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Relaxing in bed reading, while listening to the sound of rain finally wash the red dust away from Sydney’s streets. Feeling grateful for the water that was falling and for being snuggled up under my blankets.
The red light on my Blackberry phone flashed, indicating that once again I have a new email. My husband knows that I can’t help myself and thus I picked up my mobile to read who the email was from.
“Are you alright”, my husband asked as he watched my face. “No I don’t think so” was my reply.
It was only the night before I watched on the news, the floods that was happening in the Philippines and now I was reading a first hand account of the disaster from old and dear friends. Feelings of peacefulness soon turned to guilt as I knew my good friends Rick and Maria Bell worked as missionaries in the Philippines but it didn’t occur to me until this very moment that they could have been affected.
My thoughts scatter but I quickly realised this was too big for me to handle. What do I do when friends need more help than I can offer?
I want to share an extract of Rick’s email to me:
“Today while spending the first three hours cleaning at home for the sixth day and seeming to get nowhere, I then performed the funeral for a twelve year old girl from our school, Rizza who died in the flood. It was a sad sad moment in my life.
Sarhn this situation is so big here we may not recover for 6 months. The stench is unbelievable. The garbage and people’s belongings are piled in huge piles everywhere. It truly looks like a war zone and the traffic is overwhelming. I have never seen such grief and loss, the hopelessness is often too much to deal with and sickness is now quickly following . We are over exhausted but trust we can continue.
As you saw in our photos we ourselves have lost our lower household of stuff from downstairs including two cars not even 3 years old. They were insured but not when it is an act of God! To find the cash for cars, a fridge, washing machine, stove everything we had in our kitchen, and furniture, plus everything in our office is something I don’t think I am equipped to deal with yet if ever. So we have moved out not only due to having nothing to use but also we have no water, no electricity, no phone and a house full of diesel oil.”
I am wondering if you are thinking the same thing as me? Is it ironic that missionaries lose almost everything they own to what the insurance company calls ‘an act of God’? Rick and Maria Bell have really dedicated their lives to serving others less fortunate than themselves and now I just want to wrap their family & community in my arms and rescue them but I know this is bigger than I can fix on my own.
Can I be totally honest with you? With the floods in the Philippines, earth quake in Indonesia and tsunami in Samoa I am feeling ‘disaster fatigued’. With all that has happened recently I think many Australians are becoming or have become desensitised. Personally I have discovered it is easy to dismiss these ongoing horrors we witness regularly on the evening news.
I share Rick & Maria Bell’s story with you not to make you the reader feel guilty or overwhelmed with hopelessness but to remind myself and you that every disaster is personal.
I have donated money to Rick & Maria before when a cyclone ripped through their community years ago and I will donate to help again. Whatever I give will be needed but it won’t be enough. With that I end asking again “what do I do when friends need more than I can give?” Their children and community need more than I can offer and hence I write this story to share with you.
I will be donating through the World Relief Australia (donations are tax deductible) via the following fund:
Project name and number is ‘0923 Philippines Floods’
Any branch of the Commonwealth Bank or electronically to:
Account name ‘CAMA Services Overseas Aid Fund’
Here are photographs that Rick and Maria took of their home. The Youtube video below has some amazing photographs of the disaster.
It may only be Autumn but I feel ‘snowed’ under and overwhelmed in regards to work & family commitments at the moment.
Forgive the brief post today but I promise that I have a gold nugget of a link for you!!
Click on the link below to view ‘Earth Hour’ photographs from all around the world. As a photographer I was impressed and as a concerned human being I was inspired.
Click on the link then scroll down the website page. Some of the photographs you can actually click to instantly see the difference during Earth Hour. Be your own judge, but I think Las Vegas wins in regards to the biggest response to Earth Hour.
I hope you like this website page and photographs as much as I do. 
To be honest, the last couple of days I have found it hard to write a new post.
I am finding it hard to articulate any words after the bush fires.
