Meathman's Diary: Power in the kindness of strangers
Being the subject of an unprovoked attack by your bigger and (seemingly) more powerful neighbour isn’t an alien concept to us on this island. Another idea that we shouldn’t forget is that of reaching out unprompted to those who are suffering, even if the donor themselves is under duress.
It’s well known that in 1847 the Choctaw Nation sent $170 (€6,000 in today’s money) of aid to starving Irish families at the height of the Great Famine.
It’s easy to forget that at time of the donation the Choctaw had just experienced their own genocide after the United States government forcibly relocated the tribe and several other American Indian groups from the Southeastern United States, a march across thousands of miles known as the Trail of Tears that left thousands of people dead along the way.
To put a modern, relatable spin on it, the rising cost of living is squeezing many Irish families but Ukraine’s plight far exceeds any hardship most of us will ever experience.
Ireland’s response to Russia’s aggression has been for the most part positive. We pledged to take in an extraordinary amount of refugees (especially compared to an unnamed close by former coloniser who is no stranger to inflicting hardship and wanted to make any new arrival jump through hoops to get asylum seeker status).
We’ve also pledged money, supplies and even thought about breaking our matrimonial bond with neutrality due to the war but decided to give it another chance, with a few slight changes.
But as the war intensifies every day we hear of atrocities with such regularity that we’ve become desensitised to them.
A Polish friend whose grandparents lived through the Second World War recently recalled how her grandmother said that when Poland was invaded by both the Russians and Germans, she saw the Aryan occupiers as being the lesser of two evils. Imagine being regarded as being so brutal that people preferred to be under Nazi rule than you.
Judging by the reports coming out of places like Bucha and Mariupol not much has changed in the intervening eighty years.
Now is the time to step our aid efforts rather than give ourselves a pat on the back.
Newspapers, the airwaves and social media had awash with stories of citizens, communities and corporations pledging their support for Ukraine in recent times, but with the odd exception, there’s been a noticeable drop off supportive hashtags as we become more concerned with bigger, more important events on our agenda such as that week in the Canaries or cousin Yvonne’s wedding.
Just like the Choctaw did all those years ago we need ask ourselves: is there someone else who needs it more? If so then we need to put our money where our proverbial mouth is and dig deep.