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| The figure of Jeremiah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. |
Commentary
Jean Purcell
Compassionate American aid workers in
Japan remain set up to help in the nuclear area affected by a recent storm. People in the area have been told to evacuate, but they have no help on their own to do so. The helping groups are staying there, too, to do what they can to help, with supplies running out. "We will stay," they say. Their outcome is now linked with the lives of those they went to help.
A spokesman with the group reported that the patient Japanese there are losing patience. The
Japanese government has been slow to send help to places overflowing with homeless and hungry people. An American carrier is in view from where they are, yet no help comes from there either. Food supplies are draining fast. "We have been to 87 disasters over many years around the world," he told
Greta van Susteren on
Fox News. "This is the worst we've seen." He said that tempers are beginning to flare, with the first fight where the aid worker is today. The workers there will not leave until the people they went to help can leave.
Habakkuk wrote of the time when every supply might fail. He said to the Lord that he would continue to trust in the Lord.
Jeremiah went to help repair a broken down wall of protection around Jerusalem, destroyed by war and disasters that go with war. He gave of himself to go and help. He left the comforts of a palace, where he served a king.
The most desperate people near sites like Japan's Fukushima nuclear plan need people of hope and faith, able to cope and persevere in disaster response, and willing to seek help for them until the end or until evacuation, whichever might come first. Without food or potable water, they cannot survive for long. Many family members became separated and remain out of touch, not knowing who is still alive, who is in hospital, and who died. In recent days, help is coming to many, though not all, and very slowly. The magnitude of the numbers of people requires a magnitude of response from many, many people and places and resources.
Will governments fear law suits if they send workers in, or does the help depend, primarily, on the humanitarian and Christian workers staying there? Will governments at least send food and other essential supplies by ship or trucks, and let the "contaminated" meet them and take the supplies the rest of the way? What is the answer?
When the worker signed off on Greta van Susteren's program tonight, he said, "We need help." He repeated it more than once. There was no reassurance to give him that help. At the end, he said, "Pray for us." There was no indication that would happen, either. It seemed that Ms. Susteren was overwhelmed.
The news today reported that over 500,000--half a million--Japanese are now
waiting across Japan, for places to stay, even the simplest accommodation. Those who can do something must do something with the strength and broken hearts for this need.
Earthquake. Tsunami. Loss and grief. Fires. Complete destruction. Food shortages. Water shortages. Electricity shortages. Hunger. Thirst. Homelessness...Freezing cold and snow. Nuclear disasters in multiples. Such a mass of tragedy does remind of the man, Job, who faced disaster after disaster. Through medic today, the Japan disasters are before our eyes anywhere in the world and before the faces, directly ...in fact. in the faces...of the people most in need near the reactors along the nuclear coast of Japan.
(c) 2011,
Opinari and Jean Purcell
