This story was sent to us and we wanted to share it with you. It shows how attitude can not only make the difference in quality of life but in this case between life and death.

LET IT REALLY SINK IN……

THEN CHOOSE …

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would be twins!’

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, ‘I don’t get it!’

‘You can’t be a positive person all of the time.
How do you do it?’

He replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good mood.’

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or…I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

‘Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.’

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were any better, I’d be twins…Wanna see my scars?’

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,’ he replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or….I could choose to die. I chose to live.’

‘Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?’ I asked.

He continued, ‘…the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.’

‘What did you do?’ I asked.

‘Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,’ said John. ‘She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity”

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude….I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You have two choices now:

1. Delete this

2. Forward it to the people you care about.

You know the choice I made.

We Are The World 25 for Haitia was recorded on February 1st, 2010, in the same studio as the original 25 years earlier (Henson Recording Studios, formerly A&M Recording Studios). It featured many of today’s top artists. It is once again a call for help for people less fortunate.

Now download it and support this wonderful cause. Go to We are the World Foundation. Together we can make a difference.

Michael Jackson was included in this remake honoring his memory and contribution during the original recording. It raised close to $100 million for the people in Africa 25 years ago. It was also the beginning of his continued support to charities around the world. His appearance was requested by his mother Katherine Jackson.

Now download it and support this wonderful cause. Go to We are the World Foundation.

Registration for the 2010 RACE FOR DIGNITY CHALLENGE is now open! This year’s charity event will take on Saturday, June 5th from 12 – 8 p.m. at Yonge-Dundas Square in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Dignitas International’s Race for Dignity is a spin-a-thon that raises funds for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Sign up today! There are many ways to get involved – start a team, volunteer, sponsor a rider, forward this email to your friends and family, invite them to join along with you. Live outside of Toronto? Consider starting a virtual team or cycling in your own city.

For more information on the Race for Dignity, please visit racefordignity.com

Take a look at last years event:

Drug resistant strains of HIV in Africa is a very real threat and is occurring for a number of reasons.

The following article was written in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Thursday, January 7, 2010 by Wendy Glauser.

We wanted to share this because it is so important.

Trezar Mnenula sits in a consultation room in Zomba Central Hospital in Malawi, eyeing her HIV-infected patient skeptically. “Why do you think you keep forgetting to take your ARVs [antiretrovirals]?” she asks.

The woman’s explanation, that she “forgot” the seven leftover pills in her container, doesn’t cut it.

Mnenula, a young clinical officer intern with red- and black-framed glasses and long, tiny braids, says nothing, waiting for her patient to elaborate. Eventually, she sighs and says: “I’m going to send you for counselling again. Apparently the messages didn’t sink in the first time.”

It’s become an altogether common occurrence in Malawi, and across Africa, driving fears that drug-resistant strains of HIV are emerging because patients don’t adhere to their antiretroviral drug therapies, setting back a decade of gains in the battle against AIDS. Drug resistance occurs naturally over years of being on treatment, but can arise in just a few weeks if patients take their drugs intermittently. Antiretroviral therapy suppresses drug replication, but when there are low levels of drugs in the blood, the virus has the opportunity to replicate quickly and mutate into resistant forms.

“In many ways, resistance is a silent problem because we don’t have the abilities to measure it,” says Adrienne Chan, medical coordinator at Dignitas International, a Canadian organization facilitating AIDS treatment in Malawi. The cost of viral load tests, the best measure for resistance, puts them out of the reach of the majority of patients in sub-Saharan Africa.

Compounding the problem are fears that global funding cutbacks are leading to shortages of antiretroviral drugs in some nations, and the ensuing possibility that the course of treatment for many patients will be interrupted, again raising the likelihood that drug-resistant strains of HIV will emerge.

According to Sharonann Lynch, an HIV/AIDS policy advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), “there are already number of stock outs in countries MSF is working in.”

MSF noted in a recent report, Punishing Success: Early Signs of a Retreat from Commitment to HIV Care and Treatment, that the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria funded 35% fewer proposals in 2009 than in 2008. Meanwhile, after increasing outlays in each of the last five years, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has capped spending for the next two years.

“The countries have calculated how much they’ll need for treatment in five, ten years and the donors have said how much they’re going to give,” says Lynch. “There’s a significant gap.”

