PlanetCatfish.com

All~

Dinyar and Medaka have been discussing the tragic recent events affecting the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.

Whether it's the scale of the devestation, the time of year, the range of people affected or whatever other reason I know we've all been emotionally hit but the pictures and stories coming from the region.

I'd like to post the international selection of links below that Dinyar has helpfully collated and echo his and Medaka's comments that we should all think of what fish we are hoping to buy in 2005 and put a small percentage of that expenditure out towards helping our fellow humans in the affected areas instead. As events unfold, it appears clear to me that many people are going to need help for a long time to come.

American Red Cross <a href="https://www.redcross.org/donate/donatio ... ernational Response Fund</a>
AmeriCares <a href="https://www.americaresfoundation.net/do ... und">South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund</a>
Direct Relief International <a href="https://www.directrelief.org/sections/s ... ernational Assistance Fund</a>
Médecins Sans Frontières International <a href="http://www.msf.org/donations/index.cfm">Tsunami Emergency Appeal</a>
US Oxfam <a href="https://secure.ga3.org/02/asia_earthquake04">Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund</a>
UK Oxfam <a href="http://www.oxfam.co.uk/what_you_can_do/ ... tm">Donate now to support Oxfam's work with people affected by the earthquake and floods in Asia.</a>
Sarvodaya <a href="http://www.sarvodaya.org/">Relief Fund for Tsunami Tragedy</a>
Save the Children <a href="http://savethechildren.org/radio_asia_e ... .asp">Asia Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund</a>
UNICEF <a href="http://www.unicefusa.org/tsunami">South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts</a>

Feel free to use this topic to express your feelings, offer condolences or whatever.

Jools

A big thumbs up to the members of Preston & District A.S.(here in the UK)
At their Annual General Meeting last evening a motion to donate part of the clubs funds to the disaster was passed

Jools wrote:...Feel free to use this topic to express your feelings, offer condolences or whatever.

I found it very strange that nobody has expressed any feeling or offered condolences so far. I've always thought of aquarists as sensitive people about nature and life. Maybe it's being talked in another topic and I'm missing that.

I just want to call your attention on what Dinyar told in the other topic:

Dinyar wrote:...But where coral reefs and mangrove swamps were relatively intact, it seems the loss of human life was minimal; where these were ripped out to make way for beach resorts and shrimp farms, the loss of life was much greater...

I'm very sad about the lives lost there and hope that those regions will recover as soon as possible.

I would like to take the opportunity to respect those who have lost in this calamity, recognizing that it is indeed one big boat and we all must ride waves, though they are driven by the winds of many changes.

This disaster is particularly disturbing to me because I have a great many friends from Burma (Myanmar), and the lack of any news from that country is no help - for those who are unaware, the country is ruled by a harsh military government that censors the press heavily. There were reportedly only some 100 persons killed there, this borne out by the evidence showing the tsunami travelling in east-west directions, thus sparing Burma, but the southern Burmese coast is extensive and close to the popular Thai holiday areas of Phi Phi and Phuket that were destroyed. I have read reports of 10 meter waves hitting Rangoon (Yangon), but these appear to have been thankfully proven unsubstantiated.

My best wishes to all my fellow planet bound humans - I am sad that it is seemingly only in times of calamity such as this that we pull together, but the response we are seeing is very encouraging - we should all get caught up in this positive energy drive towards some common planetary goal, such as eliminating hunger or ending armed conflict.

certan wrote:

Jools wrote:...Feel free to use this topic to express your feelings, offer condolences or whatever.

I found it very strange that nobody has expressed any feeling or offered condolences so far.

I'm very sad about the lives lost there and hope that those regions will recover as soon as possible. :(

What is to say? Who is here to condole? This is simply too big to wrap our minds around, how can we comprehend it? The pix and now the video footage are disturbing, but the loss of life is so huge it is impossible to understand.

My daughter has a friend who is a principal in a school in one of the Indian beach villages that was hit hard. She was fortunate enuff to hear from her friend's brother the day after the tsunami and find out her friend was ok; the friend had email communication.

My other half's company has a Jakarta office they didn't hear from till a few days ago. The guy was in a pub in London!

On US TV, some of the news shows are showing a breakdown of the percentage of funds from various relief agencies that go directly to the disaster area. From the report I saw, all of the agencies do better than I expected in getting money where it should go. It looks like a donation to any of them will do some good. Yes, a percentage of one's fish budget would be good!

Here in the US, we are experiencing natural disasters, as well, homes being washed away, people in the rubble, extensive flooding, and so forth. It is more or less localized and not many ppl affected relative to Asia, but it feels like the world is angry, or ending. Is there enough releif in the world for all of this, this year, so far?

I think the hush over the Forum is shock or helplessness,not insensitivity. And maybe fear. Normalcy in the face of just too much?

troi

I think there are LOADS of public places and specially dedicated websites for people to offer there thoughts and donations regarding this disaster. I think this website should remain free of this for those who wish to discuss their catfish issues.

Kind regards

Tom