So Much Pain

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Hardly had the world reacted to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti, there were mudslides in Madeira, an earthquake off the coast of Japan and another, massive, earthquake in Chile which has sent a tsunami out into the Pacific Ocean.

So much pain. So much heartbreak.

There is much to grumble about life in the UK but, thankfully, we are generally safe from these sort of natural disasters.
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The Madeira Mudslides

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I’m as bald as a coot and, if I get a bit chilly in what I am pleased to call my ‘office’, I sometimes wear a colourful cap I bought years ago in Madeira. That cap is a reminder of pleasurable holidays spent in this lovely island where the people are friendly, the food great and the scenery and wild life wonderful.

So it is very sad that forty people have been killed and many injured in the mudslides that have devastated parts of the island. Television pictures show dramatically the torrents of mud and rocks surging down the hills, taking everything in their paths and overflowing the narrow channels that normally drain off rain water. People have been killed or injured, property damaged, bridges downed and many places around the island covered in a sludge of mud and rock.

The Portuguese government have reacted swiftly to this catastrophe and our hearts go out to those who have lost family members, their houses or their livelihoods, and it is to be hoped that a normality will soon return to this pretty island.
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