Thousands of people died in Asia this morning :(

Nooo, really? First ive heard of it as ive not had the telly on today! Thats terrible :(

I heard about that; it's terrible. :sad:

That's awful. :(

my parents, sister and brother are in the philippines but i haven't heard about the waves going that far...which has happened before.

a collegue of my mother was there one week ago on the exact same spot. That's scares me !

nature can be nice, but at times like this i hate it very much :(

Bloody ^^^^, that is really bad...can't believe how much of its under water and stuff :( Terrible, terrible, terrible!!

I saw that on CNN this morning! it was awful.

It's not only an earthquake! A tsunami has occoured too!

Tsunamis are huge waves.

About 10,000-11,000 were killed at last check.

I will NOT go there EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were planning on going on vacation to Thailand in 2005, we bought the Lonely Planet book on Thailand just last week. I don't know if we will still go there or not - at the moment I'm just worried about the people that went missing there...

It's not like it's something that happens all the time. It's as if someone were to say they would never EVER go to florida because of the hurricanes that happened a few months ago.
Thailand is beautiful...

I know, at the moment I just have mixed feelings about this - plus it might take a long time for them to rebuild everything.
I think we'll probably still want to go there.

now that is a valid point. We went to tahiti one year and they were hit by a typhoon shortly before we went but the resort we went too wasn't that badly hit. The other one, the one my dad wanted to go to, was still closed when we got there.
In a few weeks, when the chaos dies down, I would contact the place you want to stay at (or have reservations for) and see how they are doing and what they are thinking. It's a tourist spot, they will have that part of it fixed up quickly.

oh my, that's horrible :(:(

That was a huge earthquake...8.9 or something similar...add the tsunamis...:(

Mother Nature's been really angry these past few months :(

Those poor people :(

This is the only the beginning: http://dawn.com/2004/11/27/int10.htm. If you don't believe that the Web site is creditable, check Yahoo! News and do a Google search. I did the said article as my special assignment for my World History I class too.

This morning I heard that my friend's best friend survived the ordeal - and I'm so happy. At the same time I know that thousands of people lost their loved ones, or may not even know (ever) what happened to them...

:crying: I have relatives there! it was a total shock to hear it *worries*

I saw some footage on the t.v.....it looked HORRIBLE! tsunamai's and they were talking about how they don't have a very good tsunamai warning system so that they were unprepared...so many people died....:( my dad has a friend staying there, I hope he's okay!
And adrielle, I hope your family's ok too :(

adrielle i hope ur family is ok

I hope evryone that lived there was o.k but unfortunately not

Its been all across the news in England too
It make me feel sad to see that people are dying

i hope your family is okay, addy :sad:

tsunamis scare me soooo much.. i'm always afraid that i'm at the beach and somethings going to happen [asteroid, earthquake somewhere, etc] and a big huge wall of water is going to come up.. and there's nothing you can do to escape it.. that's soo sad/scary/horrible :(

Have you heard anything from your family yet, Addy?

How many people has this left homeless? :sad:

yah....it's really sad and painful moment for all those victims..Mourning beside the body of your loved ones... I can't hardly describe that...

How many people has this left homeless? :sad:
At least a million they say, but it could be millions...
Seeing people holding dead children on TV made me cry :(
Here we are, discussing christmas presents... at the same time, thousands lose their lives, thousands or more get injured, thousands or more lose their jobs, thousands or more lose their homes... The euforic feelings of last week have gone now.

I heard that the death count is 25,000+ Its so terrible! :(

I wish there is soemthing that we can do....

Me too chris, but i can't do anything

Forget christmas we need to help those people!!

According to CNN, the death toll is at 33,000+

But on Yahoo! News, that number shocked me: 44,000!

It came without warning!

First a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, then a tsunami?

There were no tsunami warning systems.

We need to help those surviviors (sp?)!

