One of my favorite webcomics is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Zach Weiner cracks me up every day, and a lot of his jokes are just science-y and geeky enough to make me feel smart when I laugh at them.
In today's post, he writes:
Hey geeks. No doubt you've heard a lot about the Japanese tsunami. We're now hearing reports of coastal cities losing 15% or more of their population. Imagine 1 in 7 people in your town dying violently in a 24 hour period.
Direct Relief, which has a very good rating for spending most of their money on relief (as opposed to administration and promotion) have a setup where you can choose to give to Japan. Remember, this is the country that gave us Samurai, Ninjas, dirty cartoons, and Godzilla.
I think it's reasonable for a lot of people to have Disaster Fatigue right now, as we watch disaster after disaster strike all over the world. But like LeVar Burton said on Twitter, we have to fight Disaster Fatigue and do what we can to help.
Just think about what Zach wrote, and try to imagine what tens of thousands of people are suffering through right now. There are a lot of us, so I'm sure that, together, just a few bucks at a time, we can make a difference for them. Please do what you can.
Hey Wil, it’s Aeofel Shirt Girl (or Kirsten)! Please tweet or make a message here that all proceeds from the Aeofel Shirt Shoppe will go to the Japan relief fund. I have also created two new shirts specifically for the relief fund. Please help spread the word!!!!!!
http://322283.spreadshirt.com/
<3
Kirsten
“Disaster fatigue” is a shower of bollocks. I’m badly paraphrasing Billy Connolly, but it’s not as if people think “Oh, there’s been too much disaster lately. I’ve been compassionate enough. I’ll have to be hard-hearted this month.” You can never run out of compassion for people because compassion is not finite – you don’t have less of it by giving it away. If you can afford to give, “disaster fatigue” is a rationalisation, not a reason not to.
Or even more directly to Second Harvest Japan (http://www.2hj.org/index.php/eng_home) – the director himself is driving the truck from Tokyo to Sendai to provide immediate help.
One good point to remember (Who said this? Can’t remember) :
Consider strongly not ear-marking your donation for a particular cause. If you trust your charity, leave the use of the money up to them.
In all likelihood, your money will go to China right now regardless.
The gist of the article I read indicated a generous increase in donations exceeding the need can actually leave a charity with funds they cannot easily re-allocate freely later.
Sounded plausible to me, and I trusted my charity, so just select “most needed”.
Just a question Wil, I have had nothing but respect for you and all comments you have made, yet I have found out that you have Blocked me on Twitter? I was really shocked, What did I do? Twitter @RichardLewisESQ
I encourage everyone to donate. Don’t forget the International Red Cross is always a great charity to support.
I will be making a donation, but my wife works for Honda, and we expect that they might announce a matching gift program, so we are waiting for that.
Great shirts, Kirsten!
Wil, I plan on donating a few dollars. I have a friend who wants you DVD. He listened to the Audio books with me. How would I go about getting him in touch with you, or, with your permission, copy the disc after getting the money to you.
Joe Haight
Owner of Disc #1
[email protected]
Living in Japan, I cannot thank Wil enough nor those folks who contribute to helping this great country.
They are a lot like Canadians, nice, friendly, with pretty good food and beers. I also completely understand the Disaster Fatigue, but please help in any way possible.
Neil
You know, in all honesty, it’s actually refreshing to see humans acting and thinking like…well…humans for once. Sucks that this is what it takes to make it happen, and sucks that it’ll be back to the same old in a few weeks, but still. Mankind used to be humans once, it’s good to see us getting back to our roots.
“On 9/11 the President of France said, “Today, we are all Americans”. Well folks, today, we are all Japanese.” -Anonymous Yahoo commenter.
Thanks, Wil, this was just what I was looking for. Donation made.
I live in the Kanto area two prefectures away from Sendai. The two big problems here right now are gas and supplies. Gas is over 6 dollars a gallon every place I’ve seen and is being rationed at about 2 gallons per customer at some stations. Food is available, but the dry foods (instant noodles, spaghetti, snacks, etc.) are all the first things to disappear every morning because of the blackouts. Flashlights, camping stoves, batteries, and portable heaters are all gone as well.
Yesterday, we had a four-hour blackout during the day while it was snowing outside, which explains why so many people are stocking up.
Aftershocks are coming in regularly, though people aren’t really worried about the power station. Just attentive.
It is just awful what has happened over there. I have no words. The pictures of the kids is what gets to me more than anything. My thoughts and prayers to Japan…don’t know if that will do any good anymore, but I’ll still send them. I just don’t undrstand why things like this happen. Heartbreaking.
Thanks for the post, Wil. I have donated, but I wish I could do more, like many.
Thank you Wil, I was waiting for you to say something on Japan.I really like what a person above (in the comment) said:
“You can never run out of compassion for people because compassion is not finite – you don’t have less of it by giving it away.”
Disaster somewhere in the world is everybody’s business, we have only one world and we share it and all is connected, it is more obvious when disaster becomes nuclear and Japan is not the only one who will be suffering the consequenses.
I just don’t understand why some people thought it would be great idea to put up nuclear plants on top of geological faults, how stupid is that, if they would stuck wind mills everywhere it would’ve been much better.
Gee Wil,
This is one of the few postings where you address current events. It is always interesting to see which ones you do. Something huge on the planet unfolds and I generally see some entry on gaming dice. So this is nice.
I thought I would share the blog I just started for my daughter. She is a 6-yo Girl Scout and she is collecting pennies for the Girl Scouts of Japan to aid in their relief efforts for their communities. She is trying to collect a million pennies before her 7th birthday next month.
http://1000000forjapangs.wordpress.com
You know, I really don't care for your tone. Don't be a dick.
Hey Wil,
It’s an observation, not a ‘tone’. Don’t be paranoid. Not everybody is out to get you and I am certainly not.
The Staff from Katsucon are organizing on the east coast benefits for the red cross’ Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Project.
On top of this they are in the process of developing a “Flash Convention” Meaning, a quick, one day, all day event. Pretty literally, it’s a one day convention that we’re planning to put together in the space of approximately a month.
Our crew is amazing at raising money for charity, at this year’s con– between Maid Cafe and our Silent art auction– we raised over 7K for charity!
Anyone interested in helping out in the DC area shoot an email to christine @ katsucon . org
My wife and 2 year old are currently in Japan (wife was born there) and of course I am nervous. They are in a suburb outside of Kyoto (east of Tokyo by a long shot) and have an emergency plan to have them exit the country in a hurry (from Kansai Airport – Osaka) if they are in danger – thank goodness.
I have traveled to Japan many times over the years, and have a sincere hope that this tragedy will be overcome – thank you all who support the relief and disaster recovery efforts. And thank you Wil for posting about it.
Here are some pics from my travels in Japan:
http://exposureperfect.com/travel.html
(that’s my wife in the first shot btw.)