Pursuing Holiness

I despise the UN as a rule so when the rare man bites dog story such as this one comes to my attention I like to take note of it. The UN took some money out of the budget already stretched thin by corruption and sponsored rape and actually spent it on something useful.

The huge quake left at least 500 people dead and thousands homeless in the Ica region, south of the capital Lima.

It instantly wiped out electricity, fresh water and communication infrastructures.

But Mrs Hernandez was able to speak to her son in Spain thanks to the work of charity Telecoms Sans Frontieres.

The group are currently on standby to deploy to Burma; they are waiting for authorisation to enter the country.

“The UN-sponsored organisation specialises in setting up communication links at times of emergency, for use by charities and those affected.

When we evacuated for Katrina, I took my computer with me. We didn’t know when or if we’d be returning home, and I knew that my web clients would need support after the storm. All the New Orleans cell towers were down and no one with a local cell phone could communicate with the 504 area code no matter where they were in the country. (I don’t understand why that is; it seemed to me that since we were in Dallas the phones should have worked to call a New Orleans number and reach them wherever they happened to be.) Then as towers were repaired we couldn’t make voice calls but we could text message.

We were starved for communication. One of the first and best things I did after Katrina was install a message board for my church’s website. Members logged on to the church website, saw the link to the new message board, and posted their condition and whereabouts. It was such a relief to connect and to know that people were okay.

As to the UN - even a stopped clock is right twice a day.  Since our politicians insist on giving them our money, this is at least one thing we can be pleased about the UN spending it on.

written by Laura