I’m sorry. I went to California this week (Sacramento and Auburn, not LA and San Diego–it was cold and rainy) and my usual combination of late dinners and early meetings wrecked my schedule. Chicago next week shouldn’t be so bad. But Hanover, Germany the first week of April will be another grueling week at one of the world’s largest manufacturing trade shows. But, I’ll be six hours ahead of EDT, so maybe I’ll still blog on time.
The world is gripped by the crises in Japan. First the earthquake and tsunami that apparently killed over 16,000 people (this follows the devastating earthquakes in New Zealand–and no, I don’t think this is a sign of the end of times–but my heart is always ready). As if that wasn’t bad enough, the natural disasters have caused big problems for a nuclear reactor in Japan, that, if it is damaged enough, could send large amounts of radiation into the air possibly killing many more people.
People in North America and Western Europe, and probably much of the rest of the world, are personally quite generous in the face of crises. Perhaps because Japan is a prosperous country, I have not seen the number of fund-raising efforts that I’ve seen for some other disasters, for example Haiti.
I recently read something that reminded me about giving in these times. Know ahead of time the general relief agencies that you trust and give them the money–but do not earmark it. I have read where much money donated for Haiti is sitting unused because the agencies must spend it there, but the infrastructure is so poor that it is actually hard to get the money to the right people in the right manner.
An unfortunate situation among humans is the character flaw of greed. This is universal, by the way. You probably automatically thought of poor, small, undeveloped countries where the wealthy minority siphon off money thought to be going for development.
Ah, no, greed is a universal human flaw. Just look at the small number of Americans who latched on to great wealth on Wall Street a couple of years ago before almost destroying a banking system that caused the rest of us great financial strain. Of course, many of these people use their wealth to become politicians and blame the rest of us for the financial predicament the world faces.
Pray for the people affected by these disasters. Pray for those valiant heroes who are trying to keep the nuclear reactors under control. Give money to relief agencies that work directly with people (rather than government to government). Thank God that you’ve been spared–this time.
Faith Venture 
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