Massive earthquake disaster in China

With the Burmese cyclone disaster still in dire need of aid, yet another natural disaster has hit with a massive earthquake in China. It's estimated 10,000 have died in the Sichuan province with the same number again still buried and trapped... the effort to rescue survivors is also being hampered by storms.

Obviously, China has been in the news a lot in recent months, with the upcoming Olympics, the turbulent journey of the Olympic torch and China's handling of Tibet, but it still amazes me how callous and cruel people can be in response to the suffering of thousands of innocent people. News reports of the Burmese Junta preventing aid entering the country after the cylone hit was met with comments on Sky News stories such as 'If they don't want the aid, stop trying to give it to them' and 'Let them cope on their own if they're throwing it back in our faces, why should we help them?'. People seem oblivious to the fact that it's not the people in need of help who make the decisions.... they are ruled by dictators.

Anyway, as I read today's news story on the earthquake I couldn't not respond to a particularly idiotic comment:

"oh yes another natural disaster...bless. Well china's big enough to look after themselves i'm not digging into my pocket for them. Bet the tibetans are laughing their socks off now."
Posted by phil from boro

To which I responded

"It amazes me how callous some people can be in the face of so much suffering. An entire nation does not reflect it's government's regimes and opinions, and nasty remarks like Phil's earlier comment are shocking and wrong. Are you saying that the innocent victims of the earthquake (children included) deserve this fate because of their government's actions and decisions? No, didn't think so... It's painful how much hatred, bigotry and ignorance there is in the world."

I really hope people like this guy are in the minority as I am SURE if there were a natural disaster in the UK, he'd be glad of any help he could receive regardless of the bad political decisions our government have made in the past.

Again, those of you who would like to, you can make a donation to fund aid to victims of the Burma Cyclone here.