BBC news on the TV just now: 59,000 people are dead :(

Chris

I know i just saw it and i almost cried.
I just read The sun newspaper and they showed a picture of thousands of dead children, men and women laid out on the beach, covered by orange plastic but you could see all their faces :(
it was devastatin to look at that

so i quickly turned the page :(

The morning paper said 23.000 deads

I think i gonna send them some money..
i hope it will be in good hands, you never know with some organisations, where the boss drives a ferarri from the sended money.

it is sad, and there isnt much we can do to help, unless you live by there you can be a voluntary worker, but amidst the tens of thousands of deaths, it was amazing, a mother that lives in the next city over to me, who's son is in that area, saw him on the Today Show, either yesterday or today, and saw him smiling, so she knows he is ok, what are the odds...

wow im glad someones relatives are alright :(

it is sad, and there isnt much we can do to help, unless you live by there you can be a voluntary worker, but amidst the tens of thousands of deaths, it was amazing, a mother that lives in the next city over to me, who's son is in that area, saw him on the Today Show, either yesterday or today, and saw him smiling, so she knows he is ok, what are the odds...

Well what you could do is send some money to the help organisations

Well what you could do is send some money to the help organisations
We sent money as well, but if you look at the scale of the disaster, it does not feel like we can possibly make any difference...

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!

I reccently visited the FOX News website, http://www.foxnews.com, and it said the death toll is now at 52,000!

well its 56k now :( and still increasing

and your post is probably the most stupid post i've ever read in my whole life. Could you not have said it any more 'happier' then you allready did? geez .. :rolleyes:

(referring to rw what's his name post, not sphere)

We sent money as well, but if you look at the scale of the disaster, it does not feel like we can possibly make any difference...

Yeah but the idea is that everyone donates a little what they can miss... you know what i mean. i think doing a little is better then nothing. all the small things help :)

I know... it's just that the scale of this disaster is so overwhelming. Makes one feel so small...

and your post is probably the most stupid post i've ever read in my whole life. Could you not have said it any more 'happier' then you allready did? geez .. :rolleyes:

(referring to rw what's his name post, not sphere)
:confused:



anyway.. i wonder how many people would have to donate money for it to actually make a large difference.. but that is still very good of you, Marianna, every effort to help counts.

I guess every hundred years or so, nature decides to throw a huge disaster like this one at us. There wasn't much that anybody could do about it before it hit- I mean, how do you evacuate EVERYONE in time? But that's a really good thought you're sending some money, marianne...the poor people.
:(

thanks for all your concern! :) we just got through to them and they're fine. Big relief..yesterday (or whenever) we couldn't get through to them at all so we were all worrying. turns out they had all gone to town so they're saaafe :D

I was just shifting through the newspaper and they showed all these pictures..it's horrible. I don't care to describe it :( and this father and baby son, looking for his mom..people with their family missing..... :( :(

I was watching the waves that were on video camera and it was very strange how the waves just grew higher then all the buildings... Its also so sad how that many people have died over there.

I wasn't asking for compliments for sending money - we have money so we won't even feel it in our bank account. It's just that if things get this big, even if we were to donate everything we had, it still would not make much difference, I don't know... I want to feel like I actually did something useful. But, the other mods and me are working on a plan to raise some money. And I'm definitely donating every penny I make on ads on my websites this month. I know it still isn't much, but perhaps the images on TV will be a little less distressing if I feel that I made more of an effort for those people.

Oh my goodness. This is the so sad. I can not imagine the pain that this has put on that area. I am going to try to help as well too. Even though the money alone doesn't seem like much... once it is all added up I am sure it could make a difference. I wonder if they need blood donations... maybe we could donate blood that is to be sent over there? I don't know how much that will help though.

Blood donations will usually go towards the domestic pool. Someone asked this at another forum and someone else said that they're mainly asking for money to buy shelter, clothing, and other things. But maybe Googling will come up with something? I did read here (http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/0500/news/96a.html) that south Asia does need blood donations though, but I don't know how badly they'll need it for this situation.

I also found a "Give Blood" link here (http://www.redcross.org/donate/give), maybe you can call the number ask if they're accepting blood donations for the earthquake disaster.

