The Importance of Self-Reliance

Now we have a problem. On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the tiny island nation of Haiti. Just a month and a half later, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through the South American country of Chile. Death tolls in Haiti have now climbed well over 150,000 while Chile has reached at least 700 confirmed dead and everyone seems to making the same commentary: the difference in response time and level of organization between the two countries is striking.

It is tempting to place blame somewhere. Perhaps the Chilean government was more prepared – they were certainly better funded. The international humanitarian organizations were already in earthquake-response mode from Haiti so it may not have taken much for them to relocate some of their resources. Yet we’ve hardly seen the end of the tunnel yet. It will be interesting to see what kind of monetary humanitarian response Chile will receive from the general public. I worry not much because we may be suffering from a bout of earthquake fatigue.

The point I wish to make here actually has nothing to do with a comparison between Chile and Haiti. It is a comparison that is impossible and unfair to make anyway. Yet when these natural disasters occur, there is always a rush to analyze the response time. We Americans remember all too well the embarassing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how we tricked ourselves into thinking that we were adequately prepared for everything.

Though government assistance and the valiant work of non-profit organizations in the time of natural disasters are always a Godsend, we must never rely on them. We must never forget the fundamental principle of self-responsibility, no matter how young or poor or scared you are. As Popular Mechanics magazine reminds us, “If you’re at the scene of a major disaster, it may be a long time before outside help arrives. But one person is sure to be there: you. And nobody cares more about helping you and your family in time of disaster than well, you. So it makes sense for you to be prepared to take care of yourselves – and your neighbors – for sometime afterwards.” This means purchasing water filters, water storage devices, adequate food, radios, blankets, and most importantly, acquiring a basic level of emergency training, such as CPR.

We have so many excellent non-profit and effective government programs that I worry that we have slacked off on our responsibility to self-reliance. Because of this, I am strong advocate of everyone in society being thrown out alone in the woods for a few days just to get their feet on the ground. Of course, it is difficult to think clearly in a natural disaster, it is much easier to wait for assistance than to take any concrete action, but in this way, you are also endangering yourself and putting more burden on the few individuals who have decided to assist those in need.

It is like this: you were recently laid-off from your job and now you need to look for work. If you do not secure another job, you will not be able to feed your family, you will not be able to pay for your home, and you will be put into poverty. What do you do? You don’t sit around and wait for your situation to decline. You don’t wait for the job to come to you. You go out and look for it. You do anything you can.

The people of Haiti were likely not educated on disaster preparedness – and even if they were – very few of them have the means to go out and purchase adequate supplies for such a catastrophe. We cannot blame them, but we can certainly learn from them. We can certainly ask more of ourselves as citizens. Like social entrepreneurs do when they decide to make their business worth something more than a personal profit, we can choose to take on a bigger chuck of the social burden.