Explanations

How can religious people explain something like this? asks Martin Kettle in the Guardian. How can a God exist that can allow such things to happen?

Over the coming days, it will doubtless be revealed that many thousands more have died as a result of the Asian tsunami - after the flood waters have subsided, disease will come to finish off some of the weakest, poorest people on the planet. No explanation that includes deities, axes of evil, fallen men or infidels can possibly provide any explanation for what has happened - this is just tectonic plates shifting beneath the sea, and woe betide you if you're anywhere near by when it happens, be you Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist.

My trip to India and the Aidcamp will still be going ahead, though all of the Aidcamps volunteers have been instructed to make totally sure that they have cholera vaccinations, malaria prophylaxis, and the means to purify water. I was looking forward to visiting some of the fishing villages and quieter areas around the South of India - but obviously many of them have now been destroyed, and the closest I'll be going to any of the disaster areas will be if the group offered any help or went to view the damage.

Spokesmen and ambassadors from the affected countries were on BBC News today, one in particular saying that India was 'looking after itself', and not in as much need as Sri Lanka or Indonesia. This doesn't seem to be the situation according to SCAD (Social Change and Development), one of the charities that works in association with Aidcamps. I got an update today from the charity in India:

"Cletus [Babu, founder of the charity] and a team of 40 to 50 SCAD staff are working in a block of 12 villages which are among the worst hit in the Kanyakumari area at the southernmost tip of India. The situation is very bad here as the full force of the waves hit the area with several after shock waves.

Cletus estimates that there is a total population of 15 to 17,000 people in these 12 villages of which between two and three thousand are known to be dead and about the same number are thought to be missing. It looks like at least 10% of the local population is dead and this figure is likely to rise substantially."

The Indian government have apparently promised an immediate grant of Rs2,000 per family (25 pounds) and a grant of 1Lakh for every person killed (1,200 pounds). However it will take a long time for this to be paid - and there is some scepticism as to whether that money will ever be paid. If the government are suggesting that they don't need help, this doesn't seem to be the case on the ground - when commentaries and news programmes identify lack of communications as one of the most serious problems, that probably doesn't just apply to whether the phones work - it probably also means that thousands of people won't get more help if their governments don't ask for it.

The US has offered an initial $15 million in aid, a fraction of the cost of a Stealth bomber (a snip at $1.26 billion), and nothing compared to what they're spending in Iraq (approximately $50 billion a year). Mind you, it's understandable, the US economy is buggered after all, and there's no oil in the Indian Ocean.

Other stuff:

• Tsunami blog
  
• BBC coverage and links to charities
  

Earthquake

The devastation around the Indian ocean in the wake of the earthquake earlier today looks to be massive - affecting, amongst other places, Tamil Nadu, one of my first stops on the trip, which starts next month. I've e-mailed a friend who's volunteering in India at the moment based in Chennai - she was heading off to see family for the new year in Zimbabwe - to check she's OK. What remains to be seen is whether this will affect the Aidcamp I'm attending, and indeed any other parts of the trip - many people have died in Tamil Nadu and even Kerala, and the damage is massive. I've already had an e-mail from the charity I'm volunteering with, to say that the itinerary will be changing, but that they don't yet have the full picture.

Toys

I'm a fussy bugger at the best of times, and constantly checking out new innovations on the net and in technology, so with the trip next year, it's been fun to check out services I can use while I'm away. I have to find some way of keeping techie toys working for me - I'll be without my laptop, and mum suggests I'll need to be surgically removed from it before getting on the plane.

I'm settling for a combination of Gmail, Hotmail and my own Wizwow e-mail accounts, which is a pain in the neck, but they're each good for different things - I've got enough storage between all of them to keep my whole life online while I'm off. Gmail is very promising indeed so far, very intuitive to use and very simple. I've also found a fantastic tool for storing and displaying photos online, Flickr - it's easier to use than anything else I've seen, with one of the best facilities being the ability to e-mail photos to the service and, in turn, have it publish them to this blog. This is all no doubt hopelessly boring if you're not fussed about techie stuff!

Potted guide to Hinduism

I'd feel a lot more nervous about going to India if I wasn't starting off with Aidcamps - they've sent masses of information and material on vaccinations, flights, packing lists, local conditions, and now an impressive looking guide to Hinduism - so that all of the volunteers have a good idea of what to expect from India. I still have to figure out how to get from Mumbai down to Trivandrum on my own, and find somewhere to stay on January 29, but at least I can expect to meet a bunch of people after that who may be as new to India as me, and it looks like we'll be getting a great induction into India on the Aidcamp.

I was struck with a sudden fear last night - that while the basics of planning flights and getting visas are things I can work on, I won't actually know what to do when I get to each place. I dread the idea of arriving in a country and not even getting out of a city because I don't have the gumption to get out and explore. I'm sure this won't be a problem, but I want to start looking for another volunteer project to do along the way, and at least one organised expedition, so I have things to aim for and fixed times to hang flights off.

If I'm worrying about this now, I'm going to be a pain in the neck next month...

Around the world in a minute

I've discovered the most impressive piece of software I have seen in a very very long time - it's called Keyhole, and allows the user to zoom into anywhere on Earth from space, sometimes at such a high resolution as to allow for views of individual houses and cars. I found my old house in London!

It's very addictive to use - I've been using Keyhole to track the course I'll be following next year, and the video you can see here shows the entire route (1.82 MB Quicktime Movie) in one minute!

Pills

A decent size of my backpack is now going to be taken up with malaria medication, after the doctor presribed me 400 Doxycycline pills - to be taken a week before I go away, all the way through Asia, for the first month in Australia, all the way through South America, and for a month after I leave South America. Better than catching malaria I suppose. I couldn't help but laugh at the box - it said to avoid direct sunlight when on the pills. That'd be great - I can say I went round the world but was under a very big hat the whole way. At least I'm not on Larium, which has always sounded like scary stuff. You have to start taking that before any other medication so you have long enough to find out if it's driving you potty.

Jabs, laundry and greenery

I finally found the way to fully appreciate Suffolk - live in London first. I've never liked it so much here, and can really appreciate the quiet. What an old fart I am. Anyway, I've had my first vaccinations - polio and tetanus boosters - and recovered from mild palpitations at the price of the rest. Some of my jabs are over £100 each - I go back for them in January. Apart from that, I've had my first health check-up (6'2", 16 Stone, blood pressure a bit high) in ages, and have my first opticians and dentists check-ups in years coming up.

It's good at forcing you to do a bit of life laundry, this travelling lark. I'd recommend it to anyone, even if they weren't going far.