One of the best parts about sports in general are the celebrations of the athletes. They’re so satisfying, even when the athletes are just competing for themselves or for some team. But in the Olympics, they’re competing for their country. The celebrations are breathtaking, inspiring. We all come from somewhere, and somehow we are all connected to the people who come from the same place. Usually the word “nationalism” conjures a somewhat negative meaning, but the fact is, the Olympics would be nothing but another tournament without it.

We choose who to cheer for based on which flag is plastered across the TV when the athlete appears. Maybe we pull for the country where we went on vacation once, where we studied abroad, where they speak the language we study, where our ancestors came from. I know I do. But I would imagine that most of us are cheering mainly for our country, the country where we come from. And I’m also pretty sure that when we cheer, we’re not just cheering for the athlete, but for the country as well.

The Olympics are such a wonderful celebration of athleticism and unity because of the way the nationalism pulls us together. The whole world is watching, everyone is following the stories and watching what’s going on, and even though we’ve got out favorites and we’ve probably had them determined by our birthplace and our TV broadcast, we’re usually still happy to see the celebration of whoever wins, even if it’s not our favorite. We all feel it — so it’s easy to imagine what they’re feeling and to empathize with them, no matter where they’re from.

On Friday afternoon, only hours before the Opening Ceremonies began, someone told me that one of the Georgian lugers had died on a practice run. Of course, the news was terribly sad. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to come so close to participating in the Olympics only to have everything end only hours before you were supposed to walk in behind someone carrying your country’s flag. Awful.

But I’m a little embarrassed to say that when I first heard the news, I figured it was a strange way of saying that an American luger from the state of Georgia had died. Still sad, no doubt, but there’s a big support system here, and back-up athletes. It only dawned on me that he was Georgian, from the country, when I saw his name. And this is coming from someone who thinks a lot more about Eastern Europe and Central Asia than most people!

To me, the fact that he came from Georgia makes it even sadder. Georgia is a country that sent less than 10 athletes to begin with, and you can imagine that their lives have been significantly more challenging than many other Olympians. When Nodar Kumaritashvili was born, his country was one of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Since then the country has gained its freedom, but there has been much political unrest, the government is not fully democratic in the sense that we take for granted, and the most attention the country has garnered on the world scene came from Russia’s invasion of it in 2008. There is still a Russian presence in Georgia, and the two countries are not, shall we say, pleased with each other. This is a different world we’re talking about.

You can bet that Nodar had to cross a lot of barriers to become an elite athlete in the sport of luge. It’s not like running or something, where he could just thrown on a pair of shoes and go. Imagine all the work he put into it. Imagine the 8-person team, imagine how close they must have been. There’s no way the whole US team could possibly have known each other — some of the most well-known athletes, the hockey players, hadn’t even arrived at the time of the opening ceremonies — but an 8-person team would be like a family. I know that NBC’s been trying to make you cry all weekend if you’ve been watching, but to me, leaving out almost any mention of the situation in the country itself was the wrong way to go about it. Georgia’s getting some more notice here, but I think we can all agree that they would rather not have it for this.

GES has played a big part in NU Stands with Haiti, the Northwestern community’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. So far, the community as a whole (undergrads and grad students combined) have raised well over $12,000. And where has the money come from? Canning, bracelet sales, yoga classes, and, well, keggers.

We’ve spent a good amount of time at GES meetings discussing the way things are going here. It’s been a huge success in terms of fundraising, and a large part of Northwestern has contributed their time or money to help the hundreds of thousands of Haitians affected by the earthquake. And one of the best parts is that this extends way past the usual boundaries of engagement at Northwestern — there are easy ways for everyone, literally everyone, to get involved, even if it’s only by giving $5 and assuming that whoever you’re giving it to will get it to the right place.

I think we can all agree that the more money we can send to Haiti, the better. But are there any problems with the way we’re doing it? Is raising awareness by changing your facebook status or paying an extra couple of bucks for a party (I believe the term is “slacktivism”) the right way to go about it? Is there a right way to go about it? NU Stands with Haiti has also been arranging panels and discussions to actually educate the community, but on a college campus, it’s a certainty that the parties will be better attended than the panels, no matter which experts they bring it.

I think if we at GES had our way, everyone would know about the specific organizations they were supporting, and they would know exactly what was going on in Haiti, where their money was going, why it’s imperative to help this country, and why now. But the reality is that not everyone cares enough, and that anything that we as a community can do to help is better than not doing anything at all, even if it is just blindly donating. Right now, what Haiti needs is numbers, and if we can do that through appealing to Northwestern’s cravings for beer and baked goods, then that’s the way we’ll do it.