:: It was the Christmas of 2004

Well it's been a darn long time since my last update to this site. Over a year or so actually. I wasn't sure if I would even get back to putting anything down here. Suffice to say I eventually did, so here I am. It was a good Christmas while it lasted, the same usual routines of having gatherings and attending church mass. It is a time to appreciate the things we have and things we've been blessed with: Family, good friends, a roof over our heads, and of course the computer that we use to get online with. It is also a time to reflect and pray for those not as fortunate, those who want to share in the festive spirit but are otherwise unable too. Generally at church we have a prayer for the homeless, aged, disabled, those who are alone, those who are not with us any longer. This year was the same for me at church, but this year was also a shock for me the day after. You all know what I'm talking about: TSUNAMI!!! I'm currently not living in Singapore anymore, had I been I may well have been at one of the places hit by this disaster and become one of the statistics that we see on all the news reports. I'm sure many of you reading this now are thinking the same thing. This has happened so close to my homeland, but when I heard the news I knew that Singapore was protected and if anything it would be our neighbours that bore the brunt of the damage. Small consolations in dire times is what I would say. Expected death rates of over 100,000 people, of which 1/3 are children. Countless missing, and thousands of unidentified bodies. Half a million injured, while towns and villages have been destroyed. We've got the numbers, we know the statistics, now it's time to look beyond that. I once heard that you can draw a line of relationship between yourself and any person in the world by going through just 10 people. I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate, but imagine that if it were. You probably know someone that knows someone who knows someone that eventually knows me. Likewise for the victims of this latest blow that mother earth has dealt us. They are not statistics anymore that we read about and hear about. They are no longer just our neighbours. They are are friends and family. Ask around, I'm sure you'll eventually find someone that connects you to the situation, however indirectly. There is only so much we can do, I had thought that I might be able to do something to help and thus searched around to see what could be done. There is not much at a time like this as things are just too chaotic, I definately couldn't just fly over and ask 'What can I do to help?'. However I can give, and obviously it is cash that I am talking about. The UN has predicted that the recovery efforts of this will be staggering in the billions, I don't even know what the numbers are exactly, but they are large. So what can we do? We can give. We can all pitch in by making donations big and small to the organisations that are scrambling on our behalf to aid the victims. We can help the organisation that have choosen to look beyond race, creed, and culture, the organistions that uphold our pillars of hope and comfort in dire times. Give what you can in what ever way you want. There are 2 sites that I've used: http://www.unicef.org http://www.mercyrelief.org Ask around, think about it and look beyond the statistics. Our friends are in need and we have the power to respond.