Supporting Turkiye and Syria

Over the past month, the country of Turkiye in Asia Minor is in great distress from repeated earthquakes. Up to 7.8 on the Richter scale, with many aftershocks. The most recent follow up earthquakes was two days ago, 6.4 and 5.8 on the Richter scale.

Due to the connection with the plate and fault, Syria is also an affected region, with serious building collapses in northwest Syria.

The deathtoll from the quake is now expected to rise to over 100,000 people, with so far at least 50,000 deaths in Turkiye and Syria altogether.

Early on, international rescue teams pitched in from all around the world, with teams even from Russia and China shown donating supplies and equipment. One structural engineer from China told the news agency that many reinforced concrete buildings may have failed due to lack of properly sized columns, using improper reinforcing bar, and not adequately testing the concrete quality while pouring.

The coverage in the United States has been sparse. If even the war in Ukraine is covered from an official standpoint, then it is also certain that the other critical news will reflect syndicated press as well. Instead of reports about the largest train derailment accident in history in East Palestine, Ohio from early February, the establishment press focused almost exclusively on “Chinese balloons.”

The “Chinese balloon” news story dominated so hugely that it was the only article exciting news discussions probably in order to also censor the ground-breaking revelation by Seymour Hersh a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist from the New York Times, about the Nord Stream pipeline having been a U.S. covert sea operation.

Thankfully numerous alternative news media picked the story up, even if the establishment media now question Hersh’s journalistic credibility—to cover up the Biden administration’s tracks.

Alas, the “Chinese balloon” story was eventually debunked (after the Super Bowl, another big commercial sports media distraction—practically a holiday in the U.S.). For instance Peak Prosperity host Chris Martensen & Evie discussed whether the balloons were part of a joint weather program run by the U.S. and China, but that it had come under fire after the weather balloon blew off course. (On Feb 16th Aviation Week reported that the balloons are possibly just pico-balloons gone missing, such as launched by an Illinois-based hobby club NIBBB, rising to commercial airline jet attitude—a safety hazard—and an explanation that escaped the media.)

Our media also has no time for the big speech by President Putin on February 21, 2023. I watched the translation by Michael Rossi Poli Sci (YT channel) not because I am pro-Putin, but because he promised he had a big announcement. I was worried about some kind of nuclear time-table. Well, nothing was exactly forthcoming that had not already been hinted at by RT.com. (Maybe the biggest news is that the Russian business class is being warned that they should invest more with their Asian neighbors now.)

One cannot expect a Commander-in-Chief to disclose his battlefield plans outright, and this might be why U.S. President Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on President’s Day Weekend—to make sure that his buddy Ukrainian President Zelensky receives yet more aid, and to coordinate the delivery of arms and weaponry from Poland.

No one knows the details for sure, of course, since from the beginning, one had the belief that Biden was conducting a special business crusade based on diplomatic immunity. A recent piece at the New York Post (https://nypost.com/tag/biden-classified-documents/) relates the President’s irritation with the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, about the special investigation, since he has repeatedly asserted there is nothing there, as if those classified documents had anything to do with Ukrainian oligarchs or the now raging war.

But even the NYP is reporting about the delay and attitude by Biden officials that there is nothing to see in East Palestine, OH. Sensus Fidelium (rumble.com/c/c-298311) broadcast a “Clown Planet News (18 February 2023): Ohio Train Disaster, Nord Stream Pipeline Update & More” news reel including a recent investigation by Corbett Report & Media Monarchy about the toxic chemical spill (Feb 04, 2023). According to independent scientists, the detonation is the chemical equivalent of a Chernobyl nuclear disaster, maybe more so. People should abandon town altogether; it is unsafe to live there or anywhere closeby where the water is polluted.

According to Corbett Report, the danger lies in the combination of chemicals (after combustion as a catalyst for the formation of new toxins); the previous undisclosed chemicals; the reaction after soil deposition; and its potential spread over swathes of the Corn Belt. Think about the implication for farm growers and dairy products over the next several years to decade.

