Unreal expectations

Desperate needs in wake of typhoon

As I watched this piece by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, I was struck by the utter absurdity of it.

You hear desperate pleas for help, as if help will magically appear out of nowhere. They need food, water, medicine … and probably shelters … all the necessities of life that are needed in the wake of any disaster, natural or manmade.

Unfortunately, what TV screens and computer screens cannot show you is reality.

Yes, there are great needs to be filled to bring help to the people of the Philippines stricken by the typhoon, but it will take time. Lots of time. And that is what the immediacy of the revolution in telecommunications does NOT help you understand.

We are not talking about a couple of MREs here, or a tent or two. We are talking about tons, upon tons, upon tons, of materiel that needs to be moved from point A to point B for delivery to Points C and D and beyond.

We are trapped by the tyranny of distance and time. These twins restrict our response. Bind our capabilities to respond to any crisis that involves more than than a small group of people. It is known as logistics and it bogs down any and all things.

Airplanes can move at hundreds of miles an hour but can only carry thousands of pounds of cargo and there are just so many of them. Ships can move tons upon tons of the needed material but only move at about 25 miles per hour (flat out max speed of the fastest transoceanic transports and most move at less than 15 miles per hour) and it is thousands of miles from where the supplies are to where they are needed. And again, there are only a few of them.

It plucks at a heart strings and rips at our emotions, but folks … to be realistic about things – i.e. heartless … this is life. This is what is the fate of humanity when nature rages.

Yes, we hope that supplies will get there to help most of the people. We hope that those in charge of distributing the supplies will be able to do it unmolested and without spite. But that is not reality. It will be easy to blame the authorities, or people in other countries for not sending enough, but we need to face the reality that what resources we do have always will be in the wrong place (if they were there, they probably were destroyed by Nature’s wrath) and so it will take time, agonizingly long times to move it to where it can help.

And people will make choices, bad choices from the comfort of our living rooms, that will make the situation worse.

But this is life, people. You may not like it, but to expect anything different is to be a fool.