Bleeding Heart Fools

On March 11, the Oshika Peninsula of Japan was hit by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake, the largest recorded earthquake the world had ever seen, which subsequently triggered devastating tsunamis. Many lives were lost, buildings destroyed, and as I write this piece it is still unclear whether the explosion at Fukushima Daiichi 1 Reactor poses a serious danger or not. In light of this event, over 60 countries are currently involved in relief efforts. Our poor but generous government announced that it also wants to help the people of Japan.


Young progressive citizens whom I admire greatly organized a campaign to bring a sizable group to the gates of the Embassy of Japan in Kyrgyz Republic. They laid flowers, signed a letter of condolence, and some even held lit candles. One could even watch the live feed of the event. This was a genuine act of compassion where Kyrgyz people expressed their concerns about the affected people of Japan. But when the government announced that it is considering sending relief effort workers over to Japan, I was deeply troubled. The amount of money required to send our Kyrgyz relief effort workers, to feed them, to house them, and to safely returns them home is greater than the dollar equivalent of their help to the people of Japan. If we do want to help the Japanese victims, the sensible thing is to send financial support to those relief effort workers who are more productive on the ground. That would make sense if we had the money. The Japanese government is one of the biggest contributors of financial and technical aid to Kyrgyz Republic. We are net debtor for Japan. To use the borrowed funds to help the Japanese is no different than borrowing 10,000 dollars from your relative in Russia who is in distress and spending 8,000 of it on travel expenses and providing them 'help' worth 2,000 dollars. It just does not make any sense. More sensible alternative is to organize a private fund, privately charter a plane, and send private volunteers over to Japan. To ask for public funds (borrowed) to achieve a private (and very noble) goal is no different than saying "I have strong feelings about this and, even if you don't share my sentiment, I believe I have the right to take your money to get this done."

I admit that I share these young progressives' sentiment to do something, now. This call for public action is likely to have a net positive social gain if one assumes that most of the public funds will be channeled into unproductive (most likely to the black hole) ends. Unfortunately, this assumption is not too far from reality. That makes the issue doubly tragic.