The generous outpouring of cash and material donations for the victims of the tsunami (apart from the other successful fund-raising activities for local charities) has prompted some bright sparks to claim that there is no economic crisis after all, “you see how well off the Maltese are? If people are strapped for cash, how come so much money was raised?”

Yes, on the fact of it, it does seem like a contradiction.

Seen from a different angle, however, one can also say that as an island nation surrounded by sea, we were shaken to the core by what happened in Asia. Visions of the devastation that could so easily happen to us moved us to take action. There, but for the grace of God…

When you watch images of desperate people who are destitute and literally only have the clothes on their backs, parting with a fiver or a tenner does not seem like such a great hardship after all. For some it might just mean cutting back on their mobile cards for a week or two.

Because Thailand is a place which many Maltese people have been to, we can easily put ourselves in the place of the tourists who were there on holiday with their loved ones, only to have their whole family wiped out by tragedy.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about what I would do if it were me – imagine, one minute you are there with your husband and kids, and the next minute they’re gone, and you’re the only survivor. I don’t think I’d want to come back without them…” a friend of mine told me.

I think so many people responded last Sunday because the catastrophe in Asia struck a chord with us. We could identify on so many levels, particularly when it came to the stories involving children separated from their parents and left to fend for themselves in a strange land, where no one speaks their language. A baby drifting on a mattress. A woman having to choose which child to save. A pregnant woman miraculously re-united with her five children and husband. The human stories all sounded like something from a film. But this was no DVD.

It was being played out in real time before our very eyes as we sat, cosy and (relatively) warm in our comfortable homes surrounded by an over-abundance of leftovers from our Christmas and New Year’s lunches. And our hearts went out to them as we watched hungry people squabbling over a meagre portion of rice.

This disaster demanded immediate relief in the form of cash, and it was a heartening to see the money gushing in for once with little effort and with no need for anyone to dangle a tantalising gift as a ‘reward’.

As people continue to ponder how God could let something like this happen, rescue workers continue to bury the dead while trying to account for those who are still missing.

Was this a wake up call so those of us who never seem to be happy with what we have can take a deep breath, take a look around and count our blessings?

When one destructive tidal wave can cause people from all around the world to forget their differences and unite to help those who are suffering…it makes you wonder.