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Originally uploaded by jamieimus.
To my shame, it took until today for me finally to donate some money to the Red Cross towards relief of this cataclysmic event.
Listening to the radio driving in to work this morning I heard another report of the mounting death toll. John Bell of the Iona Community did Thought for the Day on Radio 4, and reminded me how driven we are in the West towards acquisition of material possessions when events like this should demonstrate to us what the really important things in life are.
Finally, I saw a patient this morning. He is a nice man with severe arthritis who has just come back from Sri Lanka. He is fortunate to have only minor injuries, but he knows how easily things could have been different for him. He mentioned the fear that everyone there had at the time of a further earthquake, and how kind the locals had been towards the tourists: even locals who had lost family and friends themselves.
I believe people in the UK have so far donated around £25 million to the appeal. This sounds a lot, but it's a tiny fraction of what we all just spent on Christmas.
If a tightfisted, procrastinating cynic like me can be galvanised into activity by this disaster, maybe you should be too?
Links (from Ken Phillips' Blog):
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