An Act of God

My blog has been silent, yet there is so much to say. There are no easy words to
express the daily horrors on the news following the earthquake disaster of last
week. It is hard for you back home or in other parts of the world to fathom or
visualise the havoc and despair that has been put upon the inhabitants of the areas that were hit by the quake and the outpouring of grief and sorrow of the
people as a nation.

One has to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the sights shown and the
stories of bravery and miracles told, not only in the newspapers and on the news, but from person to person as each has read or heard of some moving
story that they wish to share. For those of us who have lived through war,
terrorism and in a politically vibrant country, we can well identify with their
pain and loss. For those who have suffered at the hands of any kind of natural
disaster, you can appreciate too the tragedy that has occurred here.

It has been eye opening to see a country that is most of the time smiley and
positive, to be at a loss as to what to do and an outpouring of monies and blood
have found their way into the respective banks. But as the days pass and the hope of finding further people alive begins to dim, thoughts are turned towards
the question of 'what is to be done with all this money?'.

As for those of us who live in the west well know, misappropriation of funds is
common, not necessarily intentionally, but because in an aim to satisfy all needs, the money in hand is not always used appropriately and often those in dire need, are left bereft of even basic facilities and commodities.

For this reason, I have already said it to my students and I say it again for all my
Chinese readers, collect funds and purchase practical items. Toys (which child
does not want their own ball or teddy bear), books, non-perishable food stuffs
such as flour, rice, instant noodles, coffee, tea etc.... that can be stores and distributed to people individually, so giving them a glimmer of self dignity and
pride.

For those of you who wish to continue to fund the area in the months to come, set up a fund with friends, or colleagues then wait till the sum has reached an
amount that you are able to put to practical use and buy necessary equipment
either for schools, kindergartens, invalids etc... In truth there is no end to the
amount of requirements of these evacuees.