Sichuan Earthquake

A few tales concerning the Earthquake.

1) A man's left arm was trapped under fallen debris, but could move the right arm and legs. So he used his right hand to fish out stuff from his pocket: cigarettes and napkins. Then he pulled off his shoes to collect his urine. That's how he survived: eating tobacco powder and napkins, followed by drinking his own urine. He survived for 100+ hours.

2) Two beggars lived on the street. They were both crippled by a disease, and earn their living by begging from pedestrians. All they make a day is less than what we make in an hour. After they heard about the earthquake through a public television channel, they crawled toward the donating place. One of the beggars seemed to be self-aware, so she waited until there were few people around before she gave all her money. She stuffed it in one coin by one coin, until all her 45 rmb was gone. (equivalent to about 6 dollars Canadian)
(the pictures are here: http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200805/news-big5-603779.html)

3) "2 million is enough." "No, one dollar is enough."

One of the companies in China announced that they will donate two hundred million dollars, about twenty seven million Canadian. They announced that despite other individuals', and other companies' much larger sums (sometimes going up to a few billion dollars), this two hundred million RMB is the single largest amount of money approved this year by the board for a single purpose.

Another CEO from China's telecommunication then rebutted, "one dollar is enough". He believed that the large corporations should spend their dough on this sort of nonsense rescue funding, but should focus on the expansion of company to more directly help those who were traumatized.

All I can say to that is, "wow".



Aside from all this. I hope all of you can help in some ways. Canadian government is apparently matching dollar for dollar, and there's nothing that the Chinese government needs more at this time than cash. There's going to be massive reconstructions going on, and they need as much as they can get their hands on.

To get a feel for the magnitude of this disaster. Up until now, there's a conservative estimate of 10 billion US dollars lost because of this. Factories are shut down, which will translate into further economic down draft. In addition to that, the labour force was probably greatly diminished due to the cripples and deaths.

Hi stsuei06,

Regarding the Sichuan earthquake, I'm involved with a group that is organizing and right now are collecting donations from fellow BNS staff and students towards rebuilding the schools and allow the students over there to continue their education. THis has allowed us to approach the relief from a more unique and even more so, from a students' perspective. As well, we're holding presentations for parents and students next week on may 27 and may 28th in memoriam of the earthquake and raise awareness among primarily students who are not yet aware of this catastrophe. our donations are going to the Save The Children Foundation. I hope that answers to your concerns, we're doing something =D