There is a Level Four emergency

situation in Turkey. The advice is "do NOT travel there".

A few minutes ago I was talking to one of the early morning dog walkers in this district. He said, "You look tired."

"I am tired. I was up until almost two this morning updating some communication boards for several people going to Turkey."

"Who in the hell is going to Turkey? I wouldn't go near the place even without a bloody earthquake," he said robustly.

"These are very experienced trauma doctors," I told him, "They have done this sort of thing before. They just need a bit of help communicating with the local people."

He thought about it for a moment, shrugged and said, "Mad."

No, they aren't "mad". They know what sort of situation they are going into because they have done it before. All of them actually speak a little Turkish, not enough to be completely independent but enough to be of some real use. All I was doing was helping them update some vocabulary they might need. Turkish is not an easy language and I needed help as much as they did. One of my many willing contacts had in fact already sent me a message telling me they would need some help. She had asked me to be ready to help almost as soon as the earthquake struck. It's the way things work now.

We did it. I had a quick look at the state newspaper before I started this. News of the earthquake is hidden away on page eighteen. There is very little information there. Even last night's television news had very little detail. Of course we don't want to dwell on negative things and I loathe the way some things are sensationalised but this....? People do need to know more. Our Turkish community may not be that large. Our Syrian community may not be that large but there will be people in both who have families "back home" who will be directly impacted.  They need to know people care. 

That double page spread about a gang related murder trial could have been replaced with something about the earthquake...and about how people could help.