I'm not allowed to give blood any more, but here you need to be over 18 to donate blood in any case - dunno about the US.

y can't you give blood anymore? r u under 18?

omg!!! the death toll is now 69,000 or 59,000

Yeah, it's up 60,000 now, and they think it might be the worst natural disaster in history.
Up to 10,000 of the people dead, were babies and children.

wow! really i thought most of them were children :(

but its so sad :'(

y can't you give blood anymore? r u under 18?
Nope, wayyyy over 18 - not allowed to cause I lived in the UK once, got to do with BSE risks - nothing to worry about, but I had to stop giving blood after 13 years of being a faithful blood donor.

awww thats sad, people need blood and the law finds some way to stop ya :(

My friends brother was over there on a mission trip, and he died!! :( It's really sad... And now the death toll is up to 50,000 or something, right? Or did I totally come up with that number out of thin air?

xoxo Cate

I wasn't asking for compliments for sending money - we have money so we won't even feel it in our bank account. It's just that if things get this big, even if we were to donate everything we had, it still would not make much difference, I don't know... I want to feel like I actually did something useful. But, the other mods and me are working on a plan to raise some money. And I'm definitely donating every penny I make on ads on my websites this month. I know it still isn't much, but perhaps the images on TV will be a little less distressing if I feel that I made more of an effort for those people. Where did you donate, Marianne? I want to donate some money I've had saved up, and so does my mum.

And I don't think you're allowed to donate blood in the US if you're under 17, because my brother is 17 and managed to donate for the first time this year.

I'm not allowed to give blood any more, but here you need to be over 18 to donate blood in any case - dunno about the US.

Yeah... you have to be over 18 in the US... but, sometimes they let people a tiny bit younger donate. But, what we have done at my church is... well, every now and then we will put togeather a blood drive and everyone in the church that is allowed to will donate and we will send it off to where someone needs it. But, I guess blood donations are not needed as much in this situation.

I heard that on every new here in England! Sky News, BBC 204 hours, 6 O'Clock News, and sometimes i watch American News, Fox News, it is really sad :(:(, now i don't want to go there, it hit, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and many other places!

I just heard that there are now 80,000 people dead

Chris

I am O- so I am worth something ^_^

I am fasinated by tital waves or tsunamis if you want., of course I feel bad and I wish it never happened but it's one of those things that scientist don't know what happens and I want to see the big ones like the 50 - 100 feet waves that come in Hawaii...

It would be soo awesome to give up wanting to be a teacher and find out tsunamis are formed.

its all so sad. everytime i see it on the news i cry. i mean....i feel completely helpless. i can help by giving blood and money but at the end of the day - i aint there to helping these people rebuild their lives. i saw a family dig up their children from the ruins and then bury them right next to the rumble - it is so sad :crying: i cant even begin to imagine all the pain that family must be going through.
this was all happening while i was eating christmas dinner. i feel so guilty.

my mum said how can there be a god if he is prepare to let that happen, i am begining to think the same thing.

Sometimes its just your time, it a balance... thats all that can be said, God works in mysterious ways, and this might be his way of bringing people together, look at how we were fighting over the president elections now look at us ^_^

As for time, its time for my shower, yes I know I am lazy.

Yeah... you have to be over 18 in the US... but, sometimes they let people a tiny bit younger donate. But, what we have done at my church is... well, every now and then we will put togeather a blood drive and everyone in the church that is allowed to will donate and we will send it off to where someone needs it. But, I guess blood donations are not needed as much in this situation.
well, not necessarily over 18, just 17 and over. i ran a blood drive for redcross :buckt:

I don't weigh enough to give blood! :( Sad... I'm not old enough anyway, so it doesn't matter.

xoxo Cate

me 2 bwaybabe me 2 :)

awww thats sad, people need blood and the law finds some way to stop ya :(
That law was made to protect the people receiving the blood. If laws had been stricter in the 80's and early 90's, not so many people would have gotten AIDS through blood transfusions.
So I have no problem being rejected as a donor, even if the BSE risk is very small.

and Katie, in Holland, every time there is a disaster somewhere, there is always this bank account that's for a combination of aid organisations, the day there is news about a disaster, that day the cause that bank account number is for, changes, so that's where I donated, but I'm sure organisations like the Red Cross can put your money to good use in Asia too, make sure it's an organisation you trust.

my mum said how can there be a god if he is prepare to let that happen, i am begining to think the same thing.

