On disasters and relief

I was lounging around, feeling overwhelmed by the many thousands of kilometers I need to travel in the next few days and wondering when I'd next be able to blog, when my niece came upstairs and told me about the flood devastation in the Indian Ocean states. That puts the comfortable triviality of my life nicely into perspective.

What a terrible disaster this is, and how utterly defenceless we are against the forces of Nature. At times like these, I wonder whether there might possibly be better things for our scientists and inventors to be working on, than building ever bigger and less-efficient cars to deplete our oil reserves with.

CBC Radio reported that the UN is trying to gather together 6.5 million dollars for immediate relief work, and I wondered as so often what the truly rich (e.g. Bill Gates) think when they hear such appeals. In case you haven't been keeping track, Bill's personal fortune is currently estimated at 40 billion dollars. Were he to be earning normal bank interest (2%) on that, it would amount to 800 million dollars a year, or 91 thousand dollars per hour in interest alone, ignoring salary and dividends etc.

Bill Gates could pay the 6.5 milllion that the UN needs for immediate relief, from the interest he earns in three days. I wonder whether he will?