HUMAN first, then a proud IRANIAN

This blog represents the way I see some of the most significant events impacting the world and its citizens. This blog also represents how I react to the events as a member of humanity with a voice, a determined voice that insists to be heard. The voice of an Iranian who loves his country but his priority is humanity; humanity without border. I will say what I want to say, when I want to say it, and how I want to say it, but I will never lie. I will also listen; I promise.

January 02, 2004

When hearts corrupt!

During last few days after the tragedy of the earthquake in Bam, I visited many sites from various backgrounds and ethnicities to see the reaction of different people to this human tragedy.

In most of the sites/blogs that I visited, there was either no mention of the quake at all, or there was plenty of sympathy towards the victims of the quake. Many of the bloggers were also kind enough to encourage their readers to make donations to the quake victims. They had either provided direct link to different organizations, or directed their readers to Iranian blogs in which plenty of information was available.

However to my disappointment, there was one exception to this:Most of the members of a certain group were acting so inhumanely. This obvioulsly did not include all the members of that group, as I admit many of them couragously put aside politics and acted as normal people who care about other people and would come to assist in the time of need. I visited many blogs with pro-Israeli sentiments. Although "a few" of the hosts were inviting their readers to donate for quake relief, some of the same hosts were ruining their invitation and encouragement to help, by providing negative stories at the same time.


What I noticed in many of the comments of this certain group was the ultimate dirt in their attitude towards this tragedy. Many of them had tied their donation (or lack of donation rather) to the fact that the stupid government of Iran had announced that it would accept assistance from any country but Israel. And this had made many pro-Israelis "rightfully" angry. It made many people angry. But would lack of donation to the victims of the quake (who had no say in the policies of the Iranian government) be justified based on this? One commentator even said:

"I sent a check payable to the bearer to the Foreign Office in Israel. I then e-mailed Ayatollah Khameni and told him where he could request the money.
This is why.
"... Iran said on Saturday it would accept aid from all foreign countries except Israel following the quake..."
Didn't want to be accused of being an enabling co-dependent, you know..."


Given the fact that it was clear that Khamenie would not ask the Israeli government for any help anyway, it can easily be understood that this commentator had no true intention of helping the victims of the quake. What was important to him/her was his/her political belief and not the victims. You might say, idiots are found in every ethnic and groups, but if one leaves a comment such as this and is not condemned by other fellow commentators (plenty of whom were available on that site), is it not reasonable to consider this a common belief in that community? I have to add that the example that I just mentioned was one of the least inhumane examples that I came across.

This tragedy could have impacted how I viewed this group, it could have meant to me that even those die-hard pro-Sharon, pro-Israeli (government) can have compassion in the time of human tragedy, it could have forced me to reconsider my position towards them, it could have been a good opportunity to make many changes, but it didn't. Although I maintain my respect to those few people from the same group who decided to care for the suffering of the victims of the quake rather than politics at least for little while, I am even more certain today that most of those who support the policies of the current Israeli government have hardly heard about humanity.

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