To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca
15
Jul
2018
Like the rest of the world, I rejoiced when that boys’ soccer team and their coach were rescued from the cave in Thailand after being entombed for 16 days.
I have a phobia about caves in general. I can feel panic rising even thinking about having to strap on an unfamiliar scuba mask, wade into murky water, dive way down into a hole in the rock in total darkness and then turn and feel my way towards a narrow cranny I have to wriggle through, rock walls scraping my skin…
So I am in absolute awe of the courage and compassion of the divers who risked their own lives to get those boys and their coach out of the cave alive.
I suspect the Thai cave rescue will become a text-book case study for students of ethics in the not-too-distant future.
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: ethics, rescue, Thailand, cave, soccer team
9
Apr
2017
A week ago, a landslide, mudslide, or flash flood engulfed the city of Mocoa in Colombia. The city vanished. At least 200 died instantly; 200 more were injured; another 200 were missing.
As early news reports filtered out, one despairing resident uttered the predictable explanation: “It must be God’s will.”
No, no, no, a thousand times no!
It’s too easy to attribute natural disasters to supernatural causes. Insurance companies call them “Acts of God.” When Hurricane Katrina devastated vast swaths of New Orleans in 2005, a member of Congress representing Baton Rouge declared, “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans! We couldn’t do it, but God did.”
Name any natural disaster, and someone will recite the mantra of God’s will.
Tags: mercy, rescue, Mocoa, Almighty God, caring
14
Dec
2016
Around Christmas in North America, children (and many adults) hang their hopes on a man with a white beard.
In the war-torn Middle East, they’re more likely to hang their hopes on men in white helmets.
The White Helmets are standard construction-worker hard hats. The men need those helmets, because they go into places where no North American construction worker would venture. Into shattered buildings, where concrete block walls teeter. Where floors have collapsed, trapping victims beneath tons of rubble. Where snipers’ bullets fly, and unexploded bombs await the unwary.
In Syria, the White Helmets – officially the Syrian Defence Force -- have saved at least 70,000 lives, and probably many more.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: hope, mercy, rescue