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Natural Disasters
WE ARE all too familiar with natural disasters hitting less-developed countries. Whether it's famine in Sudan or bird flu in South East Asia, we tend to assume that nature is more dangerous there than here at home.
The contrast with the developed world couldn't be stronger. Our problems tend to be caused by fellow humans, like the terrorist outrages in London or New York, rather than natural disasters.
We expect nature to be beautiful, not deadly. We want to protect and preserve it, rather than fighting to control it.
I had a vivid reminder of this when I presented the prizes at the Hutton Horticultural Show last week.
It's a wonderful show that's been going for 38 years and creates a brilliant display of top quality local vegetables, produce and flowers. Standards are sky-high, as you'd expect from a village that regularly wins prizes in Britain in Bloom, and the entire community gets involved. It's a celebration of nature's bounty, and a far cry from famines and droughts in Africa and elsewhere.
So it's a horrifying contrast when New Orleans is hit by a huge natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
Suddenly the Americans aren't a superpower anymore. They're just as frail and vulnerable as the rest of the world's population. They've been hit by something they couldn't prevent, and human grief and suffering are the same whether the backdrop is the New Orleans sports Superdome or a refugee camp in Sudan.
We're very lucky to live in a beautiful, fertile country with a relatively safe climate. The only way to enjoy it, without feeling guilty when other parts of the world are suffering, is to pitch in and give help where it's needed.
The villagers of Hutton have done just that. They've twinned themselves with Dabaso in Kenya and are helping to build and equip a school there. I think they've got the right idea.
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