A Channel 4 reporter said it last night: the most remarkable thing is "their astonishing cheerfulness".
It accords with the happy stoicism of Filipinos I've met in my travels, and you can verify it with your own eyes and ears on every news report. What makes a people so upbeat in the face of such devastation ? What is the source of such amazing morale ?
While we ponder this miracle of human fortitude, here's the DEC site for a practical response.
ND
6 comments:
I'm sorry but there is no way on earth I would give money to DEC. It will never be seen again.
Time after time I have heard of people claiming they never see these aid charities at the scene of disasters.
I have some connections with SriLanka and when the tsunami hit the aid agencies were nowhere to be seen. Little charities I had some connection with did some good work - but they never saw the likes of Oxfam, Christian Aid, The red cross etc.
As far as I can see these organisations are generally involved with lining the organisers pockets, except for Christian Aid which seems to spend most of its time proselytising - A bag of rice for every conversion.
Less oversight than British politics and hence even more corrupt.
Why do you think there was no aid available in the Phillipines when this typhoon was known about 2 days in advance and these charities get huge amounts of money for every appeal?
Time to wise up I'm afraid.
Good question. From the comfort of my safe, warm office I will speculate that perhaps it's stay cheerful or collapse into nihilism. Put a tent up or lie out in the ruins. Can't say I know from experience.
As for giving money, I don't expect my donation to pay for an actual UK "aid worker" to fly to the Phillipines. I hope that DEC et al. are directing the money to local efforts or by buying "stuff" they need and sending that over. There are plenty of Filipinos already in place to leap into action.
OK anon - nominate a better one than DEC !
and I will stick a link in the post
Philippino good cheer? Wll, oddly for the Godless BBC, when asked about this, one of their correspondents out there said "Well, they are devout Christians".
indeed, Elby - but I've known a lot of devout Christians, indeed devout Catholics, who are anything but
there's something else going on
and it speaks well for them
Nick, surely this is the same as us Brits used to be... stiff upper lip, keep smiling (and to coin a completely overdone phase) carry on.
Chip off the old block they are.
It's tragic though, the world should have been prepared, with 2 days warning ships and supplies could have been mobilised earlier. What's the point of all our predictive weather computing power when it's tells us "Big problem coming", and we just sit and wait for it to happen.
One day the world will get its sh*t together.
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