20141102《人間菩提》防疫堪憂‧清淨源頭 To Prevent Disasters by Addressing Root Causes
Every day I talk about many things in this world, be it human conflicts, problems that are harming the Earth or insufficient amount of time. All these are for us to be very concerned about.
We see new developments with the Ebola outbreak. This outbreak has been going on for over half a year, and it is still not contained. From the latest news, we see that California, U.S.A. has implemented measures to prevent and control Ebola. As the situation develops in the U.S., a nurse union is staging a strike related to Ebola because nurses had been infected with Ebola virus after treating an Ebola patient who arrived in the U.S., from West Africa.
Seeing this news makes me very worried. It is already worrisome to deal with this Ebola outbreak. Doctors and nurses are human beings too. They are in the front line dealing with patients, of course they are worried. They are the first to come in contact with patients without knowing what diseases the patients may carry. Therefore, they are planning this strike.
I hope people will take the world’s health as a priority. Of course self-protection is important too. If the strike happens, other patients will be impacted by this. It will be better to reach a workable solution to protect the nurses against infection. I truly hope that people are cautious and sincere in dealing with this outbreak. Prevention is the best in dealing with this, which needs to start from the root cause.
That is why I often talk about the importance of purifying people’s hearts and minds, as it is the root cause of many problems. Every day we see news of disasters happening around the world, showing that Mother Nature is going out of balance.
We see that Blue Mountains in Australia is having another bushfire emergency. A bushfire also broke out in Blue Mountains last year. When Tzu Chi volunteers wanted to offer disaster relief, local officials did not allow us to, at first.
After hearing our challenges, they Mayor of Ipswich helped us and made a call to the Mayor of Blue Mountains. Two years ago, the Mayor of Ipswich became a friend of Tzu Chi in a flood relief for Ipswich. When he found out that Tzu Chi was blocked from responding to the fire in Blue Mountains, he made the calls to request authorization and approval for Tzu Chi to help. He also said that he would be there with Tzu Chi volunteers at the disaster relief distribution.
It was very unfortunate that on the date Tzu Chi was scheduled to go to Blue Mountains, Ipswich was suffering a disaster. Thank goodness that the mayor had very reliable staff working in the government to take care of the disaster, so he was able to go as planned. On his way to Blue Mountains, he was talking on the phone the entire way with his executive staff to follow up on progress updates. While he was traveling by airplane and car, he kept his city and its people close to his heart.
When volunteers arrived at Blue Mountains, they found that the venue provided for distribution was very simple, without a podium or a proper place to conduct a ceremony. when the Mayor of Ipswich arrived, he wanted to make a joint speech with the Mayor of Blue Mountains so he personally went and pulled up a freezer container to stand on. When the Mayor of Blue Mountains saw what the Mayor of Ipswich was trying to do, he went to stand on the container first to welcome the Mayor of Ipswich and to thank Tzu Chi volunteers
What he said was very touching. Such is his love for Tzu Chi.
This year, he came to Taiwan for the sole purpose of becoming my disciple. He told me that should any disaster happen in Australia, he will help Tzu Chi and assist Tzu Chi volunteers in all kinds of disaster relief efforts.
Now that a bushfire has broken out in Blue Mountains again and firefighters are still trying to contain the fire, after the fire has been contained. Tzu Chi volunteers should be able to provide disaster relief. Such is Tzu Chi’s work in fire disaster relief.
Yet there is also the problem of rising sea levels. Because of global warming, climate change, and melting glacier, sea levels keep rising, threatening some island nations.
Take Maldives, for example, people there are pumping pebbles and sand from the ocean to fortify their beaches in the hope of saving the island from erosion. But this is not a long-term solution as sea levels continue to rise. They still pump sand from the ocean in an attempt to preserve the shoreline. We see that people there are trying very hard to protect their land.
But when the forces of Nature pose a threat, people’s belief in fighting against Nature, is not something possible as Mother Nature is much more powerful than mankind. So, we humans should humble ourselves, purify our heart, and live a simple, modest life. Don’t live beyond our basic needs to the point of extravagance and wastefulness. Don’t keep on traveling to go sightseeing as it creates air pollution and facilitates the spread of viruses. This is very worrying.
Look at the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It is so far away, but a plane ride can carry the virus to the United States, Europe, or other countries. This is all due to the convenience of transportation. Some people have to travel due to work or business, but the majority of travel is for tourism.
Every tourist is a consumer. When they consume, they leave behind garbage. This is especially damaging to some islands that are popular tourist sites, such as American Samoa.
They have more garbage than they can manage, but they want to protect and preserve their island so a delegation came to Taiwan to learn recycling. On some offshore islands of Taiwan, some residents express that tourists are using up the local water resources. The water tanks are empty.
It ran out in the afternoon. Many tourists came to use the restroom or to take a shower, so the water ran out.
Garbage keeps on piling up. We have public garbage cans, but they still litter.
All in all, tourists travelling to various places brought about many, many problems.
All in all, there is so much in our world for me to talk about every day. With regret, we see Mother Nature out of balance. What worries me even more is people’s greed and their insatiable desire for consumption and an extravagant lifestyle, which cause damages to the land, pollute the air, and do many other harmful things to the Earth. All these problems originate from people’s hearts.
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