Sunday, January 17, 2010

Some Thoughts....

Shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, a friend posted on her facebook page that the average daily wage in Haiti equals the price of 2 packs of gum, and that just doubled from last year. When I did a little research, that seemed to be accurate. It is startling to have it put in such comparative terms. As soon as I heard about the way to text HAITI to 90999 and have $10 charged to my cellphone bill to donate to The Red Cross, I did it immediately. Coming back from Aruba on Friday, we passed over Haiti airspace and you could see smoke from fires billowing into the blue sky. The pilots heard the airport chaos and sense of urgency firsthand through observing the radio calls over Haiti. Help was hovering above, but they couldn't land. Things are better now. In our airplane we were able to collect $500 for Unicef Champions for Children program. This month all of the collected money goes directly to the children of Haiti. People to and from their vacations who had either already spent a lot of money or who were looking at spending money, reached into their pockets and dropped $10 and $20 bills into our collection. We were very touched by their generosity. People want to help and as a fellow blogger expressed last night, giving money and thoughts and prayers just doesn't seem to be enough. Well, I think it is significant, especially knowing that the average yearly wage in Haiti is just $270. The thoughts and prayers do help, the donations help, and just being aware helps. It is going to be a long process.

On a lighter note, when I made my post yesterday, The Last Wife of Henry VIII, Food For Thought, I was just a little jet lagged and rushed for time...
Jet lag+dyslexia moment+haste+keyboard=!?@#$%^&*!! Oh, I made some doozy mistakes!! It went out to the subscription feeds with these blunders. So please refer to the site as it is now and not the one that came via email on 1/16. A big fat apology, and does anyone need an editing job?!

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6 comments:

Kathy Walker said...

You certainly put it into perspective. It is hard to conceive of wages equaling a few packs of chewing gum. Haiti is such an impoverished country and to lose what little bit one has...

Bless the passengers and those who are making donations to help those in such desperate need.

a quiet life said...

thanks for your additional insight on haiti... i heard the first day texting brought in 5 million and growing, if everyone does a little, it makes a lot~ living in earthquake country i feel their pain, knowing when it hits, everything is gone, i call it the great equalizer, no one is immune.

ps, when you find that editor, send them on by, at least you reread to see the mistakes, i may not notice for months and then cringe...

La Table De Nana said...

I don't know where my post went:( Good idea to remind!

We live in luxury.

Zurin said...

every little bit helps...as they always say.

Melanie said...

The Haiti situation is so overwhelmingly sad for me. I wish I could do something more to help.

Kate at Serendipity said...

I love it that you have access to so many people. What a wonderful thing to do. BRAVA!