Disaster
It's probably appropriate to comment a little on the tsunami right now, what with everyone else having already chimed in (including to make fools of themselves by blaming global warming, George Bush, environmentalists, anti-globalization activists . . . basically taking the opportunity of 150,000 deaths to whet whatever axe they use to produce chips for their shoulders).

It's horrible; awesome, even. As the numbers rolled up and up and the t.v. replayed scenes of the ocean sweeping across beaches, resort areas, villages, I couldn't grasp the magnitude. Too big, too many. At 60,000, I could see Shea Stadium packed full, and had a way to imagine the scale. Three stadiums full. And there'll be more. Like September 11, I've stopped watching the news coverage, unable to endure the endless loops of the disaster footage. The newspapers will be enough to keep up with.

Homes gone. Land gone. The salt water will effect the ability of the land to support vegetation, to regenerate. Businesses devastated; the ability of people to support themselves with whatever small or large industry or enterprise they had used to feed themselves and their families.

But so many millions of dollars are being donated, and not just by governments. In a single night, New Year's Eve, which the networks here turned into fund-raisers, the Australian people donated nearly half a million dollars, and cumulatively since the event contributed nearly $5 a head, man, woman, and child: $50 million. Around the world, the citizenry of other countries are doing the same. Medecins sans Frontieres has had to ask people to stop donating, so much money has been coming in, overwhelming their ability to handle it. And the on-the-ground aid work is ramping up, assisted by troops from America, from Australia, from all around the region. Private citizens are pitching in wherever they can.

Years will go by, and all the heart-warming stories - the infant rescued after days floating on a mattress, the animals in Sri Lanka whose senses sent them to high ground ahead of the flood - these will be lost, and the work will go on.

You know the charities; you know what to do. (Oh, and meanwhile, it's not particularly useful to slag the UN, the only existing body capable of coordinating the relief efforts of so many disparate countries, committees, organizations. It's not like anyone else is offering to actually lead the work needed.)