Sympathy. If Only It Were Money

So Prince Charles has sent his sympathy to all of those affected by the floods still sweeping Eastern Australia.

"Our hearts go out to all those that have lost loved ones amongst their families and who have been so incredibly badly affected by this appalling natural disaster,"

Now all of those poor people can sit back and relax now, because they now have royal sympathy on their side.

Huzzah!

That should really fix all their problems. It really should, because, as we all know, sympathy, especially the royal kind, can magically fix everyone's problems, and pay for all of the repair costs, not to mention the magical ability of sympathy to replace all of those precious memories items.

That's just the kind of world we live in.

What a minute ...

Reality check! (sorry, but it's needed)

Sympathy doesn't do all of that. All sympathy does is (hopefully) encourage people to dig deep in their pockets and time, and make generous donations to the cause in question (this time being the flood stricken eastern states).

But it appears that for all of his sympathy, Prince Charles isn't going to donate a cent (or whatever the British equilavent is) to the victims of the floods.

"But all we can do is show real sympathy and understanding and so on this particular occasion may we wish you every success despite all the challenges ahead."

But let's give him this, he seems to at least be aware that just sympathy isn't really enough.

"We are thinking so much of all those out there in Australia, it seems so inadequate and it seems so hopeless in many ways to do this

Maybe a pre-emptive strike against angry people who want a little more than just royal sympathy. Or maybe he wants to donate a little money to the flood victims, but doesn't want to incite anger from people or persons back home in Britain.

Who knows?

Maybe in the near future there will be a donation from our royal family to the flood victims. But until then, they'll just have to make do with royal sympathy, and hope that it's a little more magical than the poor, common person's sympathy (which allows him/her to donate money to the flood victims).

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/prince-charles-praises-flood-hit-queenslanders-and-victorians-at-australia-day-function/story-fn7my8q0-1225995226178