What I am failing to do in words however, I am doing in actions. Just like millions of Australians I have donated to the Victorian Bush Fire – Red Cross Fund. Also I have felt moved to donate to the RSPCA Victorian Bush Fire fund, to help with the ongoing help for the animals (pets, live stock & wild life) who were inquired in the fires.
If anyone else would like to donate to the RSPCA Victorian Bush Fire fund please visit their website.
I am still up and watching channel 10’s late news. Did anyone else catch the story about the age of the ‘mega’ fires? These ‘mega’ fires have so been named because they say that they are so strong we no longer have the facility to control them.
The news story went on to say that perhaps scientists have under estimated the impact climate change will have on our environment.
A couple months ago I was the commissioned professional photographer that captured images for the 2009 Australian Fire Protection Industry conference. Many speakers at the conference talked about the impact that global warming and climate change will have on their industry and the problems they will face not only in the future but right now.
Perhaps the reason for my melancholy is not just the sadness about the bush fires but also the knowledge that these ‘mega’ fires are here to stay.
“Greenies’ Coke Use A Wrecker” was the title of an article in Sydney’s MX daily newspaper today.
I am going to include the whole article in this post because I think it is worth a read. In the past I have personally worked as a volunteer youth worker for over 15 years. I have worked with not only bright, talented and fortunate teenagers but also the ones people really don’t want living next door as a neighbour. First hand I have seen time and time again the devastation drugs cause on the user and their families (if they were lucky to have families).
Interesting enough over this time, never once had I considered the devastation drugs are causing on our environment. If drug takers and in particular the social drug takers don’t care about their health, finances or family to stop taking drugs maybe thinking about the damage they are causing to the environment might make them think twice (yeah I know it is a long shot).
Here is the article:
Does white powder damage your green credentials? Colombia’s vice president says middle class cokeheads, who recycle and take their shopping home in reusable bags, should realise their habit is wrecking the environment, particularly his country’s rainforests.
“These people, who have good jobs and drive a hybrid car or cycle to work because they care about the environment, may go to a party and do some lines of coke and they are thinking it is no problem” Francisco Santos said. “They are absolutely unaware of the ecological impact of their drug taking and we want to change that.”
Colombia launched a campaign to make Europeans aware of the impact of the drug industry on their country two years ago. But Europeans cocaine use has doubled in the past year and Santos is changing tack and hopes that a pleas to people’s eco-conscience will get through.
Santos plans to launch a similar campaign in the US next year. “We want to show them (cocaine users) destroyed rain forests, wasted land. Maybe if they don’t care about their own brains, they care about this.”
The Colombian government says 2.2 million hectares of rainforest has been cleared to grow cocaine in the past 20 years, equating to about 4sqm for every gram of cocaine produced.
It is a blessed person to not only be loved and supported by ones immediate family but also by ones in-laws.
Many a Sunday afternoon, if I am not photographing a wedding, you will be able to find my husband and myself at my father in-laws home.
Sitting around the dinning room table, the conversations often flows from topics about Australia and the environment.
I recall a recent Sunday when one such conversation started. I was sharing about my ‘Greener Me’ blog and what current knowledge I was acquiring and what action I planned to take.
Conversation progressed into a debate about Mr Rudd’s climate change tax. Discussions flowed about whether Australia should be leading the way and will this new tax hurt Australia.
It was then that Brett my husband asked “what if we are all too late to make any difference on climate change. What are we doing now to ensure Australia will be able to cope?”
To be honest I had never really thought about it. All my thinking currently had been about improving my lifestyle so it is kinder on the environment. Never had I considered what living in Australia would be like if we don’t succeed in cooling the world. It is a scary thought.
This then started a very hot debate. Even though my family don’t always agree on how to improve the situation of climate change, we all agree that something needs to be done and now! These debates have often inspired me and made my environmental awareness and knowledge more rounded.
I am really proud to announce to ‘Greener Me’ readers, that my father in-law has just launched his blog ‘Aussies Care’. Though we differ in our writing styles, knowledge on different topics and even sometimes the environmental journey, we do both agree on the destination – to work towards helping the environment and Australia.
His very first post is about the subject of drought proofing Australia. Interesting point of view.
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