Patients share pills when access to antiretrovirals is severely limited, Lynch says, a practice that sends resistance rates soaring. Also, the reintroduction of user fees for AIDS treatment services could mean patients will take drugs when they can afford them, rather than on a routine basis, she adds.

Peter Mugyenyi, executive director of Uganda’s Joint Clinical Research Centre, worries the cutbacks could mean a return to the days when drugs were scarce and resistance was dangerously high. Uganda has an HIV prevalence of 6.5%, and receives most of its treatment support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

“I want to tell you that I am panicking. Concern is not the word. I am panicking,” Mugyenyi says, adding that his centre completed a study in 2003 which tracked 50 patients who’d started on antiretroviral therapy and found that 56% acknowledged interruptions in their drug regimen and 52% had drug-resistant mutations of the virus (AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 2004; 20[4]:355-64).

Mugyenyi says the steady supply of antiretrovirals from the president’s fund reversed the trend, but Uganda is “now at the gate and about to enter what was happening in the mid-1990s.”

Of equal concern is the possibility that the cutbacks will affect how antiretrovirals are actually delivered, which might exacerbate the drug resistance problem.

In the Zomba district, patients once walked as many as eight hours to a hospital to get their prescriptions refilled, but since 2006, Dignitas International has been working with local health authorities to decentralize AIDS services to district health centres.

“Before we had ARVs [antiretrovirals] here, the patients would maybe kill a chicken and sell it so that they would have the transport money to get to the hospital,” says a clinic nurse. Clinical officer Gabriel Mateyu says many patients would miss their appointments for prescription refills altogether.

Lynch argues that “if you treat people where they live, there’s mountains of evidence that you’ll have much better success in terms of adherence.” But she adds that with less money for training and diagnostic tests, countries may start scaling back the number of facilities offering antiretrovirals.

Dr. Wilford Kirungi, who monitors drug resistance for Uganda’s health ministry, says the government will curb the reemergence of resistance by enrolling fewer patients on treatment plans and rigorously ensuring that those receiving treatment adhere to their regimen.

Mugyenyi is furious that Uganda must stop enrolling new patients. Not only will it lead to mass mortality among patients who never get access to treatment, it won’t stop the rise of drug-resistant HIV, he says. In situations of scarcity, pill sharing goes up; drug shortages are “a recipe for resistance.”

He also takes issue with the rationale behind the US government’s decision to focus Global Health Initiative efforts on AIDS prevention, rather than treatment, and to redirect money toward improving health systems. “Some kind of experts come here and they advise the US government only that they need to pay attention to such abstracts as mentoring health care providers,” he says. “The number one thing is availability of treatment. Any other program, whatever name they call it, will fail.”

Vitamin D has long been touted as a cure for bone loss and health but there is more and more research showing its beneficial effects.

The following video is extremely interesting. Take a look.

Want to curb terrorism then it suggested that North American and Europe develop security based on Israel.

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie “Munich” was based.

He was Golda Meir’s bodyguard — she appointed him to track down and
bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli
athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City a few weeks ago, he shared information
that EVERY American needs to know — but that our government has not
yet shared with us.

He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O’Reilly show on
Fox News, stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the
time, O’Reilly laughed and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted
him back on the show. But, unfortunately, within a week the terrorist
attack had occurred.

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and
the Middle East) to the Bush Administration about 9/11 a month before
it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as
bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has
since hired him as a security consultant.

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack
on the U.S. Will occur within the next few months.

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try
and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go
down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke –
that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing
strategies that are truly effective.

For example:

1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new
explosives are made of plastic.

2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire.
Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of
idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can’t bring
liquids on board. He says he’s waiting for some suicidal maniac to
pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will
have us all traveling naked! Every strategy we have is reactionary.

3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.
Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future,
they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where
people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two
suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person
next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the
restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security
even gets involved.

In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and
will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where
large groups of people congregate (e.g. Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos,
big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc…) and that it will
also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations,
etc., as well as rural America this time (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around
the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8
cities, including rural areas.

