Richard Giles

A friend of mine, and ex-Sun employee, sent me a link a few weeks back and asked me to have a look at a personal project he’d been working on. It’s one of those things that you realise you have to throw your support behind, because it’s such a great cause.

A couple of months ago he started thinking about the sad state of affairs the world is in, and how he might help. Not an easy thing to do for anyone, but he came up with a novel idea. One of those wonderfully passive methods that you think might just make for a huge meme, and hence raise a boat load of awareness world wide.

After watching the late night news, and yet another war, Phil spent his nights (till 2am) hacking together a new site to promote peace, by displaying “a single flower to show the world that you are concerned about the needless death and violence that is taking place around us.”

It was on Tuesday night, 18th of July when I was watching the late night news. There were images of children in a hospital. There was this one little girl who had blood on her clothes and this blank look on her face as she stared into the camera. Her eyes appeared so wide and I tried to imagine what this type of event has on a mind that is so young and innocent and free of hatred. She was so small in relation to what was happening around her yet her eyes, it seemed, were taking in the severity even if she did not understand the why or how. If she survived the conflict, how would this event change the rest of her life? I had to turn the television off. That night I lay in bed thinking about what was happening. I was thankful that my children were safe from this but it did not make me feel any better. I had hardly any sleep.

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Please visit the web site www.asingleflower.com and register your name to show your support. Think about how you can spread the word and help make the world a better place, even if it is just for a single day. If through the combined support we save some lives then we have made a start.