OK, the whole dislocation for the next month meaning to say 04 and stopping yourself and realising it is 05 LOL - this decade is almost half over and have they come up with an official name for it yet? As in we had the eighties and nineties etc, I haven't heard what this decade is? Or is it just me that has silly thoughts like that :)
Good news - heard on the news this morning that money raised for the tsunami relief effort, both government aid and private donations, has reached $8 billion. Canada had a good idea (not a new thing there) of not expecting debt repayment from the affected countries - and the US government donation is now up to $350 million. OK, now the S word (stingy) attack dogs can lay off perhaps?
Bad news, the toll is nearing 150,000 and UN officials say the exact toll may never be known. 4000 Scandanavians are still missing in the worst affected areas, and 2000 to 3500 Americans.
Hmm, just had a comment come through on an earlier post when the US aid was at $35 million assuming that it was my personal opinion that $35 million was stingy - I was just reading from what I read online mate, my personal opinion is that any aid, even my personal $20, is good and non stingy - I might have made a comment (trying to remember the actual post without going back and reading it) about the Iraqi daily war funds, but that's a whole other kettle of fish LOL.
I have nothing against Americans, as a people or a nation, like the rest of the world we all try our best, but I do have a problem with the US Administration, which isn't an isolated issue just to myself or to non Americans either. But I never thought personally that $35m was a stingy amount. But this is a blog LOL, and either you understand where I am coming from or not, all comments are welcome, even ones that cut up what I talk about, and will do my best to accommodate every opinion, but the effort to reach out to everyone, hmm, or I could talk about something that won't tie me up in knots or go around in circles LOL. That's just the way I am when I come up against disagreement, try to be inclusive, sometimes overly so :)
More good global news - a permanent truce has been signed in Sudan. Not covering what's going on in Darfur more's the pity, but regards the 20 odd year north Muslim v south animist and Christian war. Two million people killed, so that war being over is good news. The Sudanese public isn't sure whether the eventual peace deal will be workable or not, but any new arguments will be settled politically rather than by going to war again is the consensus.
OMG, you had me at hello moment. Lazily going through Blogexplosion alongside reading the news, checking my emails, and writing the latest entry up and this blog shows up. Lazily reading through it, as you do, think it's pretty good, and then the entry about his EMT work comes up. Laughter being the best medicine, but not at car crashes apparently - Brandon, if I may be so presumptuous to use your first name, sums it up wonderfully. Expecting a hero a la Backdraft or something, and Carrot Top turns up :) blogmarking, adding to actual browser favourites and merriment ensues :)
Something that has me wondering is why this earthquake and tsunami has got everyone the way they are at the moment. I mean it's great - in it's way - that a disaster in the developing world is getting the sort of coverage it deserves, rather than being placed on the inside pages after the initial reports, and that people all over the world are donating and all, but is it the fear that I think we all have of huge waves crashing in from the sea and being stuck on the spot? I mean, for example, earthquakes in Azerbeijan and Iran and places like that we get the coverage the first few days, but nowhere near $8 billion is ever pledged.
Reading that it could be that the coverage was streaming on BBC, CNN and the like, but as well as the fear of being overwhelmed by something ie a wave, it was the biggest earthquake in forty years, with the power of all the quakes of the last five years combined, and people imagining what that size quake underneath London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Berlin would do. Well that could be a donation reason for those countries that don't have thousands still missing, like the Scandinavians - no, they aren't thank god it didn't happen here pity donations I feel, but rather imagine if it happened here, I would hope that other countries/people would donate just as generously... the whip around at work made $891, from about 300 staff, so that's like 890 blankets, or 45 tents perhaps... every bit helps.
Hmm, but equally, people should have realistic expectations of what can be done. Not talking about the locals that are stuck in the affected countries, but the tourists coming out, saying oh what was the (for example) Australian government doing, and they should have done more. It's a huge disaster affecting millions and you want your hand held mate? The foreign countries have done what they could, as quickly as possible, amid much chaos and confusion - be thankful you are alive and can fly out of the area and that it isn't your home...
Hmm, lol is it just me or am I venting a lot today?
More bad news, 175 dead, 619 injured in a nightclub fire in Buenos Aires. Apparently the emergency exits were locked to stop people getting in without paying - haven't we heard that story in nightclub fires before? The mood I'm in, if it is true that the exits were locked, and for that reason, the management of the club should be executed - this from a usual anti-death penalty boy, so I am in a grump LOL.
Need to post this, clear my head a bit, and the next entry will start out as a personal one - Wot I Did New Years Eve LOL.
Pauly
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