The year was 1985, on two sides of the Atlantic Ocean two Western nations (U.S. and Great Britain) were preparing for what was quite possibly the largest musical gathering since Woodstock. Hundreds of thousands of people were at two venues anticipating the idea of witnessing a part of musical history live, and even more were watching the events unfold on television in the comfort of their homes. The spectacle was called Live Aid, its message was one of combat against famine in Ethiopia, while bringing about an awareness to the problem of poverty that plagues over three-quarters of the human population. Through the diligence of those many self-sacrificing musicians, and the unity that was apparent between the attending musical devotees (on really good drugs) and those viewing the events unfold in their homes, by the end of the evening the human race had finally succeeded in resolving the famine problem in Ethiopia. All right, maybe that is not entirely true.

Skip ahead twenty years in to the future, it is now the year 2005 and the next calamity the public is ready to rally around is the tsunami that recently decimated portions of the Far East. An act of nature that unfortunately exterminated the lives of over 160,000 people (while the numbers continue to increase), and destroyed multiple billions of dollars in property. Yet for this question still remains, what exactly are we looking to recover? Maybe some semblance of peace and sanity to those surviving victims whose lives were seriously altered by this monstrosity of nature, many of whom were considered poor by any standards even before the tsunami? How about the loss of revenues to the resorts which were damaged or completely destroyed during the tsunami event, and whose consequences will definitely create economic fallout in tourism to those regions?

Again, what exactly are we looking to recover? I am not trying to confront the recovery question by purposely being cynical, and by no means do I mean that the public should cease as it relates to assistance in any part of the world where aid can be rendered. What I am stating though is that if we want to make any real significant changes on this planet and in the very least alleviate part of the problems that plague the world when we are forced to confront them, then we must alter our perspectives in a more pro-active manner than merely going through the motions of handing over our signed checks. Part of the problem with relief efforts lie in economic distribution, as well as the short term memory of the public in relation to all our calamities. These are a couple reasons why the tsunami story will likely end up as another passing thought in the public conscious in the near future, except of course by those people who survived and continue to live in the aftermath of the tsunami. Another difficult concept to overcome is the disconnectedness that people have in one part of the world in regards to the population in another region. For many of us, we may see images on television that make us cringe, yet the very next moment we will go right on pondering what drinking establishment we will be visiting after working an eight hour shift. Again, what exactly are we looking to recover? I wonder if we are fearful of gazing at the things in life we may perceive as ugly, and try to decorate those tragedies with lovely galas that unite several members of the public for a few hours in some harmonious symphony so we can feel better about the human condition, and then justify our inadequate responses? We interrupt this regularly scheduled column for some late breaking news: the Ethiopian population is still going hungry and while you’re reading this column many will die.