A few weeks ago, I noted how Israel has, for decades, filled a unique niche in providing first-rate, medical assistance in the aftermath of “mass casualty” events.
Qanta Ahmed—author of the book, In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom—was impressed by what Israel accomplished in Haiti. She argues that Saudi Arabia also has much to contribute in this field, and that the Muslim world needs to move beyond checkbook charity:
In Makkah, every year, Saudi Authorities deploy some of the largest semi-permanent health infrastructures to serve 2.5 million Muslim worshipers who descend to make the religious pilgrimage of Hajj, the world’s largest mass gathering. Saudi experience attending complex mass operations is peerless. Recent experiences at managing pandemic influenza in this unique environment have been published in The Lancet and are informing many diverse mass-gathering experiences all over the world.
Clearly, we have the wherewithal, we have the means, we have the knowledge. What we lack, however, is merely the will. Through such action, we will do much more than help Haiti, we will be helping ourselves, moving our fellow Muslims from a contemptuous and unhealthy ‘cash can solve anything’ mentality to a sense of ownership and participation and above all a vital sense of ‘can-do’ engagement. While this is happening in small steps already and unfolding at the behest of the apical leadership of a number of Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia ….I am impatient for more. Kings and Princes aside, the remaining 1.56 Billion of us can call to engage so much more deeply than just reaching into our flush pockets. Some of us can act personally on Haitian soil, some of us can act to influence our leaderships at home.
Nothing makes more impact today in our divided world than the delivery of medicine, health and aid across the world in times of need….We are in an age when selfless acts of Global Health Diplomacy maybe one of the few currencies remaining which can help unite an increasingly fractured, inflamed global landscape….We need to step beyond the limits of entrenched politics, generational hatreds and, thus freed, lend our vibrant imaginations, our diverse experience, our own raw power and pitch in alongside others, “even” the IDF.
