This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Lessons From a Tsunami Survivor
Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse.
I would like to follow-up on my last comment on Katie Piper's Christmas message with another inspirational story from yet another beauty who survived a harrowing ordeal five years ago.
ABC's David Muir reports on Petra Nemcova: Healing Five Years After the Tsunami:
Nearly
five years ago Petra Nemcova was swept from her hotel room when a
tsunami struck Thailand. Now the 30-year-old model is helping to heal
others by rebuilding schools for the children who lost everything, not
just in the deadly 2004 tsunami but in natural disasters around the
world."Really, honestly, what I'm doing now, being able to
improve, and better lives of children, that's what I always wanted to
do," Nemcova said.Four months after Nemcova clung to a tree for
eight hours to save her life she went back to visit the tsunami zone.
She said she would never forget the faces of the children."They lost their parents or their brothers and sisters. They didn't
have anywhere to go. They didn't have any stability. When you looked at
those children they didn't actually look at you. ... They looked
through you. And it was this look without hope," Nemcova said.
Nemcova founded the Happy Hearts Fund to build schools for children in areas ruined by natural disasters.
Five years later, the foundation has expanded and has provided help to children in eight different countries.
The team renovated and rebuilt the Chao Thai Mai School in Thailand.
They also built a primary school, helping a total of more than 1,500 children in Thailand.
The
foundation built one primary school and 33 kindergartens in Indonesia,
helping nearly 2,000 children. Indonesia was struck not only by the
2004 tsunami but by a devastating earthquake in 2006.
»
- advertisements -
abemko said:
"We should all be walking away from the banks and the financial system and getting a job that makes a difference. Capitalism is degrading because it justifies my living well while children just outside the gate are starving and not because there is not enough food or water but because our resources are not equitably distributed."
Chairman Mao couldn't have said it better.
Please don't insinuate that you know what we all should be doing. It's none of your business, anyway. And, we all are "making a difference" in this world--for good, or for bad.
Did it ever occur to you that capitalism might be a good thing? Surprisingly to some folks, certain things don't get done in this world unless you PAY people to do them. Getting a job making a difference must mean people get paid for doing good, no? Where does that money to pay all these good "difference-makers" come from?
Food, schools, hospitals cost MONEY. So, what happens if we all walk away from "evil capitalism"?
Nada. Nothing gets done.
But oh, it's so nice to thing of a utopian world where people are charitable and kind and nobody is ever poor or suffers. (Sigh)
A great prophet once said, "you will always have the poor with you". That is the reality of this world. You don't have to like it. You just get to deal with it.
It's what we do with our money, what we do with "degrading" captialism that counts. That's what makes a difference. And, that's the point of the story.
Capitalism feeds me and my family. My capitalist efforts also contribute to the well-being of the grocery clerk, car salesman, clergy, banker, janitor, and many others too numerous to name here. The taxes I pay contribute to the families of policeman, teachers, social workers and even the very politicians who despise my point of view.
I shall not bite the hand that feeds me. I take care of it and strengthen it, that it may do more work that benefits both me and others around me.
I pretty much wholeheartedly agree, but we need to emphasize that is what you do with the wealth that counts. CEOs taking 20X the pay of a regular employee, well, to me that seems quite a bit excessive. The wealthy class inhabit a world of private yachts and private jets while the rest of us dweebs have to deal with the fallout from assholes crashing jets into buildings or lighting themselves on fire. We get it rammed down our throats and the special people get to live in a world where they never get patted down (okay, unless they're a Madoff, that is). The point is, there is a massive double-standard.
The middle class is being run into the ground, but it isn't capitalism doing it. And hey, some idiots deserve to be run into the ground, and the US is a nation of suckers, so this is why we have the situation we have. Educated people (and by that I mean truly educated people, not the slightly polished turd-like dumbasses that our institutions of "higher" learning have been turning out for the better part of 50 years) are rarely taken advantage of. But Americans are dumb as rocks, and have been sold "investments" and convinced that they can save money by spending it using borrowed money.
Look at the idiots we elect to represent us! We're doing this to ourselves.
There is perfection in the universe , depending upon our point of view.Point of view on our part makes all the difference.
When we begin to respect ourselves as the life force we are, we can begin to see our bodies are not us, but only our outer cover.
With the view of our own life force/spirit as our true selves we have no choice but to see we are all related via that same force.
As we become more impoverished, humility sets in. This causes love to grow much as a fall creates sudden awareness.
