The Dirty Hands That Pretending To Help

No one knows when disaster will happen to us. When someone is hit by a disaster, we should help each other among human beings. Some of them sent food aid such as basic needs. Then, some just send money which is more practical and flexible in terms of usability. Humans are supposed to help out as social beings and you can't avoid that connection.

Among the many sincere people, some give because they want certain attention. People with this type try to take advantage of the grief felt by disaster victims. Crimes that take advantage of psychological and emotional victims are enough to make our eyes open that a small number of them want conditions that can provide benefits to one or several parties. It was a very unsettling situation.

You may ask "what motives underlie this disrespectful behavior towards the victim?". The answer to this matter must be several factors. Disaster relief is needed so that victims' losses are replaced with better goods or money. But, for those who wanted to be mean and take chances, don't even think about it. Even if they think sadly about the suffering of the victims, they still use it to their advantage. This kind of behavior isn’t exemplary.

Several factors underlie the inappropriate treatment of victims, namely those who want to seek popularity, seek money and bad cultural habits. So, let me explain below.

Looking For Popularity

Popularity isn’t only sought through singing competitions, music competitions, talk shows, the number of social media followers and so on. But, popularity can be sought through social and humanitarian issues. This treatment is often carried out by political actors and celebrities to find the masses to support them. In this case, they often distribute large amounts of aid to the victims and they are greeted like heroes who are always ready to be beside them. Unfortunately, the public cannot explicitly judge their sincerity. only they know that intention.

Sometimes from different points of view, some people hate them. So, some people utter hate speech at people who don’t know the truth and the original treatment of these characters. So, that bad image is deliberately directed to bring someone down.

Make Money From Disaster

If a person earns money from work, this is commonplace and normal. Then, if someone were to make money off of the disaster and have the unowned share, that would be extremely impudent. Many people chose this path and deliberately took away the little money that should have been given to the victim. This treatment doesn't look at political figures or celebrities because the public or society can do this.

But, crimes like this are more often committed by the lower class or subordinate to officials who want a share of the amount of money that is to be channeled to the victim. They reasoned that they needed money for the transportation and security services they had done. Well, we should thank them for their service but they want more money. Thus, they took some part of the money for the victims which they shouldn’t have done. In the end, the victim only gets a small amount of money that is difficult to replace the loss that has occurred.

Bad Cultural Habits

We are conditioned by the customs in which we were born. Each person has a different way of life and language according to the place where they stand. This also includes bad human habits in which each person has different vices on each side. This factor also underlies why some parts of the country are advanced and some are still underdeveloped in terms of technological development, human resources and others. In this case, I take the example that the mindset of people in my country is also influenced by the media which is less professional in reporting on disaster conditions.

Sometimes, the focus directed by journalists in discussing with victims isn’t telling real conditions. I just want to say that they are quite silly to ask something that doesn't make any sense. An example that often happens is they ask "was there a dream or premonition that something bad will happen?". To be honest, this isn’t what the public wants to know. This is because the previous Indonesian culture also took a lot from mystery stories. So, this culture is carried over into the professional world where things like that shouldn't be asked about. Then, sometimes the media also takes the grief of the victims to make excessive content to build a good image for the public.

So, there are several conditions where there are some people who take advantage of the situation for their interests in the post-disaster situation. They take advantages that are quite detrimental to the victim because they should not receive such treatment. I only hope that this deviation will no longer be repeated.

Image Sources:
1. Unsplash | NOAA (lead image)
2. Pexels | Romina Ordonez
3. Pexels | Pixabay
4. Unsplash | Sam McGhee