Relative Emergencies

What is an emergency? This question came to mind the other day when a friend posted about fuel shortages in Ethiopia. Mark has been trying to get to work and home, but there seems to be a regional shortage of fuel (benzine).

“There’s a crisis right now in Ziway. Well, wait a sec. There are a lot of crises right now in Ethiopia, so I’m not sure if this one qualifies. …  Each time I ride into a Total or NOC (National Oil Company) station, the attendants look at me, wag their fingers and say “benzine yelem.

But is it a crisis? I haven’t heard of anyone dying because of the lack of fuel. … I read about true crises: 13.7 million in Ethiopia are at risk of hunger, according to Oxfam; fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes; OCHA predicts that flooding in the Horn of Africa will be worse than usual this year due to El Nino and the loss of vegetation from the drought that’s happening right now.

The financial ‘crisis’? Somehow, here in Ethiopia, it doesn’t seem to register on the ‘crisis scale’, except indirectly via the cost of food for hungry people. Perhaps that’s why Ethiopians seem so unfazed when meetings don’t happen, or when people run late. It’s all relative, and compared to the situation outside your back door, a few hours of idle time really doesn’t mean much. And neither does a lack of benzine.”

Read the whole post here.

Well put. I was thinking along these lines this week when my large building had no hot water, frustrating the residents. I’m fresh enough from Ethiopia that this still means there were 3 more days per week with hot water than I’m used to. It’s good to have this perspective. It’s good to push things forward. It’s good to build in redundancy and buffers. And it’s good to maintain some perspective and not let hiccups bother you too much, especially when there are far more urgent problems happening.

Now of course, urgent vs. important - that’s another matter.

B

       

Tagged as: ethiopia, fuel shortage, mark jeunette