Aviv says terrorists won’t need to use suicide bombers in many of the
larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they
can simply valet-park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but
that our U. S. Government does not want to “alarm American citizens”
with the facts. The world is quickly going to become “a different
place”, and issues like “global warming” and political correctness
will become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don’t have to be
concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to
destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons. They like to use
suicide as a front-line approach. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s
effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more
than willing to “meet their destiny”.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America should
be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad but will be,
instead, “home-grown” — having attended and been educated in our own
schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for
“students” who frequently travel back and forth to the Middle East.
These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know
our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but
that we Americans won’t know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated
about the terrorist threats we will, inevitably, face. America still
has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our
intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change
that fact SOON.

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence
perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites
and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel’s,
Ireland’s, and England’s hands-on examples of human intelligence, both
from an infiltration perspective as well as to trust “aware” citizens
to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however,
our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, “like
babies”. Our government thinks we “can’t handle the truth” and are
concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of
terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by
placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major
cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman
to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the
briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well “trained”
that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by
citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, “Unattended Bag!” The area
would be quickly and calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But,
unfortunately, America hasn’t been yet “hurt enough” by terrorism for
their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens
or for the government to understand that it’s their citizens who are,
inevitably, the best first-line of defence against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in
America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were
“lost” without parents being able to pick them up, and about our
schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until
parents could get there. (In New York City, this was days, in some
cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within
your family, to respond to in the event of a terrorist emergency. He
urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the
schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel.

Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone?

Where would you gather in an emergency?

He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our
youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan that, in the
event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off EVERYONE’s
ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., as this is the
preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way
that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak?

You need to have a plan.

Let us know what you think in the Speak Your Mind box below.

We all think eating fruit means just buying fruit, cutting it up and popping it into our mouths. It’s not that easy. It’s important to know how and when to eat fruit.

Now you may be asking what is the correct way to eat fruit.

Here are some very important facts when eating fruit.

Do not eat fruit after a meal. Fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach.

Eating fruit like that plays a major role in detoxifying your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities..

Fruit is the most important food.

Let’s say you eat two slices of bread, then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it’s prevented from doing so.

In the meantime, the whole meal rots and ferments, and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach, and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

Eat your fruit on an empty stomach, or before your meal! You’ve heard people complain: Every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet, etc. This will not happen if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. Fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas. Hence, you bloat!

Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes – all of these will NOT happen if you eat fruit on an empty stomach.

There’s no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruit becomes alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruit, you have the Secret of Beauty, Longevity, Health, Energy, Happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don’t drink juice that has been heated. Don’t eat cooked fruit; you don’t get the nutrients at all. You get only the taste. Cooking destroys all of the vitamins.

Eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit-fast to cleanse your body. Eat fruit and drink fruit juice for just 3 days, and you will be surprised when your friends say how radiant you look!

KIWI: Tiny but mighty, and a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange!

AN APPLE a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C, thereby helping to lower the risk of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

EATING 2 – 4 ORANGES oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones, and reduce the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. Also a key source of lycopene, the cancer-fighting oxidant. Also found in watermelon: Vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene, good for your eyes.

Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer!

Can you believe this? For those who like to drink cold water, this applies to you. It’s nice to have a cold drink after a meal, however, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you’ve just consumed, which slows digestion. Once this ’sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer.. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

Heart Attach Procedure

Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. Sixty percent of people who have a heart attack while they’re asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Be careful, and be aware. The more we know, the better our chance to survive.
A cardiologist said if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life.

It can even be your life!

The Canada for Haiti telethon — organized by and airing on Global, CBC and CTV — raised money for a group of nine Canadian charities already on the ground in Haiti. In Canada, officials said matching federal funds elevated Friday night’s tally to $18.8-million.

Almost 92,000 donations were made, including one very generous gift of $100,000, which co-host George Stroumboulopoulos announced during the broadcast from CBC headquarters in Toronto.

The hour-long, commercial-free program, hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, Cheryl Hickey and Ben Mulroney, had phone lines jammed with callers looking to give.

“We are asking you to come together, we’re asking you to step forward and help others,” said Mulroney, surrounded by a small sea of Canadian celebrities, at the show’s opening.

The federal government has said it will match donations given by Canadians to recognized charities dollar from dollar, up to a total of $50 million.

Throughout the broadcast, images of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12 scrolled across the screen. An estimated 200,000 have been killed — including 17 Canadians — and millions more are homeless.

One-third of Haiti’s nine million people are expected to need emergency food, water and shelter for an indefinite period of time.

Musicians — including K’naan and the Tragically Hip — performed and other celebrities offered words of encouragement.

