I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was texted all my friends cancelling all of my planned nights out for the month. On the way to London I calculated how much money I would roughly spend on those nights (minus taxis). It came to around £200.
This money is not wasted, I love going out with friends and I think that having a social life is an important asset in our daily lives as it not only breaks the monotonous routine of daily work but it also makes us feel happy and appreciate those close to us whilst we are away from our families.
My reason for cancelling is that I was horrified to read the Metro headline today that the death toll in the Haitian earthquake has risen from 52,000 to 500,000. That is the population of a Swedish City.
There are many devastations that hit the world but there are none worse than a natural disaster. Those that are created by war can possibly be salvaged through political diplomacy but when a sudden force of nature not only destroys and devastates a country it is normality, history and the future that are brutally destroyed in a swift act of destruction.
The 500,000 is just the dead, they say up to three million will be permanently affected. The World Bank has donated $100 millions. Will that be enough? I’m not so sure. That is why my little donation can possibly help somehow help. I’m not going to urge anyone else to make a donation as it’s a personal choice but after seeing the news this morning it reminded me of the Tsunami several years ago. They are still clearing up and will be doing so for many years, I fear that the same will apply to Haiti.
Natural disasters are the worst of all.