Crikey reader Andrew Hurrell writes:

I dare say The Sydney Morning Herald won’t print this as it must embarrass its shameless, baseless, sensationalism of a non-issue (“Red Cross tsunami cocktails turn sour,” 4/8/05) – damaging a good cause in the process.

Outraged Red Cross donors please hold your fire… I was one of the “rich elite” that attended a Red Cross session in Sydney this week. Those in attendance donated at least $1,000, which doesn’t make them either rich or elite, it just means they gave over $1,000 to the cause and care about how it was spent. As for the Cabernet and canapés, as a “rich and greedy” donor I merely enjoyed a cup of instant coffee and microwaved party pie.

And as for the “party,” which the Red Cross mischievously described as an information session, I spent 40 minutes listening to a wonderful nurse from Saint Vincent’s, who described her dramatic experiences spent in Indonesia in the three months following the tsunami. I learnt how surviving locals described the experience as like being inside a washing machine, but one full of knives. How a boy trod on a live electrical cable, burning his entire leg and blowing a hole in the top of his scull, exposing his brain. Miraculously, he survived surgery and thanks to the Red Cross has recently left hospital. I learnt of two brothers, both orphaned and with broken legs, who after three months of isolation discovered through the Red Cross tracing system they had one surviving relative – an Uncle, who has since adopted them. I learnt of a premature baby delivered after an emergency helicopter flight and an emergency Caesar – all the coastal roads were gone. I was devastated to hear that the infant mortality rate is so high in the affected villages that parents don’t name newborns until they’ve survived their first two weeks of life.

With so many trees washed away by the tsunami, already oppressive temperatures have risen by up to 10oC. And I learnt of the logistical problems in rebuilding, when replacing the houses lost would take every tree still standing in an entire province. All the while, Red Cross volunteers live in tents, in oppressive heat, to help in this disaster. Some party. In essence the Red Cross charter is “to aid the most disadvantaged in life.” Believe it.