I clicked on the link for the First Aid Kit, but it just went around in a loop - at no point did a form or anything come up. I'm not Jewish, but have Jewish sympathies and lived with a Jewish family for 5 1/2 years - does that count ? Oi vey!
Its a lovely idea, but unfortunately, I think they have finished now.
Is it odd, but I always thought of the cross on a first aid kit as a cross plaster thing, rather than a religious thing. I suppose red crescent as apposed to red cross should have given it away, but still...
Magen David Adom is the Israeli affiliate of the International Red Cross/Red Crescent movement. For obvious reasons neither of those two symbols are usable in Israel, even though the "Cross", the original symbol, was simply the inversion of the white cross on the Swiss flag, and has no religious significance whatsoever. The Red Crescent came later to allow the movement to operate in Muslim countries, and now a third symbol, the Red Crystal, has been thought up to allow work where neither Cross not Crescent are appropriate. I must say I am surprised that there's a UK branch of the MDA, I am guessing that perhaps they have reached an agreement with the British Red Cross that enables the movement to reach e.g. Ultra-Orthodox sections of the Jewish community in the UK, who might not approach BritCross for training or event cover. I have to stress though that this is my inference, it's a while since I worked at the Red Cross and I'm a bit out of touch.
I do feel saddened though, that one religious group wouldn't accept help from others. I am not religious (although father is a Muslim convert and mother flirts with Jehovah's Witnesses), but I do think it is worrying that in times of disasters, people are still divided like this. For me, prepping is about breaking down barriers like that - especially when people are most vulnerable.
Out of interest, is there a universal 'Red Cross' - I suppose like 'International Rescue' (I'm only half joking!) - that would be mutually agreeable to everyone?
Winklebury wrote:Thanks, that is interesting stuff!
I do feel saddened though, that one religious group wouldn't accept help from others. I am not religious (although father is a Muslim convert and mother flirts with Jehovah's Witnesses), but I do think it is worrying that in times of disasters, people are still divided like this. For me, prepping is about breaking down barriers like that - especially when people are most vulnerable.
Out of interest, is there a universal 'Red Cross' - I suppose like 'International Rescue' (I'm only half joking!) - that would be mutually agreeable to everyone?
not sure although wonder where the idea of the green and white cross came from baring the EEC signs and signals regulations 1996?
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong
Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
Still a cross though. I am not trying to be pedantic, but the cross symbol seems to offend Muslims and Jews in the context of first aid and disaster, so this isn't solving the problem!
I'm not racist btw, in case the above seems a little insensitive - it isn't meant to be. I am genuinely puzzled by symbolism being a block to accepting aid across faiths - it is scary to me, I would accept, and hope for aid, from anyone whop can give it!
@winkle - there isn't a "Universal" Red Cross. There is the International Committee of the Red Cross which is a private Swiss charity affiliated to the Red Cross movement but separate from the International Federation of Red Cross/Crescent/Crystal Societies. It is confusing. The easiest way to think about it is that if people are shooting, then the ICRC go in. If it's man-made or natural disaster or crisis, then IFRC and national RC societies.
@yorkie - the white cross came about because it's not the red cross. The RC movement realised that the more the RC symbol was used for things that weren't related to it, the more diluted its message became. Most countries in the world now have Emblem legislation which restricts use of the RC to the national RC society, and it is used to show either possession or protection.
