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In the wake of what most likely be termed the largest natural calamity of our era, a few things strike me. The sheer humanity of the disaster and mankind's subsequent reaction to it have proved to be on a scale never before seen in the modern age. It was an event personally witnessed by most due to the news coverage and chilling footage of the water rising. The earth's reaction: over 4 billion dollars have been pledged to help our fellow humans. Uplifting though my thoughts have been on our reaction, some things discussed to provide relief to governments affected have garnered my attention.

The governments of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and others owe close to 100 billion dollars to foreign nations, the World Bank(WB), and the International Monetary Fund(IMF).(WB and IMF-their agenda is controlled by their creators and backers-the US) Creditors have proposed suspending debt payments in order to ease the burden from the current crisis. How kind of them. What is not mentioned is that these debts were incurred during the 70s and 80s under a US-sponsored infrastructure developments.

Our diplomats convinced these governments-whose leaders walked away with part of the proceeds-to borrow money to build airports, seaports, electrical grids, dams, and all number of goodies. These improvements were built by US companies who profited enormously under what only can be termed in my eyes a form of colonial exploitation. These huge construction projects did not benefit the majority of the population within these countries. The projections used to justify the building of such structures were flawed and inflated, and the businesses which pressed for the contracts were corrupt and practiced extortion in reverse. The governments who control them are still saddled with debt and poverty still reigns among the masses.

So, we in the US, being comfortably nestled in the Homeland Secure, can proclaim that we have done our part. We are a giving nation, and when we come together we can accomplish great achievements. Sometimes it is the items that escape our everyday inquiry, done by our government without notice or without cause, which harm us more than we will ever know.

I give pause and my sympathy for all those who have fallen from natural disasters along with those unnatural disasters of genocide, famine, imperialism, authoritarianism, and all other wrongs in the past year and those yet to come.