There seems to be so much bad news in the News these days. There are floods in the North East of our country with really bad floods in Orissa, and not showing signs of getting better; the floods in Bihar have receded but people are still living in camps; there have been the cyclones that hit Cuba and the US; then there have been the terror attacks here in India and the one in Islamabad in Pakistan at the Marriott; then there is the financial meltdown in the US, which shows signs of imapcting the rest of the world and attacks against Christians in many states.
When I see the suffering on the TV of those devastated by the floods, typhoons and the terror attacks I feel helpless and depressed. I know that I am not the kind who will jump onto thenext train for Orissa to go and help in person. I can at the most donate (you can find out about donating for Orissa here). But I do know that I too am responsible, in whatever small way, for the climate change that has brought on such devastating floods and upped the frequency and strength of typhoons.
So, I can do my little bit to try and reduce my impact on our planet. I can also do my bit in not letting myself get into a beleagured mentality, where one, out of fear, typecasts all those who maybe of the same religion/ethnicity of those who have perpetrated incidents hurtful to others. That is such an easy mentality to fall into when one feels helpless at hurtful incidents perpetrated by other people, which then leads to prejudices and intolerances.


"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
.................
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;"
Into that heaven of freedom, let our world awake!