Sometimes its just your time, it a balance... thats all that can be said, God works in mysterious ways, and this might be his way of bringing people together, look at how we were fighting over the president elections now look at us ^_^

Well, I'm agnostic, so I could care less of a god existed or not, but that's the way nature works. Rickyhos, how can you say it's a balance? There is a huge lack of water, diseases are starting to sprout, children don't know where their parents are, and that's a balance? If a god existed, I'm pretty sure he'd bring people together through other ways.

My mum said how could god let this happen too?

i dunno
im kinda in the middle of christianity and no religion at all, as i was born into christianity.

awww thats sad, people need blood and the law finds some way to stop ya :(

It's just a way to make sure the blood is safe. There's not a point in giving someone blood to save them from one thing if they're going to die of something else in it. Let's say someone lost a lot of blood and they need the donation... Is it worth dying of aids because there was no law to test it?

Where I live, I think you have to be at least 17. I believe that's the age they required when they did the blood drive at my school last year.

Even if there's not a high need for blood (which is hard to believe) in this situation, it's still needed elsewhere, so it wouldn't hurt to give.

If a god existed, I'm pretty sure he'd bring people together through other ways.

Which reminds me of the "9/11 helped bring Americans together" false concept... Why does it always take a disaster or mass murder to "bring people together"? Why can't good things bring us together?

Good things can bring us togeather... but, sometimes we need something bigger to happen to really realize all the wonderful things we do have on earth. People do not notice how much they really have until something like this happens. I have lost family members... most of us have... it hurts so bad... but, during that time your family does becomes closer because the whole family hurts like you do. So I do not think you can say Americans were not closer during 9/11... so many people pitched it... blood donations ect. And I am sure in this time millions of people will help with this too.

You are right... bad things shouldn't be the only things that bring us togeather... we should always be giving and kind... but that isn't always how it is.

Whenever something bad happens like this... people blame it on God. But whenever someone does something good... they give full credit to themselves.

EDIT: But, we should probably stop talking about the religious portion of this... too many threads have become screaming fits over the whole religion stuff :P

Good things can bring us togeather... but, sometimes we need something bigger to happen to really realize all the wonderful things we do have on earth. People do not notice how much they really have until something like this happens. I have lost family members... most of us have... it hurts so bad... but, during that time your family does becomes closer because the whole family hurts like you do. So I do not think you can say Americans were not closer during 9/11... so many people pitched it... blood donations ect. And I am sure in this time millions of people will help with this too.

You are right... bad things shouldn't be the only things that bring us togeather... we should always be giving and kind... but that isn't always how it is.

Whenever something bad happens like this... people blame it on God. But whenever someone does something good... they give full credit to themselves.

EDIT: But, we should probably stop talking about the religious portion of this... too many threads have become screaming fits over the whole religion stuff :P

The thing is, we're not really together. Like with 9/11, there were Americans being attacked by other Americans for sharing the same religion as those responsible for the terrible incident. These poor people were advised not to show and hints or signs that they participated in that religion due to the increased risk of being attacked. That's not true togetherness (and I don't think that's a true word, lol, sorry about the spelling). Family is a different situation. The bond between family is much stronger, so once that bond becomes stronger, it's not easy to weaken.

Bad things seem to wake people up and prompt temporary togetherness (sorry again, lol), but eventually people go back to sleep; and even then it's more of a hibernation.

The God thing goes both ways... Like, if a team whens the world series, they may thank God, but it's not very likey you'll hear the loosing team blaming him, lol. However, I agree that we should let the religion subject alone, or at least be REALLY careful with what's said.

Like, if a team whens the world series, they may thank God, but it's not very likey you'll hear the loosing team blaming him, lol. bill maher! woot! :dance:

bill maher! woot! :dance:

:lol: The new season needs to start NOW. I've been bored every Friday night.

bad things only make me feel bad - i guess if i was in mumbai and i had family in the south - i wouldnt feel very grateful for a disaster - i would be worrying beyond anything i will ever experience in my lil life. when you really think about it, these people have a hard enough time in the south india and now they have this to deal with. the young families and even the elderly dont have the materials or funds to rebuild their lives!!!

not only that but people futures dont even seem secure - the spread of all the diseases and the lack of clean water and food........i dread the death toll.

yeah, the death toll will be huge :(

there's confirmed that there are at least 89.000 deads :confusion

And the days are shortened with 3 microseconds a day becouse the earth has increased due the earthquake :x

So in every 60 years we are 1 minute ahead

edit:

*g* i just see there's 120.000 deads :X

Wow 120,000 this is getting outrageous now :(

with so many still unaccounted for, and so many epidemics about to break out, the death toll will rise to incredible numbers...

