Anxious to help, they come as builders and end up as porters in the morgue

[emad]

Money, not skills, is the top priority

Jonathan Watts in Phuket
Wednesday January 5, 2005
The Guardian

Hot, sweaty, pink-skinned and carrying a large green holdall, you can tell that Ian Archer has just stepped off the plane when he arrives at the volunteer centre in Phuket town hall.
And as soon as he opens his mouth, you cannot help but be impressed by the good intentions of a man on a mission to help people he has never met in a land he is visiting for the first time.

"I've only been here an hour. I have flown in direct so that I can muck in," said the builder from Swanley in Kent. "I've never done anything like this before in my life."

Mr Archer, a father of four, is a sudden convert to direct action, inspired by the contrast between the TV images of suffering he saw in south Asia and the comfort of his British home.

"We were sitting watching TV on Boxing Day when we saw what happened here. We'd had such a lovely christmas - presents and turkey and all the rest - that it just broke our hearts. So we decided we should do something."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1383470,00.html

[freeplessinseattle]

1. Beautiful. my faith in humanity is being restored (nt)

[Skittles]

2. I love seeing the world pitching in money and time to that area

it's one of the few times we get to see the world at its best