Nicholas Craig column

Jan 7 2005 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

Generosity of spirit catches us all by surprise. After the extraordinary events of last week the remarkable response of ordinary people to the tsunami tragedy was amazing - in its speed, its amount and its global reach.

This region, as always, has helped lead the way in the UK. The Thai Arts and Culture North East organisation is planning a charity concert at St James's Park on January 30 to raise at least £30,000 for the aid appeal.

Newcastle's Catholic cathedral held a Requiem Mass and swimmers braved the icy North Sea, both helping to raise money for the tsunami fund.

People across the world are opening their hearts and wallets to give millions of pounds to victims, jamming phone lines and websites and in some cases outpacing their own governments in their generosity.

Britons, who had already subscribed to global charity campaigns such as Live Aid this Christmas, have dug deep to raise more than £60m in the first week.

The internet has proved to be the most efficient way of giving, particularly over a bank holiday weekend. Within three days 200,000 people had donated online.

Modern media techniques have connected us with the tragedy, allowing us to witness what the first reporters on the scene were able to see and share a direct sense of global grief.

They have given the world a chance to respond with an immediacy that would seem extraordinary to any other generation.

Globalisation of communications networks and their speed, cheapness and availability have also transformed our world.

Internet and email are so much a part of our lives that it is shocking to realise that half the world's population has never made a phone call. The tsunami chose to inflict devastation on some of the world's poorest countries, many of which do not have our easy access to communications networks.

The generosity of last week is a mark of the connectedness of the world in which we live. Distance does not affect the speed of our communications and the far reaches of the world are more familiar to us now than at any other time.

The number of tourist deaths shows how familiar we are with these countries, in which tourist traffic brings hard currency and job opportunities. It is the continued actions of the connected humanitarian world that will begin to heal the cataclysm facing millions this January.