Many of you have been wondering when I was going to finally make comment on the recent Tsunami disaster. Although officially I was in bed with an incredibly bad chest cold, rumours were floating around that I had been spotted in Canberra, staying in a luxury home and playing with good friends. I believe one lady even called up Phoenixboi on his blog and suggested I was resting it up in New Caledonia. None of these vicious rumours are true. I intend to keep on as “The Champ”, despite talk of a takeover bid by Toblerone.
I know that people in the affected areas have been sitting around anxiously waiting for my press release to see what my response would be. I realise that without having a comment from me you’ve all been lost. Without my guidance, many of you have been left asking “How should I react?”. The answer is “give money”. Others of you have been wondering “How should I feel?”, and the aid workers among you have been dazed and confused without my direction. But today I will put an end to this.
The response of the Australian public has been phenomenal. I truly have been overawed by the amount of money Australians have given to this disaster appeal. I think Andrew Denton summed it up excellently when he said
“Just when I thought the world had lost its head, it found its heart”.
If this sort of benevolence were around the rest of the year, we could just about solve world poverty. And what’s more Australians just can’t seem to get anough of giving money out of their pockets, be it at that fantastic Asia V ROW cricket match, the tennis or at the supermarket. Our credit card debt will be going through the roof!
I have nothing but praise for John Howard’s response. He seems to be mellowing in his old age. The billion dollars he has pledged to Indonesia is one of the greatest bits of leadership this country has ever seen. Truly inspiring. And when he met with the Indonesian PM, he seemed genuinely affected by this horrific event. That was touching to see.
And may I say that at the moment I feel quite proud to be an Australian. I think we have truly led the world in our response to this disaster, and we have left some of our closest allies far behind in our wake, but I hope that they will soon change their minds on this.
I also very much hope that we do not see a repeat of what has happened in response to previous major disasters, where dollar upon dollar is pledged by Governments to help with rebuilding and then only a small percentage is actually paid up. Apparently Iran is still waiting on well over half the money that was pledged to it by the world to help it rebuild after their last major disaster. Please do not let this just be for show, I pray that we all actually pay up.