China Quake

05/21/2008

Paul Munnis


As we contemplate the effects of earthquakes on crowded China it is hard to imagine the magnitude of the problem. It is too big to comprehend fully. Even the press, when they describe events, have to do it through eyewitness accounts for the scope of the tragedy is so large and the stories so similar but repeated over and over so many times that the human impact is lost in the telling. Had an Atomic Bomb gone off then the devastation would have been somewhat at this level. That was one powerful quake. It took many lives and it ruined many lives.

The loss of life, the searching for loved ones who are missing, the cries for help coming from beneath the rubble where people were buried alive. The lack of the means for rescue, the sense of loss, the sense of guilt at having survived, and the broken families, the orphaned children and the need for comfort and shelter, food, water, and looking for the strength to rebuild, these are all emotional stress and tribulations from this awful quake. The earth shook, the buildings collapsed, the ground opened up and swallowed victims, and these people have been denied the comfort of religion, having no sense of a God to cling to or to comfort them in their time of mourning and that is perhaps the cruelest blow of all.

In societies where people have very little then the loss of a lifetime of pitiful accumulations of goods is mourned too. China is a materialistic society and thus a pot, a pan, an heirloom handed down from father to son or mother to daughter are prized possessions. Their loss severs the connection with the past.

As I think back to an earlier time in my life, I am thinking of the attack on China by Japan. I am thinking of the mercenaries like Pappy Boyington who flew against the Japanese Zero, the best plane ever built up to that time. They fought as mercenaries for the Chinese government. Americans also brought missionaries to China and they left behind a huge cadre of people trained in Christianity and these Chinese people were good Christians too -- they understood about religion.

Then came Mao Tse Tung and the Long March, and the expulsion of religion and rule by Communism. Taiwan was split off and the US backed Taiwan. Next came the Korean War and the Chinese Communists soldiers who fought against America and the Russian pilots who flew for the Chi-Coms.

That was followed by isolation of China as it closed its iron curtain and kept the west out. Nixon pried opened the curtain and began the process of normalization of relations.

When the Berlin Wall fell and Russia admitted to the failure of Communism the Chinese were forced to remake themselves. They used a Socialist model keeping Lenin’s brand of centralism, keeping a firm grip on the people, but moving to industrialization, exports, and direct market competition with the west. The new religion was materialism, production, and industrialization. Their asset was the huge number of low cost workers and rapid industrialization.

As factories were built, people flocked from country to city to live, work, and earn their living. Buildings were quickly constructed, people were jammed into crowded quarters living very close together. The result was a recipe for disaster whether the reason be fire, cyclone, or earthquake.

Up to this point the big Achilles heel of China's industry was quality control. It still is. Many of the buildings that housed the quake victims were sub-standard, lacking in quake-resistant technology. The west was getting tainted medicine and even dog food was adulterated with Melamine. Brake linings were made of sand and glue and failed within a few miles of installation. Just a few weeks ago the U.S. Congress was looking at legislation to do something about the poor quality levels of Chinese goods being imported to the U.S.

All of that is on the back burner now. The Chinese have suffered a terrible blow and it is one that is not easy to recover from. There are 5 million people without housing to start with. Those same five million are without jobs. There are many without any social ties left. There are empty rice bowls and homelessness and loss of family. These five million people must start over again. Factories were damaged and lost and that means the need to rebuild. Some of the rebuilding could take a long time and it is leaving people unemployed in the meantime. Your heart cries out for these people for it is a serious blow to China and its people.

The west can and must help. The Chinese people need medicine, food, shelter, clothing and the Bush Administration has the worst record I have ever seen of extending humanitarian aid. Bush failed our own nation after Katrina and has failed in other circumstances like Darfur and Myanmar, and now he is failing China in their hour of need.

The burden to help China will fall on our Christian and Jewish religious communities. Nobody else is able to help as much as you and me and through our Churches and Synagogues acting as organizers we can do more good and in a shorter period of time than the U.S government under Bush can do.

That is sad on one hand yet magnificent on the other hand if the work is undertaken now. Humanity is never at a higher level of existence than when we are extending a helping hand to a fellow human being in distress. We need person-to-person outreach to help the Chinese people and we should do it without fear of some future war with China. If we act humanly now we could leave long positive memories when future tensions beckon that could prevent war. Do not listen to those voices that council that we abandon the Chinese. We are part of the same human race and to abandon these people now is to give up the hope of mercy for ourselves in the future.

How odd that Americans will be returning goods purchased from China in order to meet the needs of the Chinese people. We are connected with one another regardless of those who would argue that continents separate people in a permanent manner. It is not so. We are joined at the hip - Siamese twins -- part of the human species. Your pain is my pain.

It is time to help our fellow human beings.