...an indication of the growing sense of the unity of humankind

The situation in Myanmar is so sad -- both in the destruction caused by the cyclone and the difficulty in getting help to the people there. This article in New York magazine gives a good picture of the tireless efforts by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It demonstrates how far we have come in the past 100 years -- for no matter how distant a catastrophe is from us, we have learned how to respond quickly and energetically to assist.

Over 100 years ago Baha'u'llah stated "The well-being of humanity, it's peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established". To me this means that until we see every member of the human race as our family we cannot truly resolve the problems that plague us. In crises like those in Myanmar and China we see the world drawing closer to this reality -- where we can empathize with the sufferings of other--no matter how far they live from us or how different they are in culture or language.

I also have to admit that I like the the simple reference in the article to Baha'is trying to donate money to the relief efforts (in the second paragraph). In a numerical sense, the Baha'i Faith is still quite small and unable to make a big difference in lending physical (or financial) support to these kinds of crises -- but so many individual Baha'is and communities around the world do their best to help in whatever way they can -- from feeding or providing clothing, helping with childcare or re-establishing schools and basic infrastructure. Assisting humanity is an integral element of being a Baha'i, for as Baha'u'llah said: "Be anxiously concerned about the needs of the age ye live in..." and "The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds; he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life..."