Too Little, too late?
Dec. 29th, 2004 11:00 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
carbonelle.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
therightfangirlJames Lileks, in his Bleat yesterday wrote: "I tossed some money to the American Red Cross tonight (Amazon makes it very easy) and did so with a small amount of self-disgust.
At least now I know the death toll that gets me to open up the wallet. From now on my guidelines will be “earlier” and “more.” It’s not for the dead we send the money, of course – it’s for those whose lives have been scoured down to the bone, but you can’t help but think that your contribution somehow mitigates the awful numbers. It doesn’t. And if your money makes its way to a small village, and ends up as a box of clean underwear and toothpaste and batteries and aspirin dropped in the lap of a man who watched his entire family scraped off the face of the earth and swallowed by the brutal, implacable and mindless hand of nature, well, know that it probably won’t make much difference. It can’t. But someone has to get him clean underwear and aspirin."
You can give, though it takes a credit card and isn't quite so easy, to Christian Children's Fund right here). They've already got projects in place and were helping kids and their parents in India and South East Asia all along; a familiar friend with the help the survivors need to stay among the living and to cope with the devastation.
What can we do, "more and earlier"? Support agencies like CCF that you know gets down-and-dirty with individuals and their communities, rather than wasting your money on lobbying, endless studies, politicking and "fundraising" overhead. Then encourage your local post-modernist intellecuals; Euro-cranks and ivory-tower Marxists to shut-the-f*ck up and quit foisting socialism, tribalism and enviromentalism on these countries. Wealthy; industrialized nations have early-warning systems, education systems and materials and buildings that take less damage and kill less people when the inevitable, Nature, in all her impartial tooth-and-claw brutality, strikes. And, oh yes, their environment will be healthier and their poor people will have to worry, not about starvation, but obesity.
At least now I know the death toll that gets me to open up the wallet. From now on my guidelines will be “earlier” and “more.” It’s not for the dead we send the money, of course – it’s for those whose lives have been scoured down to the bone, but you can’t help but think that your contribution somehow mitigates the awful numbers. It doesn’t. And if your money makes its way to a small village, and ends up as a box of clean underwear and toothpaste and batteries and aspirin dropped in the lap of a man who watched his entire family scraped off the face of the earth and swallowed by the brutal, implacable and mindless hand of nature, well, know that it probably won’t make much difference. It can’t. But someone has to get him clean underwear and aspirin."
You can give, though it takes a credit card and isn't quite so easy, to Christian Children's Fund right here). They've already got projects in place and were helping kids and their parents in India and South East Asia all along; a familiar friend with the help the survivors need to stay among the living and to cope with the devastation.
What can we do, "more and earlier"? Support agencies like CCF that you know gets down-and-dirty with individuals and their communities, rather than wasting your money on lobbying, endless studies, politicking and "fundraising" overhead. Then encourage your local post-modernist intellecuals; Euro-cranks and ivory-tower Marxists to shut-the-f*ck up and quit foisting socialism, tribalism and enviromentalism on these countries. Wealthy; industrialized nations have early-warning systems, education systems and materials and buildings that take less damage and kill less people when the inevitable, Nature, in all her impartial tooth-and-claw brutality, strikes. And, oh yes, their environment will be healthier and their poor people will have to worry, not about starvation, but obesity.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 06:40 am (UTC)I think it's also a good idea to find an organization that is doing something specific. One of my friends mentioned Mercy Corps (http://www.mercycorps.org/splash/), which will be concentrating on water-borne diseases.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 08:21 am (UTC)So true about the need for basic warning systems, though. (As stated in original post.) It makes me incredibly frustrated and sad to know this scale of death could have been prevented with a few sirens and some public awareness, and a walk of fifteen minutes away from the shore. Agh. Such a waste.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-30 04:34 pm (UTC)