Found some incredible before and after satellite photos of the affected areas--http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/9.html
These showing Banda Aceh are the most stunning. Here's the before--
and this is after--
I'm putting on a fundraiser in April for a Microenterprise development organization, Five Talents, that is part of the Anglican Church. My friend and former co-worker (and beloved "little brother"--not in DNA but in spirit) is the Executive Director.
They have two programs in India and one in Indonesia but neither were affected by the tsunami. I'm sure that once the affected areas get beyond relief and into recovery, Five Talents will have some programs to assist people in recovering their livelihoods. Craig has asked me about going on a trip with him and teaching in some of the business seminars they put on for the people they serve. I may just have to go if he does a trip to India next year. Here's his update on the tsunami----http://www.fivetalents.org/1204.htm
And, now onto Turkey....I watched "Gallipoli" with my friend Monica as part of the preparation for her trip to Australia. I thought it would be a good choice and it was confirmed by our friend, Luke. Wow, what a depressing movie. I decided to do a little research on the Gallipoli campaign and The Nek battle that is depicted at the end of the movie. The movie did a pretty good job of giving context but #1 the sound on the VHS tape wasn't the best and #2 I was somewhat distracted by Mel Gibson's 25-year-old arse that is one of the better pieces of scenery in the movie.
Anyway, I found some good sites with a lot of historical information about the battle. I think the most heart-wrenching part is that The Nek was merely a diversion to enable a British landing at a nearby bay. I'm sure the Turks were quite diverted busily loading their machine guns and mowing down 600 ANZACs in a matter of 45 minutes. Here are some interesting figures on Australia's participation in WWI --"From a population of fewer than five million, 300,000 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner." This is from The Australian War Memorial web site. (http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.htm)
This site gives some interesting info on The Nek--http://www.macknortshs.qld.edu.au/ANZAC/nek.htm.
And this one has a good overview of the entire campaign--
http://www.anzacday.org.au/spirit/gallipoli/gallip02.html
After eight months, the British High Command decided that the war at Gallipoli was too costly and the ordered the troops to withdraw. Its interesting how the troops tried to make everything look normal during the evacuation that took two weeks to complete. The soldiers rigged up "Ghost guns" so it looked like there were more soldiers there. A rifle was placed among the sand bags with a tin cup above and one below. Water dripped slowly from the top tin into the one below. The rifle fired when the bottom tin became heavy enough to pull a wire attached to the trigger. There's a picture here--
http://www.anzacday.org.au/spirit/gallipoli/gallip04.html
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