Luckily, a response has been made to the earthquake in Indonesia which has now killed more than 5,000 people (last I heard it was only 2,500), more than 20,000 injured and left 130,000 homeless (40% of those homeless are children) according to the United Nations Children's Fund.
Survivors are going to be given, by the government, $21 each for clothes and household items, while families will get 26.4 pounds of rice. Those with damaged homes will be compensated, all this according to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
I'm glad efforts are being made to counteract this disaster. The American Red Cross is also helping with the disaster so, if you can I'd give at least $5.00 to the American Red Cross. And since it's a nonprofit organization, your donation is tax exempt. :) It may not seem like much but if... say 10,000 of us donate just 5 dollars, that's a $50,000 dollars already. Maybe that's not millions, but it's a lot more if say... 10,000 people in every large city donated that much. It'd raise at least a million, and all each individual would have to do is just skip buying maybe a diet coke and a sandwich for that day and instead open up a can of soup they probably have lying around in their house somewhere. It's a small price to pay for a good cause.
So donate.
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Well, let me give you a reason to not donate. See, what you don't know about Indonesia is that it has a very corrupt government. Remember the tsunami in Aceh? Let me tell you what happened to the donation. Instead of giving it for free to the victims, the government officials decided to charge them for it. No money? No valuable things? Too bad, but no food for you. Next. And naturally, since the victims didn't have a lot by then, they went hungry and the food--quite an abundant--ended up rotting. What if you donate money? It will be as useless. It will go right into the pockets of the govenment officials. The help that does go to the victims will be minimal. The only way you can make sure that your donation goes to the victims and not to the government officials is by jumping into a helicopter and personally deliver it. But God knows how much the Indonesians hate Americans.
Since the Red Cross doesn't give the money to the government and instead uses it to actively help people in Indoensia (which they ARE doing), giving to the Red Cross IS a good donation. It's not useless.
And I don't care how much someone hates me, if they're suffering they need help. Period.
It's true that you're helping them, so now you sit here feeling warm and fuzzy knowing you've made a difference. Meanwhile, they're currently throwing sticks and stones at those people who work for the Red Cross.
I don't feel warm and fuzzy, so don't stereotype me. If anything, I feel like my donation isn't enough and I wish I could do more.
Sure, maybe some of them don't want the help of the Red Cross, and that's fine if they don't. But you can't make a blanket generalization about all Indonesians, because generalizations are never 100% correct. The American Red Cross IS helping people there.
Make all the excuses you want for not donating. It's not like anyone's forcing you to think of someone other than yourself.
You're missing the point. Here you are, feeling all smug and superior to people who don't donate when in reality you're not doing much at all. You said you don't care if the Indonesians hate you as long as you're helping them. Well, here's some news: you're not helping them at all. Those people from the Red Cross are the ones actually doing the work--and face all kinds of danger while on it.
By the way, did you really donate to help them, or did you donate only to help yourself?
I don't feel superior. But I feel you telling people they shouldn't donate because Indoensians don't like Americans is bullshit. If people are in trouble, they need help. And they will and are taking it from Americans. That's a time to put aside national qualms and differences and help one another.
I've SEEN videos of American Red Cross and other forces from 20 different countries HELP these people on video via the news. I don't care if my 20 dollars only helps maybe 100 of the 100,000 survivors. If it helps one person at all, to me it's worth it.
I did donate to help them. If I only did it to help myself why would I be wasting time encouraging nearly everyone I know on the internet and every way possible to donate and help? Why would I bother reading news articles? I'm in no way bragging about donating. I didn't even SAY I donated in my blog (even though I did).
You're starting to piss me off. You're making personal judgements about me when you have no clue who I am or what my motives are, if they are negative or postive.
I take any effort I can to try and help people who are in trouble. Why? I don't know. I don't think my donation will go very far and I wish I could do more, but I can't. So I try my best to do what I can because... I guess I just want to help people. I'm not bragging. There was no need for you to make a personal judgement on me, other than the fact that you behave immaturely.
Grow up.
Whatever happened to those warning systems that were supposed to be constructed after the tsumanis over there? did they not build them, because if they did I cannot imagaine as many people as you are claiming dying. I am not saying your statistic is wrong, wuite the opposite, I am preparing for an attack on their lack of incentive to build better warning systems.
