tsunami relief

[prelations]

Holy Schumacher gave 10M to the cause?

wow...

Anyone else have any good stories regarding contributions, or help that they've given?

[onthebottom]

The USA Today reported that 45% of polled Americans have already given and 25% were considering a contribution shortly. Congress will pass a law, and Bush will sign, that will allow gifts thru Jan 31 to apply to 2004 tax reports.

US spending 4m a day on military effort delivering aid.

OTB

[yychobbyist]

I don't know about this whole celebrity thing. I'm glad they're contributing and I think it's great but for the most part I have more respect for people who do charitable things and then don't have their publicists release the info to the world, you know what I mean?

I know Michael Schumacher has nothing to gain from telling folks he's donated but I just have always been of the belief that you do what you do in regards to charity because its the right thing to do, not because you expect anything in return.

[onthebottom]

YYC,

Here here, glad to see you back in the saddle ;-)

OTB

[yychobbyist]

I wasn't actually aware I was in a saddle when I posted that. But thanks anyway.

[onthebottom]

YYC,

Ok, bad joke, we just had all those falls to the left. It was good to see you out of the sh*t and back on the hog.

OTB

[strange1]

I heard on the radio what I thought was a really interresting point. Why are we so quick to help those disadvantaged by a natural disaster while barely reacting to man made disasters such as the various turmoils in parts of Africa (ie. Sudan, Rwanda, Congo). I'm sure that the death toll from the fighting in these countries in the last 10 years far exceeds the death toll in the tsunami. Is it because we don't want to consider how much disgusting behaviour that people can inflict on each other?

[yychobbyist]

I think it's because once you introduce us into the mix (instead of mother nature) then you get mixed up with crap like politics, ideologies, alliances and such. We also get all caught up in worrying about sovereignty and international agreements.

In Rwanda, the rate of killings was higher than at any point of the Holocaust. Yet we in the west did nothing. The U.S., Canada and the rest of the world knew what was going on, they knew how bad it was. Anyone who says we didn't is lying. But no one called it genocide because doing that would have let loose a whole stream of consequences no one wanted to deal with politically.

Ultimately, I think what we all have to realize is that we are all human beings and regardless of a people's race, gender, ideology or nationality, we should be prepared to help if their lives are jeopardized.

[onthebottom]

I've read (but I'm posting this from a Blackberry and can't look for the source now) that more people in Indonesia are killed in armed conflict than by this disaster - I think YYC is right, no complications to helping on a natural disaster.

OTB

[n_v]

Originally posted by onthebottom
... I'm posting this from a Blackberry ...

How bad is your addiction?

[onthebottom]

Originally posted by n_v How bad is your addiction?

LOL,

I'm looking for a 12 step program!

OTB

[n_v]

There are many around. Do a search on the net (from your blackberry even) and find the one that suites your needs.