A selection of posts from bloggers on the Tsunami:
Anne Lieberman reprints a letter from Chabad in Thailand, regarding Chabad’s efforts to find the missing, comfort people and relieve the suffering there, with a link to make contributions.
Patrick at Clarity & Resolve notes the remarkable humanitarian effort being undertaken by Israel.
Diplomad, a foreign service officer "temporarily working in one of the countries that got slammed hard by the tsunami" responds to a UN official’s complaints about the initial contribution by the US:
We pay for about 25% of the whole [UN] operation, BUT when you look at operations like WFP [World Food Programme] or UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees], we cough up about 40%. That wheat and rice that the WFP is bragging about? It is almost all from the
USA. . . .
The amounts listed in the newspapers as donated by theUSA greatly underestimate the true size of the donation we make. We are moving huge numbers of aircraft, ships, and personnel to help out. We have carriers and even a MEU [Marine Expeditionary Unit] on the move. And guess what? We don’t charge the UN for that, and we don’t include those enormous costs in any "pledging conferences."
The only countries I see delivering goods and services where I am are the Aussies (who are terrific!) and us. The EU is only to be seen in press releases.
And a graceful post by
I don’t feel like blogging today. I hope the tsunami disaster helps certain people place events like Bush’s election victory and the war in Iraq a little more into perspective; I am proud to be part of a society where people donate so generously towards helping others less fortunate than themselves at such times; and I hope that next time anything like this happens, every country affected will be significantly better at taking measures to warn and protect its people.
But meanwhile, a lot of people just died. I’m going to take the day off from setting the universe straight and just appreciate my own incredibly safe and privileged existence.
UPDATE: Nikki Myers from the UJA-Federation of New York emails that they have set up a special emergency mailbox to collect funds for relief efforts. Donations can be made online, by sending a check payable to "UJA-Federation — Tsunami Relief Fund" to UJA-Federation of New York, P.O. Box 27877, NY, NY 10087-7877, or by calling 212-836-1880. Ms. Myers promises that "[o]ne hundred percent of the funds collected will provide direct assistance."