Disastrous

Over the last week or so this part of the world seems to have suffered more than its fair share of natural disasters - the storms hitting the Philippines and Vietnam, the tsunami that struck Samoa and, closest to home, the earthquakes that devastated Padang in West Sumatra. There was an appeal at Friday Prayers for donations, which chimed in with the sermon's message of caring for neighbours, but I didn't spot the donation boxes (I often have difficulty in being sure which boxes fulfil which purposes), so I'll have to find out where I can usefully donate something to. This being a pretty hopeless effort to do at least something in a context of overwhelming pain.

The fact that in February I was enjoying myself on the opposite coast to Padang brings home with greater intensity somehow just how destructively dreadful the quakes have been. Actually I've been surprised at the lack of heavy lifting gear in the city, given the extent of construction work and economic development that I witnessed around Medan generally. It's a reminder of how atypical life in the cities of Indonesia can be.

The paper today had pictures of the damage caused in out-lying villages and it wasn't pretty. And that's the worst part of all this, at least from the viewpoint of a very safe observer, the sense that it's the poorest who inevitably suffer the most. From those who have so little, all is so often what is taken.