Science and technology have advanced so much that it is now possible to keep any piece of information on the radar screen for as long as desired. Events can be beamed around the world as they are taking place. Indeed, the world has become a global village and even remote villages are being linked up with mobile rural telephony. Despite these huge steps, major catastrophes around the world are being neglected. From the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Somalia and Sri Lanka, major humanitarian emergencies have simply been forgotten.
Over the past three months I have made three trips to the DRC and I cannot but think about the huge challenges that the country is facing, particularly in the east where thousands (including children and women) are subjected to extremely dehumanising conditions. Yet little is heard about this in many arenas of the international community. I recall the outpouring of international relief into areas affected by the 2004 Asian tsunami. It has been estimated that aid, per person, to the affected areas exceeded 100 times the amount that went to the DRC the same year. While the devastating tsunami claimed over 200,000 lives, the DRC has suffered 5.4 million conflict-related deaths in the past decade.
Why are people in places like the DRC forgotten? As I reflect on this question, my attention is drawn to the nature of God. In the book of Isaiah, when the people complained that the Lord had forsaken them, God promised that even though a mother may forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion for the child of her womb, “I will not forget you” – and God promised full restoration.

The not-so-spectacular event
While the world is often moved to action by the spectacular, God does not always operate in that fashion. This brings to mind the story of Elijah who, when his life was threatened, ran and hid, and God appeared to him. Elijah expected to see God in a great and powerful wind, an earthquake or fire – all spectacular events – but God was not there. It was in a gentle whisper that God appeared to him. In the whisper, God commissioned him for greater assignments. Oftentimes we miss great opportunities to minister because events are no longer making headline news; we rush to the latest big event that catches everybody’s attention while leaving behind a place where we really can make a difference in the lives of people.

The will to not walk away
It is not unknown that governments and institutions have failed to respond to human disasters because they lack the political will to take action, fearing the fall-out of such action with their constituencies.
The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that such an attitude is not new. Here is a man who not only provided immediate humanitarian assistance to a victim of armed attack but also deemed it fit to provide adequate resources to ensure that the victim fully recovered. Prior to the Samaritan arriving at the scene, two religious leaders – who, by the nature of their calling, should have shown compassion – failed to do so. As a matter of fact, they abandoned the victim to his fate until the Samaritan (a man from a different ethnic group to the victim’s own) provided help.
Today, we are beginning to see help coming to some of the neglected emergencies from unexpected sources where those first called upon to provide such help have turned their faces away. For instance, China is investing heavily in many parts of the developing world, particularly Africa, sometimes filling an aid vacuum left by Western nations.
Children and women are most affected in any emergency. Those who suffer have not caused the disaster, yet victims are sometimes blamed. Jesus spurned this way of interpreting tragic events: he asked, “Do you think that these Galileans [who had endured a tragedy] were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? … Or those 18 who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all others living in Jerusalem?” Blaming victims of major humanitarian disasters or their governments for their fate cannot absolve from condemnation anyone who could help but fails to do so.
The world today has become so intricately interwoven that no part can claim immunity from the events that happen in a far corner of the world. Militants’ activities that prevent the pumping of crude oil from the Niger Delta in Nigeria can affect the commodity in the international market, and the consumer price in a place like Melbourne, Australia. Beyond economic self-interest, we could consider the long-term psychological impacts – on ourselves and, not least, on our children – of living with the awareness that so many others are suffering and that their suffering is unresolved over years, even decades.
We must not fail to act to bring an end to the suffering of many innocent people in those places that have become better known as the “forgotten emergencies”. Our world today needs many more “Good Samaritans” who would put their prejudices aside and do what is needed for a broken world. It is time we moved away from only the spectacular and dealt decisively with those emergencies that simply will not go away. The world will be a better place for all if we decide to act now.
-- Dr Omo Olupona