, went on to elaborate that it wasn't singling out any one country. Yeah, I bet.

As reports of the disaster confirmed its severity, the so-called "stingy" United States increased its offer tenfold. Others have followed suit. This got me thinking about the geopolitical lessons to be learned from the tsunami relief effort. Two major inferences stood out.

The first came after looking at the major contributors: the United States, which has given $350 million, and Australia which donated $764 million. But China, the world's most populous country, barely edged out Taiwan with $13 million, despite the fact that the communist nation retains a population 57 times greater than the tiny democracy.

Notice the common denominator? In our world, democracies thrive. It has never been more evident. All the generous contributions have come from fully-capable capitalistic societies.

The second observation I made was in regards to the willingness of the world to help out. It is however sad that it took an unavoidable natural disaster to unite the world. Unfortunately, there are preventable unnatural disasters in every corner of the globe, every day. Look at it this way: the tsunami has killed 150,000; Saddam's mass graves held twice as many.

There are a number of positives to be taken from the world's reaction to the tsunami. First, we know the world is capable of uniting for a common cause. Second, we know that the world's democracies are flourishing. Third, with regard to the unnatural disasters of the world, we know that our president will not wait for disaster to strike.

* Michael Pellicio's column appears once a month. He can be reached at mpellicio@scu.edu.