Following the horrifying stories that are unfolding in the aftermath of
Katrina, it is difficult for the mind to single out any one of them as
more tragic than others. I listened to a woman cry on the radio because
her dog was left behind in her apartment and her apartment was washed
away; I watched a video clip of seven little children rescued and
transported to Houston but their mother is missing; Sick, elderly and
disabled victims who have died because they couldn't be helped in time;
People have lost their homes, loved ones, jobs - Life as they knew and
enjoyed it - is no more! Overnight - with just one stroke - Mother
Nature has wiped the slate clean for all these people and so
dramatically changed their lives that it is difficult for even the most
empathetic amongst us to feel their angst!
Amidst all this tragedy emerges an even bigger one - the ensuing chaos,
looting and anarchy. In the days of yore when Time stretched endlessly
and I devoured books, I read and reread Lord of the Flies at least 10 -
12 times. Instead of the mind getting numbed by how each boy evolves
and catapults the novel along its' inevitable path of destruction and
disintegration, I have come to realize that it only holds
up a mirror to the society we live in and thus - I can bear to
read it no more.
New Orleans now seems to have become Golding's island! Were he alive
today, he'd probably have reminded us all that he "told us so" decades
ago - that the dividing line between civilization and primitivity is a
very thin one - that the beast cannot be killed because it is within
us, not without - that Man may have walked millions of miles away from
his primordial roots but can step back into it in a matter of minutes.
How long, I wonder, would it take for the veneer of civilization to be
peeled away from each of us - what would our threshold be when our
lives are stripped bare of all sense and meaning - when we see our
family suffering; when we don't know when, if ever, we'll have a roof
over our heads - when fine dining doesn't just fade away into a distant
memory - when we can grouse again about fighting traffic and driving to
work every morning - when the clothes on our bodies are not donated by
charity ?!?!
The tsunami devastation last year was a thousand times greater in
magnitude than Katrina's - changing not just lives but even
topographies of entire regions - yet most of the emerging stories were
about the humanity that was awakened in many - there were stories of pillaging and plundering but in
terms of ratio these were negligible. I keep wondering about the
disproportionate disparity between the two disasters - I wonder if the
tsunami-affected areas were so steeped in poverty already that many of
the victims didn't really have the luxury of losing anything
significant - while there are no easy answers, the
toughest one to face is - what would we do if
confronted with the same plight - how long would it take for our
veneers to crumble and our inner beasts to awaken?!?!