MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino
blogger Ding Fuellos thought nobody would notice his simple
act of extending his sympathies to families who have lost
their loved ones in last week's mall blast that killed
11 people.
"Everyone seems to be blogging about what happened, to
the point of pointing fingers at every possible suspect
in the country. Everyone is busy trying to know what the
cause of the blast was. Every blogger is interested on
the political angle, and its repercussions, too mechanical,
too cognitive. But no one is paying attention to the mourners
themselves. I would have written my own blog about this
incident but what counted more was the fact that there
seems to be no one expressing their sympathy to the families
of the victims," Fuellos said in an e-mail interview.
Fuellos,
author of the Inkblot: Life Unravaled blog, has urged bloggers
to offer their prayers and post a photo of a flower in
their blogs.
Initially, the response was not very encouraging.
He decided
to make a similar call in
Flickr, an online photo sharing service.
He wrote in his
blog: "Waiting for a few hours, and when
no one heeded my call to show sympathy to the bereaved,
I asked three of my Flickr groups (Semana Santa Filipinas,
Pinoycentric, and Pinoy Kodakero) to post their flower
photos as a sign of sympathy to the bereaved. I was surprised
with the response. I believe these people are very busy,
yet they found the time to post something for the Glorietta
victims' families. Many have already responded, and I hope
there would be more in the coming hours and days. I never
thought it is possible. We usually send real flowers. But
this time, we realize e-flowers will make it possible!"
To
date, more than 30 people have posted photos of flowers
to support his cause.
"As of now, there are 32 photographers who have posted
their photos. At least two have posted more than one photo.
We still have small number but I am praying there would
be more," he said.
Fuellos said he wanted the families of
the victims of the Glorietta 2 mall blast to see the outpouring
of sympathy from different people.
"They can access the Internet and see for themselves the
number of people from different parts of the world who
pay their last respects to the dead and show sympathy to
the bereaved. If I have my way, I would go to at least
one of those who are mourning to give a real flower. I
have always believed that blogging will always play a vital
role in our lives and I thought of running this and see
if we can achieve something by blogging and gather kind-hearted
people who will show their sympathy," he added.
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