tsunami
To be honest I'm a coward. I've been avoiding a lot of this news because it is just too heart breaking and I'm not able to cope with it right now. Probably a highly callous approach, but I'm getting plenty of info - pictures, stories, etc - just through osmosis it seems. To sit down and actively seek it out or watch it would just be too much.
One thing that has had me in tears every time I read it is the Herald's Tsunami Message Board. So far I haven't recognised any names, but it is still very emotional - each name represents someone missing, someone who their family and friends may never see again, someone who might have had another child, or fixed their broken relationship with their dad, or made someone else very happy. People who were on their honeymoons, on their holidays, on business, visiting family, taking that trip of a lifetime. Every name is a story and a life, and all those people connected to them through the most prosaic links and the most bizarre ways imaginably.
Then there are the millions and millions of locals whose lives will never be the same. The effects of this event will go on for years to come and for so many of those people who had so little to start with... well as I already said, it's more than I can really bear to think about.
Meanwhile someone has set up a blog on the tsunami at asiantsunami.blogspot.com - I haven't had a good look at it yet, but it seems to be examining what could have been done to prevent the huge devastation being wrecked. I'm not sure that you can do much really, although there are always lessons to be learnt.
And, as so many others have already blogged, please make an automatic $20 donation to the Red Cross by calling 0900 31 100. Every little bit really will count.
Update: You can also donate directly to the Red Cross Asian Tsunami Appeal using their excellent online donation facility. This will avoid Red Cross having to pay Telecom 70c for each 0900 call made. Bad Telecom!!
3 comments:
I'm cowardly too but I don't think its callous, as such. I can feel depressed and sad enough just knowing about tragedy in a generalized sense. Specific individual detail is more than I can handle. So I filter information as much as I can. And ultimately its not like me spending all day in tears is going to help anyone who has personally sufferred a loss- so I take the view that its better for me and the people around me who I do have responsibilities towards if I keep myself as well functioning as possible... If ignorance is bliss/at least functioning at an acceptable level, t'is folly to be wise
i guess you're right - i could cry buckets but it's not going to help. the sheer scale of this tragedy is too much to really take in and register i suspect.
i found the story of the Perth woman who had to let go of her son compelling and tragic reading. She had to choose between her 20 month old baby and her 5 1/2 year old son who couldn't swim. She gave her son to a girl nearby but then found out later that she lost him - luckily the boy was able to hold onto a pole and was later rescued and returned to his parents by a policeman basically unharmed. The father had to watch the mother and children from a balcony up above. :-(
Further Update: TeleScum has now waived the 70 cent fee on the 0900 number. See here where it says:
How much of my donation will go to people effected in the region?
All money donated to the New Zealand Red Cross South Asia Tsunami Appeal will go to providing relief. Red Cross takes no money from special appeals for administration costs. Telecom has also waived its standard 70-cent charge on each 0900 phone donation.
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