When I was little, I would get the words typhoon and tycoon mixed up. Granted, in Raleigh, there was little need for either word since we didn’t have typhoons and I’m not sure even the richest person in town would qualify as a tycoon.
Well, I had no such confusion today as I looked at devastating photos from Super Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines yesterday. The death toll is 1,000 and rising, including one family that lost its three daughters, 8, 13, and 15. The parents found two of their children’s bodies and were looking for the third.
According to stories I read, in the coastal town of Tacioban estimates were that not a single building in the town of 200,000 was intact. Other towns were similarly devastated.
Relief efforts as slow because of a lack of communication and access to the destroyed areas.
Earlier this week, I’d had discussion with some friends about if nature could be evil. A book they were reading had used that phrase and it intrigued us. Most of us consider nature an agnostic force with no good or evil assigned to it. Nature can be beautiful, nature can be cruel, but we don’t place a judgment on these things. I don’t think nature is evil, but when a typhoon wipes out whole towns and causes such misery, I’m not sure it matters whether it’s evil or not, the damage is the same.
Today’s $10 goes to GlobalMedic, a division of the David McAntony Gibson Foundation. Canada-based Global Medic responds to disasters with rescue, emergency medical and water purification units. They’ve been busy this year, especially in India following a monsoon in Northern India and Cyclone Phailin. They are now in the Philippines. They will run a water purification system that purifies 65 liters of dirty water per minute, according to its website, as well as sending 1.4 million 1 liter water purification tablets.
Nov. 9: GlobalMedic:
Click here to get “Causes and Effects” delivered every day to your email inbox (the subscription link now works) or enter your email in the top right corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment