20150610克己聚福弭災難 Guarding Against MERS and Cherishing Our Resources
There’s a need to deal with the MERS outbreak at the“severe” level, the country’s highest response level for infectious diseases, instead of current level of “caution”. We’d like to call on the people of Hong Kong to avoid going to South Korea unless necessary. If it is necessary to go, please avoid going to their medical institutions. In South Korea, the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is still expanding.
So, I hope everyone can avoid traveling to the Middle East and South Korea, which is very close to Taiwan geographically. At a time like this, we should take care of our personal hygiene and try not to go overseas in order to protect ourselves. As of now, 25 countries have reported cases of MERS. In total, there are 1,244 confirmed cases globally with at least 446 deaths by now. Yet, some countries are still organizing tours to South Korea as they don’t want their businesses to be affected by the MERS outbreak.
So, they are unwilling to suspend tours to South Korea. This is how contradictory people are. But it’s best that everyone can discipline and take care of themselves. We also see news about World Environment Day, which falls on June 5. This year, the U.N. invited everyone in the world to make one change towards a more responsible consumption of resources. For example, riding a motorbike or driving a car consumes much resource and creates pollution.
But riding a bike or walking is good for our health and is not polluting. Conserving our resources is very important. In our daily living, everyone should live a discipline lifestyle to conserve resources. This is what each and every one of the seven billion people in the world should do. Indeed, when we cherish more of our resources, we’ll consume less of them. We should know that many of the Earth’s ecosystems are nearing the critical tipping point.
So, this is a crucial moment for our Earth as what we do will decide whether the Earth’s ecosystems will reach the tipping point of depletion or not. Nowadays, climate change has led to many disasters, and all this is because the environment has changed. The change in environment is caused by industrial pollution. And the root cause of industrial pollution is our increased demand for material comforts. Nowadays, there are many wealthy people. Thanks to industrial development, people make more money and spend more.
But all these have only brought many disasters to the world. When the disaster strikes, we need living bodhisattvas to help those who are affected. Take Nepal for example. Many of our doctors and Tzu Chi members are still there serving those who have been affected by earthquakes such as providing emotional support to them, etc. It is very hot in Nepal now. Yesterday, I saw on the news that Nepal was 42 degrees Celsius.
Our Tzu Chi members brought a thermometer inside a tent and it was over 50 degrees Celsius. See how much the locals suffer. Because there are people suffering in Nepal, Tzu Chi volunteers go there to help. They’re just like Ksiligarbha Bodhisattva who vowed to save all living beings suffering in hell. It is with this great vow and love that Tzu Chi members go to Nepal to relieve the suffering of the locals.
Early this year, Malaysia was affected by severe flooding that caused widespread devastation in eight states, leaving many people homeless. Tzu Chi volunteers in Malaysia immediately mobilized to carry out relief. All across Malaysia, our volunteers worked together with one heart and gave of themselves with concerted effort to bring care to those affected, hold aid distributions, etc. For nearly two months, they worked tirelessly to provide care and support to those affected.
They also started a cash-for-work program to hire the locals to clean up their own communities. After the disaster areas were cleaned up, including several schools, etc., and debris was cleared away, our volunteers began to give out material supplies, etc. to those affected. Seeing that many people had lost their homes and were unable to rebuild them, our volunteers decided to build temporary houses for these families.
They planned to build 218 temporary houses with steel frames for flood victims and have hired them to build their own homes. So, wherever there’s a disaster, when everyone come together to do what they can, those affected can be helped. Similarly, in our daily living, if everyone can live a simpler and frugal life, much resource will be conserved. In Malaysia, when the massive floods hit, Tzu Chi volunteers all across Malaysia worked together to help those affected.
That’s why they were able to recover quickly. This I show Tzu Chi volunteers give themselves with love. See how a family living in our temporary house put together our portable beds to make a big bed so they no longer have to sleep on the ground again. In Nepal, we also hope that we can build these temporary houses for quake survivors to settle down into. This is what we hope to do in Nepal soon.
首頁 