How would you measure a disaster? You ran out of alcohol the night before and forgot to get more that day? Your insurance is due on the car and you can't afford it? Or perhaps you didn't get your expected pay rise?
Either way none of the above come close to being on the receiving end of a two hundred miles an hour storm when you were already living in a tin hut. The people of the Philippines have found themselves in such a position over the last few days indeed a new storm is brewing threatening more carnage, it is true devastation on a huge scale with over ten thousand dead and some of those bodies still lying under collapsed buildings and even hanging from trees where they were cruelly tossed. That to me would be a disaster.
So why do I ask such a question? Surely the answer was obvious? Well actually no it wasn't obvious according to many short sighted people who I am ashamed to say class themselves as British. Having read some of the comments tagged to the bottom of news stories covering the disaster it seems we Brits are starting to lose our compassion for our fellow man in peril. Many of the comments emanated from pure ignorance of how emergency aid funding works, it is set aside and put there for good reason, it cannot be used by a Political Party to bolster our own NHS or help our own homeless it is overseas aid and it is their for such a time as this, most of those commenting on the stories I am sure go through their door at night close it and enjoy a warm home, it may be tight money wise but that is life, no-one said it was perfect but it's hardly third world status. I do however take issue with the European Union grant aid of only two point five million pounds while Britain supplies ten, Brussels is as mean as it is unruly.
I do have to admit I also feel the UK is currently being overrun with too many people who will fail to make a valid contribution to our cause, when people come to London on a Euro Passport to simply beg and send their forty pounds a day "earnings" back to Romania or Bulgaria then clearly the system is broken, we have been saying that for years but systematic governments have ignored this political hot potato as the answer is clearly a move away from Europe which, let's face it will never happen in my lifetime as there is simply not the leadership in place to see it through. But on the other hand when I see comments from basically well fed and watered Brits decrying aid to starving homeless people who are victims of an unprecedented disaster through no fault of their own it saddens me greatly, we are a caring passionate Nation and a proud Nation despite our current lack of a figurehead of worth to keep those traditions in place, if you ever start to doubt that we still hold such values close to our hearts then take a look at the funeral of Harold Jellicoe Percival this week, a lone ex RAF soldier who died at 99 years of age, he had outlived his siblings and had no children, he worked as ground crew with the famous Dam-busters squadron and after leaving the Army lived a solitary existence, but following an appeal by the undertakers for mourners to attend the ex serviceman's funeral over two thousand people including ex-servicemen and women turned up and filled the church and even the street outside in the pouring rain, that to me is what my country stands for and represents, the voice of humility and respect for others, they are values that even Hitler and his mighty armies could never overcome, he found to his cost that you cannot fight truth and honesty.
So the reality is we still have that heart, but i fear it is a heart without a head to lead it, we have politicians who are now so interbred and image sensitive that their traditional values have been watered down to an almost non-existent level, they are as out of touch with reality as the people who made such acidic comments concerning aid to the Philippines but as much a part of the reason why they were made in the first place. It is time we had some proper leadership in this country and as Sir John Major so rightly said in an article this week, it needs to come from within the ranks not from the Officer and Gentleman's club, we need an experienced and capable pair of hands to help cope with the realities of life in Britain in 2013 not silver spoon fed ones.
Either way none of the above come close to being on the receiving end of a two hundred miles an hour storm when you were already living in a tin hut. The people of the Philippines have found themselves in such a position over the last few days indeed a new storm is brewing threatening more carnage, it is true devastation on a huge scale with over ten thousand dead and some of those bodies still lying under collapsed buildings and even hanging from trees where they were cruelly tossed. That to me would be a disaster.
So why do I ask such a question? Surely the answer was obvious? Well actually no it wasn't obvious according to many short sighted people who I am ashamed to say class themselves as British. Having read some of the comments tagged to the bottom of news stories covering the disaster it seems we Brits are starting to lose our compassion for our fellow man in peril. Many of the comments emanated from pure ignorance of how emergency aid funding works, it is set aside and put there for good reason, it cannot be used by a Political Party to bolster our own NHS or help our own homeless it is overseas aid and it is their for such a time as this, most of those commenting on the stories I am sure go through their door at night close it and enjoy a warm home, it may be tight money wise but that is life, no-one said it was perfect but it's hardly third world status. I do however take issue with the European Union grant aid of only two point five million pounds while Britain supplies ten, Brussels is as mean as it is unruly.
I do have to admit I also feel the UK is currently being overrun with too many people who will fail to make a valid contribution to our cause, when people come to London on a Euro Passport to simply beg and send their forty pounds a day "earnings" back to Romania or Bulgaria then clearly the system is broken, we have been saying that for years but systematic governments have ignored this political hot potato as the answer is clearly a move away from Europe which, let's face it will never happen in my lifetime as there is simply not the leadership in place to see it through. But on the other hand when I see comments from basically well fed and watered Brits decrying aid to starving homeless people who are victims of an unprecedented disaster through no fault of their own it saddens me greatly, we are a caring passionate Nation and a proud Nation despite our current lack of a figurehead of worth to keep those traditions in place, if you ever start to doubt that we still hold such values close to our hearts then take a look at the funeral of Harold Jellicoe Percival this week, a lone ex RAF soldier who died at 99 years of age, he had outlived his siblings and had no children, he worked as ground crew with the famous Dam-busters squadron and after leaving the Army lived a solitary existence, but following an appeal by the undertakers for mourners to attend the ex serviceman's funeral over two thousand people including ex-servicemen and women turned up and filled the church and even the street outside in the pouring rain, that to me is what my country stands for and represents, the voice of humility and respect for others, they are values that even Hitler and his mighty armies could never overcome, he found to his cost that you cannot fight truth and honesty.
So the reality is we still have that heart, but i fear it is a heart without a head to lead it, we have politicians who are now so interbred and image sensitive that their traditional values have been watered down to an almost non-existent level, they are as out of touch with reality as the people who made such acidic comments concerning aid to the Philippines but as much a part of the reason why they were made in the first place. It is time we had some proper leadership in this country and as Sir John Major so rightly said in an article this week, it needs to come from within the ranks not from the Officer and Gentleman's club, we need an experienced and capable pair of hands to help cope with the realities of life in Britain in 2013 not silver spoon fed ones.
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