I posted this 35 minutes too late for the Blog Quake Day deadline of Oct 26, 2005.

On a regular basis now I am confronted by the grooves in the palms of my hand. The scab on the inside of the knuckle of the second to last finger of my right hand, the birthmark at the base of the thumb of my left hand, the pale crescents of my nails poking over the tops of my fingers, the crookedness of my fingers, all these things get in the way of my talking to God, so during these predetermined times of prayer, I am at a loss for words.

So, I’m not going to give in to cliché and verbose sentimentality here.

Instead, I’m going to do a round up here of links to various websites that you can visit to help the victims of the earthquake. These are the “interesting” ones, the ones that people won’t, perhaps, feel guilted into visiting.

  • Manan Ahmed, of Chapati Mystery, is selling T-shirts, all commissions of which will go towards relief efforts.
  • Buy a tent. Kashmiri winters are merciless, making this earthquake even more of a long term disaster than the tsunami.
  • Pakistan International Airways is flying relief items for free from all over their global network to the disaster zone. If you’d rather give physical items than money, this is the perfect way to do it. Call your local church, temple, mosque, or other community centre to arrange for collections of relief items. Things like tents, jackets, sheets, shoes, sleeping bags, shawls, all those things piling up in attics and garages could save not just one, but so many people’s lives.
  • The Child Site, and Click for Charity are two separate sites that donate money towards relief efforts for every person who clicks on their button. So in essence you’re giving free money. The limit is one click per person per day. It might sound iffy, but what’s the risk?