I don't think the government has enough money there to build a warning system. Indonesia isn't exactly the world capital of technology.
Of course there's no enough money. I told you: everything goes to the government officials' pockets. And don't condescend. Indonesia has had a woman for president. Even the U.S. hasn't been there yet.
I'm not condensending. Indonesia isn't what comes to mind when you think of pioneering technology. A woman president has nothing to do with the country's ability to manufacture.
Your statement contradicts itself. You down Indoensian government for taking all the money and yet you pride them over the U.S. because they've had a woman president?
I'm not likely to take the word of you on what goes on in Indonesian government because I don't even know if you know what you're talking about.
Yes, it's mixed feelings. Many Americans make fun of Bush all the time, but they suddenly feel attacked if someone makes fun of the country as a whole.
Have I made fun of Bush yet in any blog post I've made? No. So don't take your frustrations of Americans out on me. Maybe I do support liberal issues and you've decided because of that to make a generalization judgement on me based on American and/or liberal stereotyping or you just feel like bitching at me because someone called you unpatriotic for exercizing your right to free speech, hell, I don't know. But don't accuse me for the fault of every Americans, especially since in my blog posts I've actually stated that I don't even want to live here and will move when I get the chance.
No i thought that the united states and other nations donated the money to build one. Its economically smarter. spend money now on the early warning system, and spend less later on aid. not to mention save lives :)
Well... I don't know anything about that. I think Indonesia got some money from the tsunami aid (you'll have to forgive me, I don't remember geographics very well and the history isn't fresh in my mind), but I think it was used more for victims than new technologies? I'm not sure.
You don't even KNOW where Indonesia is. So stop pretending to care and shut the hell up.
I'm not pretending to care. You don't know me. Get a life and find something constructive to say in your own blog rather than commenting so much on mine.
If you're not just pretending to care, then why don't you take the time to find out more? Do you know where Indonesia is? Do you know how big it is? Do you know what language spoken there? Do you know what the Indonesians look like? You know, I always find it odd that no one seems to have heard of Indonesia before the tsunami. Apparently, a country needs the deaths of many to suddenly bring it to the spotlight! Hm, maybe Brunei Darussalam should try the same tactic so the Americans will finally stop frowning at the mention of its name!
By the way, you actually thought your $20 helped twenty people? Pah. Expect something, like, fewer than two. Wait. That's not a lot.
I don't care if it's a lot. To me, it's still worth it.
Just because I don't take the time to learn everything about Indonesia, doesn't mean I don't care that people are dying. I don't have to know anything about a country to care about people dying. And just because I don't know, doesn't mean I'm pretending to care.
I think that the majority of Americans would know Indoensia was a place before the tsunami (hopefully, but since many of them don't know Canada is above us, it might be unlikely). I can't say that they'd be able to point it out on a map. I think that's just general American ignorence. And since our school system is mostly inner focused, I wouldn't be that surprised.
But just because the average American couldn't tell where a country is, doesn't mean they can't care about the people there.
If there's people suffering somewhere on a large scale and I can KNOW about it (which is saying something given our media [meh]), I'd like to do something to help. Not just Indonesia, but here in New Orleans or whenever something like that happens. I just like to help. Yeah, I couldn't tell you the first thing about Indonesia. But that doesn't mean I could care less about the people there if they're going through all of this. I can't help the whole world. I honestly wish I could (even though I doubt it would help because humans don't really do much else besides hurt one another), but when something happens that I can help with, I try. And I try to get others to help too precisely because I know my 20 bucks doesn't go far.
Look, I'm not claiming to be an expert on international anything or even Indoensia. I'm just trying to help some people. And all you're doing is being nasty to me and making personal judgements on me when the only thing you can tell from my profile is what books or music I like. You don't know me and yet you're going this far to be really... just disrespectful. It's really rude and uncalled for. So... could you just do something more constructive with your time?
P.S. I took your advice and read a bit about Indonesia and it was funny to see that the U.S. and Indonesia actually have strong ties and are trading partners. The article I read mentioned more Indoensian hostilities toward China because of Indonesia's anti-communist policies. It's funny that we'd have such strong relations with people who you say hate us enough to reject food, shelter, and clothing in a dire crisis.
yea