The floods in Britain have barely dissappeared from the newspapers and TV bullitens since the rivers first burst their banks a few weeks ago. The BBC website today carried an update on how the victims are coping.

 It took me an awful lot of digging on the same site to get an update on the floods in China last week, where the death toll from this particular episode is 650 and rising. In today’s Guardian, I found a article about Britain’s floods on page 8, with China relegated to page 17. I know this is easy for me to go on about sitting here in dry Birmingham sipping a glass of tap water, and I’m not denying that the British floods have been anything but miserable and devestating for those affected and the families of those killed, but I’m trying to but a sense of perspective on it all… When tragedy happens so far away it is easy to become de-sensitised.

Random fact for the day: in the 11 days parts of England have been without running water and relying on bowsers in the street, over ninety thousand people will have died worldwide from diseases caused by lack of safe drinking water.