Unimaginable Devastation
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Everyone's heard the news and our hearts go out to the victims - now's the time to give whatever you can to the tsunami relief effort: Red Cross/Crescent → even easier, give to Amazon, see update below.
Update: there's a solution to the "I want to give but I'd be embarrassed to pick up the phone and waste their time for a measley $5" problem, as well as the "I hate to say it but these charity sites are hard to use and I don't have half an hour to stress out over their crap designs" affliction - Amazon has come through in a huge way. Probably the easiest and most effective way to help ever created is now up - Amazon has set up 1-Click tsunami donation and is available from the home page if you misplace the URL. This is appropriate since the relief effort is apparently the largest in human history and every little bit helps, even if you give the $5 minimum. Remember, the news reports say that cash is the most useful thing you can give - there are huge hidden costs to physical items like clothes and food, since it requires shipping halfway around the world and distribution, rather than simply buying what you need there - and the long tail says that a lot of people multiplied by each person giving a little bit equals a huge number.