In addition to TXTPower, people can also send in their donations for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) through Philippine Aid. Donations are sent through ChipIn — a cause-oriented Paypal collection service. Like TXTPower, all funds will be remitted to the Philippine National Red Cross.
If you don’t have a Paypal account, then visit the PNRC’s website for information on how to send in your donations.
Any amount will help.
This past weekend, the Philippines was hit by typhoon Ondoy (international codename: Ketsana). According to Digital Typhoon, Ondoy brought 410mm of rainfall within a 24-hour period, “the largest record in 40 years”. Flashfloods followed, power cuts and even communications were affected. To date, GMA News reports that over 100 people lost their lives and 340,000 people affected by Ondoy’s battering of Manila.
In tragedies like these, Filipinos always display their sense of bayanihan. Simply translated as ‘camaraderie’, bayanihan’s entry in Wikipedia says:
…a spirit of communal unity or effort to achieve a particular objective.
For the present calamity, Pinoys (demonym for Filipinos) have taken bayanihan a notch higher by utilising social media like Twitter and Facebook. These sites have been flooded (no pun intended) with updates of people needing to be rescued, warnings of impassable roads and prayers for safety to family and friends, especially when actual communication lines were down. It had helped people abroad, like me, not only to know what has been happening but also with an opportunity to help, particularly when news had been scarce like here in the UK. The tweets and status updates also helped in spreading information on how to send donations — in monies and in kind — to the victims.
Some information shared through these sites, however, were not quite in the spirit of bayanihan like those of that Filipina in Dubai and GMA’s spending habits. Many Pinoys reacted quite strongly to these, which I think was energy misspent. I am not saying that the world shouldn’t be informed of these but the timing was not right, in my opinion. Attention should have been focused more on finding ways to help rather than rant on such misgivings.
But despite that, this recent display of bayanihan is something that we, Pinoys, should really be proud of. However, even when the worst of the storm is over, there is still work to be done. There are still a lot of people who need help. There are many ways to help whether you are in the Philippines or abroad:
I personally believe that the UK summer this year (2009) had been great. We’ve had plenty of sunny days that allowed us to enjoy a lot of outdoor activities like picnics and bbqs. But it had to end and here are some signs – for me, at least – that summer is waving adieu. See if you agree.
BST to GMT
You hear people asking, “When do the clocks go back?” In as much as we would like to enjoy the longer days when there is still daylight at 9PM, we will soon be faced with sunsets at 3PM. But we still have a month left to gather in as much daylight as the clock go back on 31 Oct.
No more bank holidays
Well, at least until Christmas. Plus the last bank holiday is aptly named Last Day of Summer.
Programmes back on telly
Some of Britain’s popular TV programmes start their new season in autumn — X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and Spooks among others. According to reports, there seems to be quite a lot of period drama on telly this year, too. And there is a new series of animal docu entitled Life where Sir David Attenborough narrates. There’s plenty for a good stay in.
We’ve had a good run with summer, didn’t we? But as they say, all good things must come to an end, including this post. So, enjoy that last pint or glass of wine out in the garden as we welcome autumn!
New York City is such a big place! Not in terms of area but with the numerous places to see and do. You will definitely need more than a day to explore the Big Apple. But if your schedule is really tight, then taking a guided tour of the city will ensure that you won’t miss its highlights.
One such company is City Sights NY. They mainly operate hop-on, hop-off, open-top double decker buses that goes around the interesting places in NYC. But they also offer walking tours of the different districts as well as boat and helicopter tours. And since New York is a “city that never sleeps”, one great way to really enjoy is by joining a night tour that goes from the Theatre District all the up to Tribeca. As we approach the holiday season, I imagine this tour would bring a little bit of sparkle and festive spirit into everyone.
City Sights New York Tours will surely bring you the best of what the Big Apple has from land, sea and air. If you’re planning a trip to NYC — even when you’ve already been there, check them out. Just make sure you’ve got enough memory on your digital camera!
This is a sponsored post.
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