Wednesday, April 8, 2009

17000 Italian Earthquake survivers on a 'camping weekend'

I'm all for levity, making light of things is always humourous except when referring to the 17 000 people made homeless by Monday's powerful earthquake in Italy. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the destitute should consider themselves to be on a "camping weekend,". Touring camps set up for survivors of Monday's disaster that killed 250 people, Berlusconi told German television station N-TV: "They have everything they need, they have medical care, hot food..." "Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. but they should see it like a weekend of camping."Most of the homeless spent Tuesday night in tent camps that have sprung up around L'Aquila, capital of the worst-affected central Abruzzo region. Others made do sleeping in their cars.The death toll was on Wednesday raised to 250, according to civil protection authorities cited by the Ansa news agency. These kinds of disasters I've often associated with small (often poor) countries that we know very little about and can go on blindly unaware, which is of course an awful thing to do - but it happens - at the end of the day any loss of life, especially in multitudes is always a terrible thing and hope the survivers get all the aid they require - especially now that Italian authorities have been quoted saying, "I thank foreign countries for their solidarity, but we ask them not to send us aid, we can handle the needs on our own. We are proud people and we have the means."

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