"It takes ages to finish a quilt you're not working on!"

Friday, July 08, 2005

To our Friends in England...

I have spent most of tonight reading eBay's chatboards, both here in Oz and the UK. eBay is one of the first places on the net to find out what is going on around the world when there is a sudden disaster, as people in various time zones are on eBay 24 hours a day. The first message appeared on one of the UK message boards, minutes after the first explosion in London. Someone in Australia must have been reading the UK boards late at night (as I have done sometimes) and seen the thread about the bombings, and immediately put something on the Aust. board. It snowballed from there, and now there are hundreds of messages pouring into the UK eBay site from all over the world, expressing horror, sympathy and support.
People in Australia who weren't able to get on to rellies in England via the phone, put messages on eBay's boards, which were picked up by eBayers in the UK. These lovely Brits told the Aussies to email them with phone numbers, and they would try to make contact locally, which eventually, some of them did, much to the relief and heartfelt gratitude of the Aussies.
Things like this renews my hope for the human race. For all the terrible things that a minority of humans do to each other, I am firmly convinced that the majority of us are decent caring humans.
Did anyone ever read the open letter from Australia to the Bali bombers? Well, somebody in London has written a similar one to their terrorists, and it was on the UK eBay message board. I have copied it to my hard drive, but am reluctant to publish it here, because the language may offend some people - mind you, the people is meant for deserve more than just swear words! To all my British Blog Readers - keep your chin up. You are renowned for getting on with your lives when you are under attack, and renowned for helping each other in extreme difficulty. You have many friends here in Oz, who are thinking of you and praying to their God whoever He or She may be. Hang in there, and peace be with you.

3 comments:

Gina E. said...

Love your car! Are you and your family okay?

Grangry said...

Hi Gina, thanks for the contact. We had a bit of a scare yesterday because my niece was on a day trip to the city. The mobile phone network was out, so my sister couldn't get in touch with her. It was a couple of hours before she managed to call to say she was safe at a friend's house and would stay put 'til it was safe to travel. There must be many people STILL as worried as we WERE. Dreadful, dreadful sad day. The police have just announced that some people from Oz are among the injured so, of course, commiserations go to you over there too.

yahbitch said...

Just learnt my uncle was at one of the Tube stations bombed, but he was Ok, he's CID in the London Transport Police so is still there working. He hasn't been home yet.

Thanks for your concern, nice to know ther are people all over the world that care. :)