Tuesday, December 28, 2004
'All the planet is vibrating.'
I'm simply astonished by the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami in Asia. Through Mrs Philocrites' church, we know Sri Lankans and Indians from Kerala; another friend is in northern Thailand with a group of students on a study-abroad program, and he wrote to say he felt the quake but happily was not near the coast; and other friends have lived in or visited Indonesia and Thailand. I can only begin to imagine their dismay. But reading the news accounts and seeing the photographs of so many devastated lives boggles the mind. Today's New York Times puts the story in stark, heart-breaking terms: "A Third of the Dead Are Said To Be Children." Here's the AP list of aid agencies where you can send money to help.
Copyright © 2004 by Philocrites | Posted 28 December 2004 at 10:25 AM
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Philocrites
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Commentary by Chris Walton on Unitarian Universalism, liberal Christianity, American religion, and liberal culture. Contact me.
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2 comments:
JoyPople:
December 30, 2004 01:17 PM | Permalink for this comment
The news of devastation is beyond digesting. Here's something that jolted me to a new perspective. Suppose that relief efforts do more than just save lives in order to restore people to marginal living. What if we could change the dynamics?
For example,
- bring in solar technology to help with relief and serve as "seed stock" bringing lasting benefit to communities
- ship items in cardboard packing that is impregnated with seeds and fertilizer that will thrive in local climate and produce food (or newly-developed seeds of plants whose differential growth will indicate the location of land mines).
see, for example, http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001817.html
Mechaieh:
December 31, 2004 01:51 AM | Permalink for this comment
I was glad to read Charlie Clements' letter to UU ministers.
And, a friend from my congregation attended the Air Force Academy with the director of International Relief Teams (which, amongst their other merits, keeps their admin overhead down to 3%).
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