How Do We Measure Out Compassion?
For the month following the Haiti earthquake it was hard not to find a conversation that didn’t include reflections upon the disaster in Haiti; now two months later it is for the most part ‘off the radar’. I don’t want to be disparaging or distracting from the goodness of the response to those in need, but, I do confess, some of our response and rhetoric is bothersome to my spirit. In the days following, Canadian people, like many around the world, began to respond both individually and collectively. On behalf of the Canadian people our Government responded and committed five million dollars. Shortly afterwards the amount of response by our government was increased to include a pledge to match individual contributions up to fifty million dollars, the number was adjusted again. What will be the final amount of donations and matching funds I don’t know? I thank God for all those who do respond with compassion.
My bothered spirit wants to ask how it is that we measure out compassion. I can’t imagine Canada’s participation in the “defense of international order in response to changes in geopolitical dynamics” (a fancy term for the declaration of war against terrorism) with an addendum stating a limit of five million dollars, or a provision of participating only to the extent that individual Canadians first contribute. Why is compassion measured out and limited in any way? Why are we not able to say, “We are coming, and we will be with you, and we will see you through to the end of this journey, no matter how long, no matter the cost; you are not alone, thanks be to God.”
Perhaps this isn’t the time, and I don’t want to appear to be pointing fingers, and I know nothing is simple, but I can’t help but confess that the earthquake has not only revealed the fragility of the Haitian infrastructure but also an inequitable and unjust distribution of the knowledge, skills and wealth.
Don’t look in Haiti. Start by looking north! It is us Canadians who have not shared. Forty years and counting since Lester Pearson proposed 1% of GDP for Foreign Aid. We are not even close, and our 2010 federal Budget proposes reducing the deficit by reducing foreign aid!
Why are we, blessed with so much abundance, so disinclined to address a need until there are pictures and stories of horrific destruction? How is it that we Canadians can tolerate cuts to foreign aid, cuts to organizations committed to justice and how can we United Church members and adherents tolerate cuts to the global partners? Compassion is not something to be held tightly until really needed and then given away in carefully measured amounts. Justice withheld is justice denied.
Conversations have occurred and pledges have been made to make the walk with the Haitian government. Resources are pledged to the rehabilitation and reconstruction; pledges which may or may not be kept, depending on the length of memory of those who watch such things. I thank God for those who will watch and clamour for pledges to be met. Too many will return to an oblivious state until there will be another earthquake, another tsunami, another hurricane, another change in the geopolitical dynamics. Do we need to wait?
I am glad that I am a regular supporter of the Mission and Service Fund. The amount given in the past to our global partners may not have contributed to a lessening of the death toll, perhaps nothing could. But I am glad that as a church we have been able to say “We have been with you, we are with you, we will be with you. You are not alone” An echo of the words: “In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. |
