For years, I have been unsuccessfully attempting to encourage people around me to share their fortune with the less fortunate. In fact my last attempt was only two days before the latest earthquake hit Haiti.

I would now like to thank the nearly 200,000 who gave their lives, their families, the survivors and the media, all of whom without there would never have been such an out-pouring of donations.

Perhaps the “creator” made the biggest donation with it’s decision to end those 200,000 miserable lives. The quake has also given the rest of us pause; forcing us to reflect on our busy lives here, albeit temporarily.

I also realize that nearly all of the money donated was guilt-money, however, in light of my very little success getting folks to give over the years, I will take it.

I also know that we will not see donations of this magnitude until the next disaster strikes. Here’s hoping it isn’t this year for many will not loosen-up their purse-strings twice in the same year.

I wanted to wait a few day before posting this so that everyone had some time to digest the whole event.

Sure, he was a bit strange but, who amongst us is so “normal”? He may have even hurt a few people along the way but that may also be explained by his childhood.

Years ago I heard someone say that “through plastic surgery, Michael Jackson has made the transition from a black man to a white woman”. I found that particularly funny especially for those of us not living in LA where it’s fake everything.

I imagine that for most people, once you start such alterations, it would be hard to stop. For example, many a time I see a woman’s innocent plucking of eyebrows turn into a parting of Red Sea.

I suppose we ought also to remember, that the sort of wealth and celebrity status as was accomplished by this icon would inevitably be accompanied by all sorts of baggage; in this case, to the extent that perhaps only a select few individuals will ever experience. So, it far to easy for us to judge someone like Michael Jackson from so far away.

It is also rumoured that that he spent far more than he earned. To me that translates to not just bad accounting, but good for the economy. That money got to move around as opposed to sitting in some bank account.