In Harm’s Way

We seem to be developing a strong penchant for putting ourselves in harm’s way and then expecting our government (other Canadian citizens) to haul us back to safety when things run amok. Much ink has been spilled, video clips and sound bytes aired, and blame assigned over the plight of Canadians caught in the Middle East in the past week. No one, resident or visitor, should be caught up in a war, but one has to wonder about the thought process of placing oneself and one’s family in harm’s way by going to a region that has been in conflict for the past half-century.

Adding to the blame-placing has been CBC’s coverage of the extraction of Canadians from Lebanon. Our small embassy was not, and ought not to have been, staffed to handle such a large exodus of people. We do not have a fleet of naval vessels in the Med (nor anywhere else), but to listen to the CBC, one would think that Harper could wave a magic wand and make the problem disappear over night. Admittedly, the CBC seems to have discovered that some of the people they were interviewing did not hold valid Canadian passports but thought this good opportunity to air their views on the conflict.

We saw similar coverage of the folk caught in Mexico during last year’s hurricane season. I suppose the reward for off-season prices outweighed the risk of being caught in a hurricane in hurricane season. Why do you think the prices were so low at that time of year? Besides, the Canadian government (the rest of us) would come to your rescue and get you safely home.

Yet it is not only those who travel the globe for excitement, adventure or vacations who put themselves in harm’s way and automatically expect help when things go wrong. We have daring souls who climb mountains and need rescuing when the weather suddenly turns bad – as it often does in the mountains. People strike out for a hike in the wilderness and get themselves confused over north and south and need the military to search for and rescue them, often using old helicopters that put more people in harm’s way.

We have thousands of our citizens who smoke, knowing (but not believing) that they are putting their health at risk, yet they continue to wander in harm’s way under the assumption that the rest of us will pay for their health recovery or hospitalization. We see people eating and drinking in what must seem like an obvious state of oblivion to the health care profession, who are daily putting themselves in harm’s way. Is there not a realization that sooner or later someone is going to have to pay for their poor health habits? Oh, I forgot – the “government” will look after us.

There are people who willingly put themselves in harm’s way every day – the military, police services and fire brigades. But they are well-trained and equipped, and even they do a risk assessment before tackling a situation fraught with danger. What excuse do the rest of us have for placing ourselves in harm’s way? It is one thing to charge out onto the playing fields where we might receive a body-check, be beaned with a softball or stung by a well-aimed tennis ball, but to ignore the consequences of our actions is simply irresponsible.

By all means make your religious pilgrimage to the holy lands; but do not expect us to come to your rescue when you cannot catch the next flight home because of a hail of rockets and bombs falling about your head. Book that vacation to the jungles of the Amazon; but if when they find you, you are wasting away from some exotic disease, do not expect the rest of us to pay for your recovery.

Maybe we have been living above our comfortable Canadian social safety net too long. We have conveniently forgotten to make some risk assessment before we place ourselves in harm’s way. Responsibility for one’s actions – what a novel thought!