Amoul's View

2004 ended with a human tragedy that shook the whole world - figuratively, if not literally. A tragedy that touched everyone and made us think how fragile this planet is and how powerful the forces of nature.

I spent my break just watching images of this disaster over and over again, listening to stories of courage and pain, worrying about some of our customers who were on holiday in the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. A tragedy on this scale, so much destruction and death, makes one think and question. Does anything good come out of this?! Do we learn anything from it?!

The first obvious and massive response, in my view, was that it pulled the whole world together as human beings. It was a unifying tragedy caused by the forces of nature, and that alone inspired people's compassion and humanity. The generosity shown by the people of this country was very humbling. The pensioner who gave all her pension to charity, people who have never visited that part of the world but still felt compelled to give to other suffering human beings, no barrier of colour, race or religion, just human beings living together on one planet, having one thought at the back of our minds: today it's you, tomorrow it might be me. We are all in it together.

I would like to join the appeal to raise money for the orphans and homeless children of the tsunami disaster. Specifically, I have decided to pledge 5% of deli takings for the month of February, which I will donate to the "Save the Children" fund, hoping it will ease the pain for the helpless children, and give them hope that the world is thinking of them.

Thanking you all for your support.

Amoul Amoul@amoul.com