Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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Oh, the tragedy, the humanity: Donate Now (amazon link)
 
The Asia Disaster: Aiding the International Relief Effort
 
Tsunami - Earthquake - Supporting International Relief
 
The Heart of Trust
 
Accountability: Lessons from Engineering and Medicine
 
Sandy's CyberHome Travels
 
Justifying Pre-Emptive War
 
The IT Chaos Tipping Point?
 
Security-Challenged Arphids at a Survey Near You
 
TEST

Oh, the tragedy, the humanity: Donate Now (amazon link)

I am hearing in my head a replay of the radio broadcast that went out live as the airship Hindenburg crashed during "docking" at its U.S. arrival.

For the next few days, I am not going to be adding anything to the Orcmid's Lair pages that is not related to the current tragedy in Asia.

My worst nightmare is of airfields glutted with aircraft, goods, and personnel that can't be delivered to the point of need because of the extreme logistic difficulties, especially for access to the earthquake-shattered areas of Sumatra.  We know there are people starving, with signs of disease now erupting in areas where survivors are congregated.

I am certain there are many smart and dedicated people looking for creative ways to shave hours and days off of the time it will take to bring helicopters, fuel, and crews into position where they can make a life-saving difference for those now seriously at risk.  This is also entirely in the hands of multinational, diplomatic, and military arrangements with not much that private citizens can do but pray.

What remains available to us?  First, there are many ways to donate and on-line donations are easy to make through relief organizations that you trust and via web sites of organizations like Google, amazon.com, and Apple Computer.

1. Support existing emergency response organizations.
2. Donate cash as the most convertible, redirectable, and useful for bringing relief to effected areas.
3. If you have any access to a gift-matching arrangement through an employer or other organization, use that.
4. People want to know what is being done.  Watching the tally at amazon.com approach $5,000,000, a number that was exceeded while I wrote this, matters.  Organizations that have been working privately to formulate responses and provide assistance need to become visible, so that people know they are part of a concerted effort that has many forms.  If you are involved with an organization or business that is mobilizing any response, even if it is letting employees know their gifts will be matched, make sure your efforts are visible on your public web pages too.

People are also creating benefit activities around New Years Eve and later events.  I am not a fan of MoveOn.org (and I think signing a mass petition is neither "helping" nor "taking action"), but a recent MoveOn spam does mention a member's urging that people spend some time in New Years Eve gatherings making donations, say using the household computer (but be careful of malware).  What are your plans for a humanitarian New Year?

The situation is changing rapidly, but here are some recent gleanings on how things are going:

• MSNBC.com: The Washington Post reports that the use of the internet as a means of raising funds is as dramatic as the public response so far.
• Local newspapers, such as the Seattle P-I, are providing information on activities that are happening in the community.  Check on-line resources in your community.
• Yahoo.com covers the effectiveness of the SEA-EAT blog in connecting people with local organizations and sources in Asia, and the 24-hour activities of volunteers in maintaining current blog information.
• I've read of people donating frequent-flyer miles for use by relief organizations.  I haven't found anything on airline sites or travel sites that describe how to do this.

posted by orcmid at 12/30/2004 11:01:23 AM

The Asia Disaster: Aiding the International Relief Effort

Following up on yesterday's post, I have a report on my choice of relief organizations and some other interesting activities.  Some of these were recorded on 43 Things and others on my school discussion system.

There are other links to more coverage now.  One of the most valuable resources is a continuously-maintained Wikipedia report.  Another with comprehensive aggregation of information is The Command Post with an interesting international (and Australian) perspective.  There are also new items being scoured into Scoble's Link Blog that range from additional relief efforts to on-site reports by bloggers.  These tend to reaffirm that the most-effective step we can take for immediate support is to donate cash to organizations that can use the funds to make purchases of needed items in the impacted region itself.  There are certainly other steps that can be taken for longer-term relief and contribution to reconstruction efforts, but the most effective immediate and urgent assistance is accomplished with cash

Finding Appropriate Relief Organizations

Following through on yesterday's promise to donate more, I checked around through the UN OCHA site because they provide a coordinating role.  I didn't find a way to donate directly, but I did find a news-service announcement that CARE was already in action in Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia because they already had people there who quickly went to work on feeding people.  They suggest that cash donations help the most, because the funds can be used to purchase more food in Sri Lanka itself.  I matched my earlier contribution to the American Red Cross International Response funds.  Keep in mind that that corporate gift-matching works with CARE and the American Red Cross.  It depends on the employer so you should check.