"The death toll topped 117,000, and officials warned that 5 million people lack clean water, shelter, food, sanitation and medicine." :(
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20041230/ap_on_re_as/tsunami

I heard on the news about all the help companies(dunno how u call it) like red cross and others. Well they were showing all of them and showing the percentage of the help aid that actually went over there to help the people. Red cross wuz at the bottom with only 82%. There was one that gave 99% of the aide given for the people over there. Im not exactly sure about this. I will find it on the net and post it. If someone else finds it feel free to post.

Red cross wuz at the bottom with only 82%.

okay i don't really understand what you're trying to say.. but the American Red Cross organization donated over 18 million dollars- and let me remind you that they're a non-profit organization- so they're really doing everything they can..

I have heard before that compared to other organizations, less money actually gets to victims when it goes through the Red Cross, because apparently their "administrative costs" and whatnot are relatively high- so while they're not making a profit, they somehow manage to spend quite a bit on getting the money to people

okay i don't really understand what you're trying to say.. but the American Red Cross organization donated over 18 million dollars- and let me remind you that they're a non-profit organization- so they're really doing everything they can..

82% may not seem like a lot compared to 99%, but when you look at the actual dollar amount, that's a lot. Plus, I'm sure the other 18% went to a good cause.

I have heard before that compared to other organizations, less money actually gets to victims when it goes through the Red Cross, because apparently their "administrative costs" and whatnot are relatively high- so while they're not making a profit, they somehow manage to spend quite a bit on getting the money to people

That's true. There are organizations that claim to be non-profit, with an exception for those "admin. costs". They manage to PERSONALLY earn the same amount of money CEOs make in other companies each year. Think about how much that would help victims. :( That's why I'm careful about which "non"-profit org. I support.

I have heard before that compared to other organizations, less money actually gets to victims when it goes through the Red Cross, because apparently their "administrative costs" and whatnot are relatively high- so while they're not making a profit, they somehow manage to spend quite a bit on getting the money to people

well i just went to the Red Cross headquarters here in.. well, where i live, yesterday, and everyone was working really hard to help as much as possible.. and not only are they trying to gather money to send overseas, but they also have to respond to local things that've happened lately- car addicents, fires, mudslides, flooding, etc.


hahah i'm getting all defensive for them :lol:

I've also heard that about the American Red Cross and only about the American Red Cross. Another forum went for donating to another Red Cross like the Thailand Red Cross because it's closer and they'd most likely give more than 80%.

well what have you done? just sat around and criticized people/organizations trying to help, eh? why don't you go do something productive :rolleyes:

I can't remember what news I heard it from. I was looking at the the news websites and couldn't find it. Im still looking for it. They only list a few organizations and I know there are more. I just saw Red cross listed at the bottom of the list they provided. Well for me all I do is pray for them because God can help them. I would donate if I had money but my family is at bad times and we rarely have money. I know my prayers will go through. =)

82% may not seem like a lot compared to 99%, but when you look at the actual dollar amount, that's a lot. Plus, I'm sure the other 18% went to a good cause.



That's true. There are organizations that claim to be non-profit, with an exception for those "admin. costs". They manage to PERSONALLY earn the same amount of money CEOs make in other companies each year. Think about how much that would help victims. :( That's why I'm careful about which "non"-profit org. I support.

Some of the companies that to donate large percentages of the money they collect are able to do so because of large corporate donations that are used for administrative costs (like the Nature Conservancy). [fun with a long bell in science] The Red Cross' problem is that it's a rather widespread organization, and each branch operates in an autonomous manner, so it's going to accrue a load of administrative costs. (Is that 82% figure for the Red Cross as a whole?)