[JERRY2KONE]

Well being here in Prague it is hard to tell what is going on some days. We are still waiting on our van to arrive so no vehicle to get out much. Its a 20 minute walk to the local food shopping store, but it is very quiet here for the most part. For two weeks it was sunny and nice out, but the last two days it has been wet and dreary from dawn to nightfall. In fact the kids just left for school and it is snowing right now. Anyway I have read about a few different local fund raisers from various parts of the USA, but honestly it seems pretty quiet. I also noticed that Yahool has a rescue link on its homepage that if you click on it there is a list of various organizations that you can send money to that will assit the japanese humanitarian efforts. Or so they say. Unless you donate directly to some local japanese relief effort I would not trust any of the other organizations to get the actual relief to the victoms of this disaster. There is just too much politics with these so called helping organizations. Too much Gov control and interference.

I think people are so focused on the whole nuclear disaster that no one is doing much of anything until they know for sure that this matter is going to come out on the bright side. I believe once (if) these reactors are brought under control to the point that there is no radiation leaking and it begins to wind down that people will lighten up some and then maybe we can all focus more on the recovery efforts that are going on there.

That region of Japan is going to require an awful lot of humanitarian relief just to get the people out of danager, out of starvation, dehydration, & hypothermia, and into some kind of healthy state of being. The Japanese are even more fixated on the local news waiting for some kind of good news and resolve with that nuclear site so they can rest at ease once again. The people who are still out in the affected Zones are completely cut off with no power, food, water, and sealed in their homes waiting to be told that it is safe to come out of their shelters. Everyone is terrified of what could happen if this gets much worse, because we all know what happened with Chernobyl and how deadly that kind of result can be for miles around. Some of these people already feel if this thing blows then it must be their time to go, because they have nothing left to come back to. What a horrible existance that must be for them.

Overall I have to say that the mental atmosphere in Japan is one of calm and hope for better days. Maybe they are still in shock, but when Katrina happened in the USA there was panic, looting, and rioting in the relief shelters with people demanding assistance. The people of Japan are going through a triple disaster with dignity and calmness trusting in their own spirit that they will overcome. WIth little or no food or water they sit quietly praying for a miracle. If they will die, then it will be quietly without shaming themselves or their country. No spoiled rants over what services are not being provided for them, because they feel entitled to being taken care of. You have to feel proud of them for the humility and dignity that they wear on their sleeve for everyone to see.