I was a little puzzled about purchasing food and supplies in the country of the disaster, and I now find that it is a common theme, reflecting valuable experience in disaster relief.  The American Red Cross has a deeper explanation of how this has optimum effectiveness and is also appropriate for speeding relief.

The appeal letter from Sri Lanka specifies water-purification tablets and temporary shelters as well as food, especially dry foods that do not require preservation or preparation.  I take this to mean that we want to support organizations with airlift and transport capabilities for delivering this kind of relief to where it is needed.  I forget that, except for the earthquake damage in Sumatra, all of the tsunami impact is coastal (except where islands have been over-run) and relief can be brought from accessible inland areas.

Because the situation is urgent and multi-national, I have been looking for international organizations that have experience and resources for rapid response.  Oddly, the United Nations relief organizations apparently lack means for accepting individual contributions, dealing instead with governmental agencies and NGOs of member contries.  I'd like to be mistaken about that and I will keep looking around.  So far, they've thanked me for registering on their site, and I failed to find any way to contribute.

Check Your Local Newspaper

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an on-line article that describes efforts being mounted from this area.  There are web links to a number of local organizations, including Mercy Corps.

For our third donation yesterday, 12-27, I selected Mercy Corps because they are already in Indonesia where the earthquake damage is the most severe (as opposed to the tsunami damage).  They may be able to obtain permission to enter the earthquake-damaged area more quickly than those not already represented in Indonesia and Sumatra.  Mercy Corps also allows a variety of ways to target your donation and check for gift-matching.  I didn't select any of their donor gifts.

The acute situation appears to be in the hard-hit tsunami areas where the fresh-water supply is contaminated, there is no food or shelter, and the risk of serious disease is immediate.  I was a little hesitant for the possible less-urgent attention to the earthquake damage, but today's (12-28) news suggest that there is a critical need in Sumatra too.

We're done making donations for the moment.  We'll reassess after I have done the month-end bills and there is more word on what makes the most difference.

Buy Software, Save the World

From another Scoble link I learn that Nick Bradbury, author of Top Style and Feed Demon is donating everything he makes on those products between now and the end of the year to disaster relief.  He may make more than usual.  People who were running pirated copies have decided to purchase a legal one in response to that promise by Nick.

I figure I can at least give it a look and see whether those are products I should try out.

Joel Spolski's Fog Creek Software is making a similar offer of 50% of the revenue.

Have a Web Page, Save the World

Meanwhile, some folks on Channel 9 propose that people with Google Adsense and other advertising revenue sources donate their payments to international relief organizations.

posted by orcmid at 12/28/2004 04:53:54 PM

Tsunami - Earthquake - Supporting International Relief

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Tsunamis in Asia - The Morning After.  The simplest visual depiction of the earthquake zone and the tsunami-effected region is at this page.  It makes the significance of this as an international disaster clear in a very compact way.

There is also a link to one page being built on relief efforts and ways to contact them and make donations.  I don't know how you can qualify organizations at this point, but you may already have a contact with aid and relief organizations that you respect.  For example, I was chatting with my sister this morning and she said that she would get in touch with World Vision, because she has worked through them before and they have a local office in our area.

Timing is urgent, because of the risk of disease and other secondary effects of this catastrophic event.  Support for organizations that are geered for rapid response seems critical, along with support for relief organizations that will be able to follow on to assist with healthcare and reconstruction.

I just made a contribution to the International Response Fund of the American Red Cross.  I picked a number, and then I doubled it, thinking of what is needed for relief to Darfur as well.

Thinking about it some more, I realize how stingy I am.  I donated less than four times what it cost for the DVD set of the Live Aid concerts, something that I requested on my Christmas list and that I received Christmas Eve.  And I'm willing to spend double to quadruple the donation I just made to take Vicki out for New Years Eve and our 9th wedding anniversary.

I just talked it over with Vicki and we chose staying home for New Years Eve, or doing something simple with friends, donating what we would have spent going out to the disaster relief effort instead.  And if anyone puts together a benefit event by New Years Eve, I will consider donating to that also.

Watching:

Live Aid: The Day the Music Changed the World, July 13, 1985, 4 DVD set.  I had taped the simulcast FM broadcasts originally, and they were some of the best on-air concert transmissions I had ever captured.  I don't have a cassette deck any longer and the DVDs are outstanding.  We haven't listened all the way through.  Now it is something more to do on New Years Eve.

posted by orcmid at 12/27/2004 09:50:12 AM