Another tragedy another day

Careful readers of this blog would be wondering why I have kept silent the Pakistan-India earthquake tragedy last week where the death toll has risen to over 40,000. In comparison, Katrina's numbers are insignificant, but I wrote a blog on it. Before anyone goes off saying that I am a racist, and worst, an anti-Muslim, let me just clarify that I am neither, as the record of my blog here clearly shows.

Its just that these tragedies are occuring with such frequency that I am now quite tired of it all. As the year comes to a close, I pray that no more tragedies will take place. The world's charities have been working overtime this year organising relief operations to tragedy-strickened regions and countries around the world that, quite clearly, 2005 must be the year of the charities. Therefore, when Time magazine pronounces it annual Person of the Year award, it should, without doubt, go to the Charities of the World.

Ironically, in Singapore, charities in 2005 have not always been in the positive limelight. 2 charities, NKF and SAVH, have had their carpets pulled under them because of questionable corporate governance issues. We could also have done less with disasters caused by humans, such as the Bali bombings of 2005.

Excepting these, it has been a busy year for Singapore charities, which all started with the Indian Ocean tsunami. Though it did not start in 2005, much of the relief work spilled over into this year.

May God stay the occurrence of any more natural disasters, at least until 2006.