Watching Dean

Pray for the people of Jamaica. I think that the Cayman Islands has a bit more money to weather the storm, but I think that Jamaica will be walloped if this forecast path from the NHC stays correct. This path hasn't changed much for Jamaica and Yucatan in the past 24 hours.

When you watch Dean, you know that the energy of the storm will have to go somewhere. Dean keeps pulling up the warmth of the water and with no shear to slow it down, it has to grow. You don't want it to hit your house, but you worry for the places and people where it may be going. For instance, I would like a catastrophic storm like Dean has become to hit an error with the ability to prepare and opportunity to recover. Bermuda is a good place. They have money, the building codes, and the government structure to handle a hurricane with minimal loss of life.

That thought leads me to a larger question. We Americans love Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic for vacation when we go to the areas with money. Should we take more responsibility to share our wealth (not just our tourism dollars) to improve the lives of people in the islands around us? We supposedly went into Iraq to remove a dictator that was not good to his people. What about these island countries with a barely functioning government? Our church and others in the Presbytery support a Haiti mission with St. Joseph's home for boys. Rather than grass roots, should our government which has spent $450 billion and counting, help out with a few billion?