Like everyone, I am appalled and saddened by the disaster in South Asia. I hope every reader either has made, or is seriously considering making, some kind of contribution to the aid/rebuilding. My personal goal is for the US to be like the Brits--there, the CITIZENS have already given more than the government, thus embarrassing the government into doing more!
My other concern is for how the NGO's respond. Everyone remembers how much the Red Cross botched the post 9-11 aid effort. How will so many NGOs do with this massive effort in 10 countries, many of whom already have good NGO infrastructures. Will there be turf wars? Probably. Will money get siphoned off into the wrong things? With that much money, almost certainly.
But my hope is that the media and the watchdogs will really watch, report and demand transparency. Because the people affected by the disaster need our help now, and they'll need it for a long, long time to come.
Oh, here's a great list of ways to help from the Google website: http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html
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