We may yet spiritually mature and catch up to our phenominal scientific advances.
This is what we all should be doing in our lives. We should all be walking away from the banks and the financial system and getting a job that makes a difference. Capitalism is degrading because it justifies my living well while children just outside the gate are starving and not because there is not enough food or water but because our resources are not equitably distributed. The entire perspective of us and them, of blood and race, of with us or against us is a madness. Every child is society's child. Bravo Petra!
That sounds great, the problem is that there aren't enough of those jobs. Just go and try to VOLUNTEER sometime and you'll find out how saturated that is. Most places only want donations since they have such an abundance of volunteers. Also, unlike Petra, you're probably too ugly and non-photogenic to "make it work" the way she has. Also, you didn't almost get washed out to sea! So yeah, it would be nice if we could kick the fucking bankers to the curb, but first we have to go through the collapse.
Petra--You are an amazingly beautiful and self-less woman!
What a BABE-- Wishing you all the best in 2010!!
Leo, in the new year please make an effort, a concerted effort please, to stop talking down to people. Even your well intentioned articles come across as finger wagging, moralizing. Work with an editor or friend if you must.
At least entertain the possibility that people here do many multiples more than you with their time and money for various causes.
Leo, I don't mind if you talk down sometimes to my lowlife selfish pitty-pot half. Just keep reminding of people who do wonderful things, and my enlightened half will try to do a good turn daily.
I am not a moral authority, just someone who is trying to shed some light on other things in life that are far more important than finance. We spend way too much time on this and other financial blogs (including mine) discussing matters that are not nearly as important as we think they are. Once in while, it's good to take a step back from our self-absorbed life and see that there is another world out there where people are struggling to survive. And I am writing this mostly as a reminder to myself, not to you. I tend to worry too much about my health and forget about worrying about what I can do today to make this a better world. That's what Petra and Katie are doing, moving on and making a real difference in people's lives.
Cheers,
I, too, have to admit to finding you tedious, Leo. Obviously, whoever owns the website likes your stuff, so that's the only opinion that counts. But if I had my way, you'd be off peddling optimism someplace I wouldn't see it. On the other hand, I think most of the additions, including some of the pessimists, have watered down what I liked most.
Such is the price of empire, I guess!
Well you don't have your way and as long as I am welcome here, I'll keep posting. You sound like a whining idiot who doesn't really know what they're talking about. I veer off course ten times a year to post material on other subjects. So what? The rest of the 300 posts are all on pensions and financial markets. And judging by the hits I get on my own blog, many of which are repeats that do not come from other blogs, I'd say I am doing something right to keep their interest. I can't please them all but who the hell wants to please whining, shallow fools anyways?!? Also, let me remind you all that I don't get paid one penny for posting my thoughts and I have been on the money on many of my market calls. Show a little respect before posting nonsense.
Meanwhile the best the man made global warming crowd in Washington D.C. can do for the Katrina, Rita, and Gustav. Victims is extend their stay in FEMA trailers built with Chinese dry wall and poison glue. The sooner the hoaxers Algore, Obama, Pachauri, The World Wildlife Foundation, UN, and the rest are put out of business the better!
Thank you Leo for pointing out to readers that which truly matters.
Nice story and a worthy cause.
I often use the example of this tsunami to describe how most of the indigenous peoples escaped the waters because of a natural sense and reverence or memory of the stories that were passed down in their culture.
Education of another sort, not transferred in our modern system.
Those who feel all is well today are much like the tourists and city dwellers who were victims there, that all is not well or natural in the scheme of things today.
I applaud Petra's efforts in selfless beneficance. It is good to bring attention to her cause; but I ask if we will ever really learn from examples like these? Both the tsunami and it's aftermath.
Atoyota, would like you to elaborate on your interesting observations about "Education of another sort, not transferred in modern system." Any sources, cites, or additional thoughts? Thanks for what you shared.
I liked the tale of the young girl who was warning gawkers off the beach when the water receded, having recently learned of tsunami dynamics in school. The fact that many adults (including her parents) had no idea what they were seeing is instructive indeed.
*Good story Leo
Didn't most of the casualties occur due to the shape of the coastline, and the depth of the ocean at the inlet to the sea?
The ocean deep eruption was in 2008, the big waves of destruction still have to come. It is of course an illusion to think that 1 year after the biggest credit crunch in the history of mankind we are more or less OK again. And I know, because I am a member of BIS :-).