Daryl,

Truly an overwhelming disaster. I have already donated some money to an organization that is now sending over disaster relief teams, Mission to The World, and, of course, we are praying as well.

I'm very glad to hear that your family is safe and I pray that help would be swift and effective so that lives would be saved and disease prevented. Please let us know, as you are able, what is happening and if we need to do more from our end.

God bless!

David

Take care of yourself Daryl. We could not agree more with your statements of concern and the need for some generosity right now. This is the time for ALL nations and peoples to assist and put their differences aside. Regardless of our politics and religous beliefs, we are one humanity.

The blogging community has been coming together and has been showing just what the power of this medium can do to assist others!
There are several sites collecting for disaster relief agencies as mentioned in our News Portal for those of you who would like info on how to contribute. Both secular and non-secular agencies. Spreading the word is the least we can do.

Stay safe... and I am happy to see you also felt compelled to share your thoughts on this sad tragedy here on BlogCritics.

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Bear in mind that this horror also left many dead in East Africa as well. It was not merely a South-East Asian disaster...

Someone at work just asked me a question, thinking that all of India's coastline had been obliterated. My answer was that India is a large country. I was asked if it was as large at the US. My reply (after thinking: "This is an Internet company...why can't you look it up on the Internet just like me you helpless twit!") was that it had an east coast and a west coast and the east coast was affected.

For a better understanding of what countries were affected and how, check out Wikipedia's entry on the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Next time you see him, tell him, with flat affect, he is an ignorant prick and to use the internet. Or better yet, shake him down for some money to aid the up to what is estimated 5 million people affected. Oh, and kick him in the balls, and say, sorry, "act of god".

Someone at work just asked me a question, thinking that all of India's coastline had been obliterated

The only real concern this person in question had was to think of the vacations she had taken there and was glad she wasn't there now. That's how she made it real. My argument is that other people who are dead, dying or in mourning are real enough (at least for me). Isn't that what John Donne meant when he wrote, "No man is an island"?

I've never been to India, southeast Asia (except for Thailand) or the East African countries that experienced this devastation, but this event was so big it changed the rotation of the earth.

How can one not feel the essential oneness of humanity as earthlings?

Personally, I'll pray.

Question for you Christoids:

When you petition God with your prayers, just what the hell is it you are asking for?

Mercy for the survivors?
Help?
Courage?
Grace?
Food?
Safe houses?
Clean water?
No cholera in the next few weeks?


And if God does answer yer little petitions, shouldn't you be praying He stops with the tsunamis in the future?

..And is it too late to ask Him to turn back time and not slaughter some 100,000 innocent men, women, and children?

Just wonderin'...


Shark,
(An agnostic who wants to get into this "prayer" stuff, but has been taught not to converse with Cosmic, Vindictive Assholes)

Eric, I was wondering if you considered a fund raising drive by Blogcritics for the tsunami victims.

TV has already covered blogs that are raising funds, and with the net outreach of Blogcritics significant funds could probably be raised.

Buy Shark a little couth with that.

Little cunt! I'm gonna go beat a weasel's ass for a pimp scarf!

Hey, pal, if I want couth, I'll pray for some.

heh.

Why is it that we only pray to God when we are in need?

And why is it that we blame God for every natural disaster that happens?

And why is it when something good happens we give lady luck all the credit?

Here are some thoughts for 'Shark':

Our Lives, incredible as it might seem, are not principally about staying alive. It's about how you live, what you do/don't do, what you say/don't say to whoever when the opportunity presents itself. It's the journey - of our choices and what we do when confronted with them. Yes, some times it matters greatly (in the overall scheme of things) if a particular person or group of people live or pass on, but unless the faith of one or a group calls for God's interceding hand, he most often does not. Not that this makes the passing of those who are so dear to us (who we will greatly miss)and the experience of their terror or momentary pains any easier to bare, but the realization that we are eternal beings who experience the pleasures and pains of the world and then pass on to another eternal realm as spirits to later receive incorruptible bodies (of glory or not - depending) can give an exceeding great measure of perspective and peace. Especially and only if we know we are doing those things which will please God, our Eternal Father.