my axis has been changed as well

I've been away for a couple of days and have been following the news of the tsumani almost exclusively by print media. 4,500. 7,000. 40,000. 70,000. As of today, the official death toll is approximately 117,000.00. I can't comprehend that number. That is more than one-third the population of my hometown Victoria. And these are tsumani deaths. Disease will increase these numbers dramatically, perhaps doubling them.

I read yesterday that geophysicists reckon that the force of the earthquake changed the axis of the earth approximately 2.5 cm. (sorry, can't find the link). Permanently. The force also accelerated the earth's rotation and the length of our day has been permanently reduced by a tiny fraction of a second.

I am trying to figure out how to let this tragedy into my head and heart. Giving a lump sum of money is the place I will start. Where to go from there? I'd like to be mindful and not eat in restaurants for the month of January. The money I save can go to the Red Cross or Medicin sans Frontiers. But I am worried that I will not be mindful and will slip easily into my consumer ways. How do we in the West understand, let alone enter into such poverty and catastrophic destruction? How can we live in solidarity with our neighbours half a world away?

Perhaps one way to live in daily solidarity is to sponsor a child. Here are a couple of links:

Sponsor a child in Indonesia
Sponsor a child in Thailand
Sponsor a child in India

Here is the link to the World Vision Southeast Asia Relief Effort. It's not particularly that I'm advocating World Vision, so much as I'm trying to figure out a way to engage with this disaster that will help days and months after the initial efforts have been expended.