holding close; Guatemala and Kashmir region

[AnnaLivia]

i know i am not alone in sadness today...at witnessing the terrible suffering of the survivors, the deaths, the grief, the destruction, and the frantic efforts being made as we speak to rescue people still trapped...in Guatemala and in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan...i know the mudslides and flooding, earthquakes and landslides do have our attention, and that we feel the same heartbreaking gut-wrench of a month ago, to see more people endure the agonies of disaster.<br><br>it wanted simply to be said out loud. we mourn with you, brothers and sisters far away.<br><br>"every tear that falls in the world, falls on my breast"<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[israelirealities]

thank you AnnaLivia. I feel the same, and too exhausted to write. THis is truly overwhelming...are there more natural disasters recently or do we tend to see it this way ? <p></p><i></i>

[Peachtree Pam]

Annalivia and Israelirealities,<br><br>I try hard not to be paranoid, not to see a conspiracy in everything, but what keeps seeping into my thoughts is Kissinger's "useless eaters" statement. They are making great progress in getting rid of them....No rigor here, just intuition.. <p></p><i></i>

[AnnaLivia]

hi, ladies. <br><br>for today, i can't help mostly seeing myself in the shoes of "strangers" in these disaster zones, had but the birth lottery results been different.<br><br>but in the hours when the suffering of humanity is not so "immediate and obvious", i see a world willing to spend far more for war weapons than disaster preparedness would cost, far more for defense than it would cost to stop offending, far more for drugs than prevention would cost, far more for prisons than education would cost...you know the drill...far more to have an extreme wealthgap than equity would cost.<br><br>we buy misery, when happiness is cheaper all around. we're not very smart shoppers, alas.<br><br>in a world awash in nearly unfathomable wealth, it is not by accident that we can't seem to meet the most basic needs of Joe's around the globe. i marvel that it is not completely obvious to everyone that we are headed in exactly the wrong direction, we humans. the survival interests of the Joes of the globe are worked against, not for, by the wealthpowerful ones...in every way...and every day.<br><br>and then along comes a natural disaster to remind us of how absent from the list of priorites, has been and is, the predictable need of a world of Joes. <p></p><i></i>

[israelirealities]

Hi AnnaLivia<br>I think it was always this way, with the wealthy people. But history shows that soon thereafter they commit a sort of ritual suicide, killing each other with their fancy weapons. The World wars are a recent example, in fact they wiped out most of the "gentry" in Europe. I think that in our generation it might be those bugs and viruses. Although rich people stand better chances (better treatment and medicines) still, the harvest is going to be "democratic" (equal), the AIDS was also such an instance. Its the what goes around thing. the failure, as the Dalai Lama puts it nicely, is to internalize the interconnectedness of life, even though we already see it with our eyes, and in science. It will change, but the cost...ah, well... <br>It just made me very aware, suddenly, of the wealth of food I enjoy, compared to others on earth. Although I am on social assistance, which is like...BAD here, still compared to..say, Rowanda or Pakistan today, I have very good food. I just ate a really good Danone yogurt with Pineapple and banana, and I was able to feel gratitude, i was aware suddenly of the quality of the food, the space, the bed...all those things I normally take for granted and also bitch about, cause its really quite run down. <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

We've been watching heart-wrenching scenes of hungry people wandering around in the desert and left to die.<br><br>Recent weeks have brought waves of sub-Saharan immigrants inyo Ceuta and Melilla. The Spanish Government panicked and invoked a 1992 treaty and sent them back to Morocco. Morocco, a much poorer country (and a transit country, not originating) bussed them to the border with Algeria...and left them.<br><br>Spanish TV was FANTASTIC. They sent reporters eve as Morocco was denying the story. It was all over the screen yesterday.<br><br>Private citizens have gone after them with food and water. The Spanish Government is airlifting supplies. The repatriations have been stopped.<br><br>Looking at the people lost in the desert, hearing them speak to reporters, these people are the very BEST of Africa. They are the opposite of rubbish.<br><br>I can't help thinking about Ireland, 1845 to 1849.<br><br>We are doing the same to Africa. <p></p><i></i>

[marykmusic]

This has often happened to Africa. These people were taken by the hundreds of thousands, for slaves to be used in the Americas. The natives that were found here were systematically killed off when the colonists realized they would not make reliable slaves. So that was a triple tragedy, involving three continents.<br><br>Bad things have alsays happened. Our media is faster to report it these days, is my opinion; my step-dad was in Disaster Services for the American Red Cross, which meant he spent a great deal of time, weeks and even months at a time, on disaster scenes around the country, and in Micronesia when we were on Guam. He spent more time away than at home.<br><br>We, the collective "we", can do what we know we must. There are the miseries we see that we can deal with directly, and the miseries we can help indirectly by sending money or care packages or whatever. <br><br>But the biggest help we can be is more personal. Educate ourselves. Be less dependent on foreign oil and other products. Contribute less to the misery elsewhere (for example, don't shop Wal-Mart.)<br><br>Above all, don't dwell on misery, our own or anyone else's. This negative energy (or "loosh" as some call it) feeds the worst of us and perpetuates itself. Spread sunshine, not gloom. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>

[Inanna]

I'd like to share this, but I'm afraid I don't know about it. Does anyone have a link? I don't have TV. <p></p><i></i>

[PeterofLoneTree]

"I'd like to share this, but I'm afraid I don't know about it. Does anyone have a link? I don't have TV". -- Inanna<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.google.com/news?ned=tus">news.google.com/news?ned=tus</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[PeterofLoneTree]

Should have included <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/">timesofindia.indiatimes.com/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[Gouda]

I recently spent 3 months in chiapas and guatemala and passed though these villages near Lake Atitlan, and the border with Mexico. This news is painful to witness, now from afar - though I still feel I am there. You see them digging in the mud and weeping. Did I sit next to them on the bus? Did I eat with them in the market? Did I pass them on the street? Yes I did. The archons can choke on my loosh because it is not wanton; it is natural and comes from empathy, and can be turned on a dime to fuel positive action. <br><br>Anna Livia, what you say nicely echoes MLK: <br><br>"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." <br><br>"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.'' <br><br>"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." <p></p><i></i>