But the Norfolk-Southern Railway, which according to Climate Depot, Blackrock and Vanguard own the biggest shares, is already tasked with being in charge of its own cleanup—including lab-testing–which pundits say is like putting the ‘fox in charge of the henhouse.’ According to alt-news sources, it will be too easy for the company to offer the residents buyouts while forcing them to sign nondisclosure agreements. (They might even force blanket NDA legislation…)

So this is how life is when the country is so divided up in its interests in war profiteering, that it cannot or simply does not have the funds to invest in peace. The $140 billion or so invested in Ukraine would win the United States the premier philanthropist of the world if it chose to redirect funds to help with the earthquake recovery in Turkiye and Syria. The Build Back Better Infrastructure Investment Act is in name only, while all the focus is on aid and recovery for Ukraine (which should just become a 51st state). The decimation of the states in Europe (according to the classified documents) may even envision a crippling of the commonwealth of the U.K.

And in terms of media wars, the American public is much more preoccupied with the rift between black and white, between focusing on Russia or China, between rich or poor, between LGBTQ or straight, etc. As one psychologist observed, for a marginally academic student, it can be very self-empowering to suddenly be able to call the shots on the teacher, and even more so if it is captured on smartphone camera, and which if it goes viral, will soon win the student social-influencer status.

On the other hand, if the public were kept in the dark on so many hot news topics, it must be because the legislators are not so much afraid of accountability, but because they are worried that the public will be traumatized by so much real news.

Even LifeSiteNews, which I thought I would support because of their pro-life views on euthanasia, have lately covered nothing except the pro-life (anti-abortion) fight, as well as the “targeting of conservative Catholics by the FBI.” Over the last few weeks, there has been practically nothing regarding train derailment, Nord Stream, union strikes, Ukraine-Russia peace agreement, and especially it seems, Turkiye.

How very sad that the Church is so troubled by spiritual morass that it cannot look beyond its sphere to see the afflicted in Turkiye or Syria. It may or may not have to do with general Christian prejudice against Muslims, but Turkiye has also always been a pretty secular manufacturing country, and it has been a home especially set aside by the United Nations for the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Now where will all those people go?

For someone to be investigating or interested in the Turkiye and Syria earthquakes issues definitely goes against the grain right now in the United States. Because we are still a rich and powerful nation, undoubtedly through our NGOs and through the United Nations, we will be pouring aid money there. But the aid that the people need is not just money. It requires constant attention and focus, and of the type that is hard to watch and especially to absorb.

Afterall, as Americans, we are used to watching a tragedy unfold in a couple hours on T.V., and then it’s over. Well, even I can only watch the best coverage about Turkiye only a little bit at a time, and that best coverage now happens to be TRT World online. Unsurprisingly since the English-speaking channel is based in Turkiye (and other locations around the world), it has been covering the Turkiye recovery operations non-stop. Here, you can see President Erdogan and his cabinet visiting earthquake stricken sites, learn about national heritage sites which are damaged, learn about what the extent of need is, and understand how officials are trying to cope by developing redevelopment plans for executing within reasonable time-frames. It has been especially humbling to watch how dedicated rescue teams are to recover even one nearly suffocated victim or another at a time, irregardless of ‘who they are.’

They are also enlisting the help of some of the best seismic experts from around the world who come from earthquake prone countries, as well as medical help. But it is the day-to-day human-interest stories that are educational to watch. We learn that this is not about ‘who you are’ in the Western schismatic sense of race, income, and identity, but rather what your values are and what you can do. Even from far away, if you cannot give like a billionaire can afford to, one can give one’s time in thought and prayer. One can hold up as a hero and heroine those on the ground who are patiently picking through the rubble, clearing out an area for a cooking kiln, hauling water in no matter the pain or bruising, and putting up with minimal shelter and blankets.

Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you should all speak in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you may be completely united in the same mind and in the same line of thought. 
Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:10 

It’s clear that for the hundreds of thousands of residents currently forced to live in makeshift camps that the need for reconstruction is urgent: these are middle-class citizens who were the producers in the economy and who earned their own keep in the houses or apartments they owned or leased. They need to be helped up on their feet as soon as possible.

TRT World offers live coverage on the earthquake-disaster-response, and latest documentaries.

If nothing else you can pray for the volunteers going to Turkiye and Syria, and especially for the spiritually bereft institutions that cannot find neither the time nor attention to prioritize all of human life first, rather than the need to fulfill or prioritize its own ideological needs.

Crossposted from christinehkroll.wordpress.com