We are so lucky. In so many ways.
In contrast, the surge of refugees flooding into Europe are scared, tired, wet, cold and hungry. I listened to an NPR reporter last week describing a woman walking along the side of the highway in Hungary with cars whizzing by and the police using bullhorns telling them to get off the road. She was carrying her 3 year old daughter and holding the hand of her 5 year old son who was walking alongside. They had already been walking for 12 hours that day and had fallen well behind the men they were travelling with. All of a sudden the little boy fell to the ground, crying and too exhausted to go on any further. The reporter said that that the woman simply crumpled. She clearly didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t carry both kids. She simply didn’t have the strength. She started sobbing hysterically, overwhelmed by everything. Another group of men came by and picked up both kids and the woman gathered herself and continued her march. The little boy fell fast asleep in the arms of the man who was carrying them. Several hours later, Hungarian buses stopped and loaded everybody onboard to get them off the highway for that night..
This is not the first mass migration in Europe. I’m thinking back to Genghis Khan, the pograms of the late 19th century, the Holocaust, the chaos post World War 2 and the mess in the Balkans. BUT it’s the first time I have witnessed something like this. I know how lucky I am. I’ve thought long and hard about how we can best help and have decided that a good starting point is to donate money to a group that is experienced and committed to providing immediate relief for these poor people with a bare minimum in management fees etc. So we are going to do our best to raise a $36,000 donation to Doctors without Borders with our company matching donations dollar for dollar.
I’ll be heading out on a Guadalupe great white shark trip in 2 weeks time. I can’t help but think that I will be thinking about the mess in Europe even while I am in the water enjoying our big white smiling sharkies.
Please Help.
Captain Mike
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