now that i'm off the road and back home, i've had time to read up on all the news i've been missing out on. the more i learn about the tsunamis in asia, the more the horror of the situation is sinking in. the initial damage was bad enough, but now with thousands more dying of diseases and injuries...unbelievable. what amazes me most is this: even though the world expects the death toll from disease to rival that of the tsunamis themselves, everyone seems to resignedly accept that nothing much can be done about it. how can the pooled resources of the entire planet not be able to stop a preventable threat when armed with full and prior knowledge of it? the task may be staggering, but i'm always struck by how easy it is for governments and organizations to prognosticate a social or political tragedy, compared to how difficult it is to gather the will and wherewithal to actually do something about it.

clearly, i don't mean to demean the valiant and crucial relief efforts going on right now. this critique is really more appropriate for other situations (i.e. genocide in sudan...!) than for the current disaster, which has been morbidly blessed with the massive news coverage necessary to generate worldwide sympathy. such is the generosity and heartfelt goodwill of bystanders across all nations, doctors without borders has announced that the $53 million it has already collected is enough to fully fund its operations, making further donations unnecessary. it's worth comparing this impressive sum of money, raised in eight days, with the modest $850,000 the organization scrounged up over two months for starving genocide victims in darfur, where around 70,000 lives have already been lost. if only all tragedies deserving of attention and relief received the quantity rightfully attributed to the tsunamis.

just because doctors without borders is sufficiently funded, however, doesn't mean that your donations are not desperately needed elsewhere. long-term relief efforts by the red cross and smaller NGOS like refugees international, whose plans involve water purification and rebuilding victim's livelihoods, still need your support. in this editorial, one EMT in thailand gives a particularly candid and moving account of the medical and psychological trauma he witnessed in the tsunami's aftermath. he writes, "I saw fathers nearly catatonic over the loss of their children, and children grown mute at the loss of their parents. Here, as in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and all the other countries that fell victim to the tsunami, thousands of adults and children saw loved ones disappear before their very eyes. The deep feelings of grief and irrational guilt will not soon disappear."

love and strength to all who are suffering from this disaster.