BRAIN CLEANING

Sorry about that last post. I've been suffering from a touch of writers block. I find the best cure for that is to write something... anything ... usually pure nonsense.

On Boxing Day, I had been enjoying brunch at Brewerkz with a few friends. I sampled a couple of fine ales, and planned to post reviews at the Good Beer Blog. That evening, after I realized that thousands of people had been dying as I was drinking, it became obvious that that festive blogging wouldn't be appropriate.

But I didn't want to write about the tsunami. I didn't have much to say and I had no opinions I wanted to offer. I wasn't angry at anyone or anything. When I thought of the extent of the tragedy, I felt a bit numb.

It was clearly wrong to immediately criticize countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka for not having a tsunami warning system. There had never in living memory been such a disaster, and money could be better spent on other other needed services. It also didn't seem appropriate to criticize countries for their 'stinginess.' I had assumed most would increase their donations as the scale of the disaster became apparent.

I still feel that's largely true. After a year of record-high oil prices some Arab states should be doing much more - but I expect that they will as global and Arab public opinon filters upward. The Gulf's monarchies are very slow to react to such things. So too is China's leadership. Nevertheless, I'm optimistic that Chinese and Arab citizens do want to see their governments do more... and that they eventually will.
Still, I was greatly disappointed by the reaction of the government of Prince Edward island, Canada's smallest province. As spotted on Daimnation, “Prince Edward Island is giving(CAD) $20,000.”

PEI's donation should, of course, be welcomed. However, it should be doing much better than that. For some perspective, after adjusting for exchange rates it comes to less than half of the contribution of the Russian town of Beslan.

My own home province, Newfoundland, could also do better than CAD$100,000.

On a closing note, Mark Steyn's latest essay is worth reading:

A week ago, people kept asking me for my opinion of the tsunami, and, to and, to be honest, I didn't have one. It didn't seem the kind of thing to have an "opinion" on, even for an opinion columnist - not like who should win the election or whether we should have toppled Saddam. It was obviously a catastrophe, and it was certain the death toll would keep rising, and other than that there didn't seem a lot to opine about.