Tsunami

• President APJ Abdul Kalam talked about the tsunami warning system in his convocation address at the University of Hyderabad. The tech savvy president was very enthusiastic about the tech part of it. Listening to Kalam talking so eloquently about it within a couple of days after the disaster, I wondered whether people at the helm genuinely comprehend the depths of the catastrophe and the human misery involved. People like Dr. Kalam seem to be believing in technology for technology's sake.
• So it was refreshing to see P. Sainath projecting a different viewpoint, which I would think anybody with a little bit of common sense would/should have realised oneself. A quote:
  We have spent the better part of 12 years gutting public health care, privatising hospitals and charging user fees in Government ones from people who cannot pay. Fracturing an already inadequate and fragile system. Now, when there is a deadly danger of epidemics, there is little to fight them with. It is odd that we allow Governments to get away with atrocities against the poor. But sternly hold them to blame for an unprecedented natural disaster.
  Sainath's article has many other extremely valid points.
• Kitabkhana's e-mail to litbloggers:
  Two days ago, a good friend of mine who also blogs started up a blog called Tsunami Help (that's tsunamihelp DOT blogspot DOT com). He thought it might be a good place to start with compiling information about the disaster that's rocked South Asia--you know, put together donor lists, track the death toll, maybe get people thinking. People started joining in, one by one, and then in dozens, and then in scores. In just two days, Tsunami Help wracked up over 1,00,000 hits. It has thirty-odd people posting from all over the world, and that number is growing.
• Finally here's the The Hindu Relief Fund.