“I’m looking for the bus to get to Haiti because I have to go fix things,” quipped Mike Holmes.

“It’s going to take a long time to clean up . . . It’s going to take years to rebuild,” he said. “We need to step back and go back to the drawing board and think: how can we make a change here, how can we make it better, how can think green and build better to withstand an earthquake.

“We can do it.”

The program also showed three reporters currently in the Haiti; Global’s Mike Armstrong, CBC’s Susan Ormiston and CTV’s Paul Workman were shown visiting field hospitals and orphanages in Port-au-Prince as people struggle to continue.

The celeb-packed show began with Nelly Furtado singing her ballad Try , and included performances by K’Naan, Metric and The Tragically Hip.

Prerecorded and live requests for donations came from heavyweight directors Jason Reitman and Norman Jewison and TV stars Joshua Jackson and Sandra Oh.

In a taped video message, Fox spoke to Canadians’ “tremendous generosity of spirit.”

“It is to that spirit I’m appealing now when I ask you to please give and give as much as you can,” he said. “At the end of the day I can’t think of anything more Canadian than that.”

Donations were to be shared by several non-profit groups including the Canadian Red Cross Society, Care Canada, Free the Children, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, Plan Canada, Save the Children Canada, UNICEF Canada and World Vision Canada.

Director Atom Egoyan said before the show that he hoped the spirit of charity would extend well beyond the broadcast.

“This is a unique situation, but it’s going to continue to be a unique situation in the months and years to come as Haiti is rebuilding, and we have to keep being able to remember what we felt this evening,” Egoyan said.

“Tonight is just the beginning of a whole gesture. We’re going to have to continue to remember that this country is in dire straits and we’re going to have to all be part of its regrowth.”

In a taped address, an impassioned Dion asked viewers to give whatever they could.

“A dollar, five dollars, whatever you can,” she said. “We have to be hand in hand to help these wonderful people. To start with they didn’t have much, they need us, please be generous.”

A French-language benefit, Ensemble pour Haiti, was to air Friday night on TVA Network, Societe Radio-Canada, Tele-Quebec, V Tele, LCN, MusiquePlus and MusiMax, TV5 and Espace Musique.

The English show was co-hosted by Global’s Cheryl Hickey and CTV’s Ben Mulroney. Others who taped addresses for the Canadian special included film stars Rachelle Lefevre, Eugene Levy, Tom Jackson and Will Arnett; and TV personalities Hugh Dillon, Mike Holmes, Rick Mercer, Alex Trebek, and Pamela Anderson.

Musicians included Geddy Lee, Justin Bieber, Sarah McLachlan, Simple Plan, David Foster, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Raine Maida.

Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman noted it was a massive undertaking to bring so many notable personalities together for the cause.

“A lot of people changed their schedules, a lot of people came from far and wide in order to be here and I think that speaks to our generosity as Canadians,” Brueggergosman said before the broadcast.

The entertainment world has responded with an outpouring of charity – from million-dollar donations to fundraising songs – since Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. Efforts include a planned charity single including the voices of Rod Stewart, Leona Lewis and Canadian Michael Buble. Partly organized by The Sun newspaper in London, the paper says the song will be a cover of R.E.M.’s 1993 ballad Everybody Hurts .

Canadians can donate in any of the following ways:

• Call 1-877-51-HAITI
• Texting the word ‘aid’ to 45678 to make an instant $5 donation
• Visiting Canadaforhaiti.com.

All channels will be operational until Feb. 12.

We would appreciate your comments in the Speak Your Mind box below.

Online contributions to Haiti are setting giving records, topping early totals for other disasters and opening new support sources for humanitarian groups.

Electronic donations for the first 5 days after the January 12th disaster were 19% more than the same time frame after the 2004 Asian tsunami and 109% more than after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Users of the online payment system PayPal raised more than $1.8 million in the first 5 days after the tragedy.

These numbers indicate that it the outpouring of help is now often done online where givers can increasingly go first.

As part of this disaster effort, cellular phone users in the US could donate $20 by texting 90999. The $10 was simply charged to the user’s phone bill. Verizon fowarded the donations to the American Red Cross even before users paid their bill.

Other agencies have also reported millions being donated via online methods. This is the wonderful side of the new online reality.

Let us know what you think in the Speak Your Mind box below.