I Noticed

Last Thursday in case you haven’t heard, a Catagory 2 storm hit parts of Mozambique. The recent estimated death toll was more than 800. As reported yesterday by CNN, ” As many as “300 to 400″ bodies line the banks of a road out of the city of Beira in Mozambique, according to an eyewitness account, and flood waters have formed an inland ocean that is visible from outer space. The harrowing scene, described by Zimbabwean Graham Taylor, suggests that the human toll of Cyclone Idai is likely to far exceed official estimates.”

I’m not going to talk about it insofar as saying why the world doesn’t react to this human tragedy like they do to other tragedies. I would be mean and nasty to say the world is so totally focused on the 49 souls killed in New Zealand, that they wouldn’t care if there were a thousand black bodies lined up on the banks of the road to Beria. I have already figured out that black lives mostly matter to black people. I’m not going to waste my time with accusations and innuendo. I’m just going to report the story. Okay, maybe a little.. racist media @!$$#!!

Mozambique  is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Africa to the southwest. Although Mozambique suffered the majority of the fatalities, the storm has killed at least 259 people in Zimbabwe and 56 people in Malawi. Category 2 storms have sustained winds of 75 mph. Sandy, which began as tropical depression and turned into a Category 2 storm in 2012, sweep up the East Coast and devastated New Jersey and parts of New York. The death toll from Sandy was at least 149. The confirmed deaths include 42 in New York; 12 in New Jersey; nine in Maryland; six in Pennsylvania; five in West Virginia; four in Connecticut; two in Virginia; and one in North Carolina. One person died in Canada, and at least 67 people were killed in the Caribbean, including 54 in Haiti.

Yeah, a Cat 2 is serious business. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday that the Buzi and Zambezi rivers were at risk of breaking their banks again. “We’re going to have to wait until the flood waters recede until we know the full expanse of the toll on the people of Mozambique,” OCHA co-ordinator Sebastian Rhodes Stampa said. Some 1.7 million people are said to be affected across southern Africa, with no electricity or running water in areas where homes have been swept away and roads destroyed by the floods.

Nearly 90,000 Mozambicans are thought to be sheltering in temporary sites, while thousands of others are still stranded in floodwaters. Looks like New Orleans when Katrina hit.. right. We know what happened there… thoughts and prayers. That’s right, Mozambique and the surrounding countries are receiving thoughts and prayers instead of aid. The following report is from the Red Cross.

“The Red Cross and Red Crescent team was among the first to arrive in Beira since Cyclone Idai made landfall March 14-15. With Beira’s airport closed and roads cut off due to flooding, the team drove from Maputo, the capital city, before taking a helicopter for the last leg of the journey.

Almost everything is destroyed. Communication lines have been completely cut and roads have been destroyed. Some affected communities are not accessible,” said LeSueur. “Beira has been severely battered. But we are also hearing that the situation outside the city could be even worse. Yesterday, a large dam burst and cut off the last road to the city.”

While thousands are at peril or possible death and millions suffer, the world will not lend the compassion or save the child. That we should see the land of the Father’s and Mother’s of humanity so broken and not heed the place from which we all come.