You've Already Won The Lottery
30 December 2004, lunch time
The BBC has a in-depth section on the tsunamis that have killed thousands of people in South Asia and East Africa. A few days ago I noted with shock that the death toll was over 68000 people. Today that number is 114000. I imagine tomorrow it will climb higher still. Rex Murphy explains quite succinctly why we are quite lucky to be living in the West. The problems Canadians as a whole face are fairly trite when compared to those faced by the rest of the world.
Feeling motivated, I donated a $100 dollars to the Canadian Red Cross; the amount was fairly arbitrary. After donating I realized that I waste more then that eating out and buying crap on eBay. I apparently am not the only person who has come to the realization that it is easy to blow money on junk in our consumer culture. If you would like to donate there are plenty of organizations collecting money. I am quite impressed with Amazon, who have made it so easy to donate to the American Red Cross. More then that, I am impressed with the amount of money that is streaming in through their site. People actually can be quite selfless.
My intention was to donate to the tsunami relief effort, but I ended up marking the money for “Where Help is Needed Most”. People are still being killed in Dafur. There are still people displaced by the hurricanes from last year. It is all human tragedy. Of course, it doesn’t effect me in the least. It is amazing how insulated the West is from most everything ugly in the world. I wonder sometimes how different my life would be if my parents had stayed in Sri Lanka.
I have two things to say. First, I have an immense respect for those on the front lines of aid relief. They are simply amazing people. Second, I’m glad the CBC has a personality like Rex Murphy to speak and be heard.
Oh wait, I have a third thing to say (surprise surprise). If every Canadian donated $1.35 to the Red Cross today, the nation as a whole would be able to match the amount being offered by the Federal Goverment ($40MM).
by rishi on December 30 2004, 6:38 pm #
Ram ,I thought the exact same thing when watching the footage..I wonder how different our lives would of been if they had stayed in Sri Lanka…
by ahilan on December 31 2004, 2:08 am #
yeah… it’s sad that it always takes a tragedy to realize how lucky we are in Canada.
by matt on December 31 2004, 3:54 am #