-----Original Message-----
From: Kyle Cassidy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Jan 20, 2005 3:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [UC] Fwd: tsumnami aid overkill and recommendation
what this has to do with west philly elludes me, but i want to point out that when you give $100 to the red cross, it might not get used to help the victims of the tsunami, but it could get used to help an equally homeless and equally disaster trodden family who suffered their loss at the hands of a not-so-popular event who might otherwise _not_ get the $100 because CNN's not covering their particular landslide/flood/war/sasquach attack....
kc
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Jim and Viet-Huong Tran Kurtz
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 2:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [UC] Fwd: tsumnami aid overkill and recommendation
I just received this from a friendand former colleague presently living in Southeast Asia. Interesting perspective.
Jim Kurtz
Bruce Shoemaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 10:06:27 +0700
From: Bruce Shoemaker
To: "B.Shoe"
Subject: tsumnami aid overkill and recommendation
(NOTE: Please feel free to forward this to anyone who may be interested.).
Friends,
Since I am in Southeast Asia at the moment a lot of people have been
asking me about the tsunami and also support for aid efforts there. I
am not in the area where the tsunami hit, in fact I am in landlocked
Laos at the moment. But I have been talking to a lot of people who are
involved in or observing the aid effort.
I would caution anyone thinking of providing further monetary assistance
to these relief efforts. The well-known agencies are already drowning
in funds. They may not say so but this is basically the case. Much
more than they can rationally use. In Aceh it is! total chaos with, I
think, more than a hundred groups all trying to set up programs, fight
for turf, and spend money. There is little coordination among many of
these groups. There are already more medicines than they can possibly
use but everyday more planeloads are arriving.
When you give, say, $100 to a large mainstream US based relief agency
this is considered "unrestricted" funds. Most or even all of your
contribution can be used for management, administration, or fundraising
costs in the US rather than for direct aid to local beneficiaries. Even
when you designate your contribution for a specific cause, like the
tsunami, many agencies will take a quarter or more of your contribution
off the top for their well-paid (quite possibly more well paid than
you!) staff and related expenses in the US. They do this as a
percentage of their overall costs so there is also a pressure to move
funds and spend as much as they can in order t! o justify higher costs in
the US. The tsunami has become a huge bonanza for some of these groups,
they literally don't know what to do with the money. Not all groups
operate like that by any means but you do need to be careful about who
you give your money to.
While the tsunami was certainly a compelling and dramatic event, it
needs to be put into perspective. Everyday around the globe thousands
of people are sick and hungry and die because of preventable reasons.
What is really needed is continued support for local groups and
movements that are committed to peace, social justice, and ecological
restoration and are trying to work on these long-term issues.
If you are really interested in helping the tsunami victims I would
suggest that you consider providing your support to some lesser known
groups that are doing long-term work. One I can recommend is the
Mangrove Action Project (MAP) which is affiliated with the US based
Earth I! sland Institute. MAP is working to protect and restore coastal
mangrove forests in Southeast Asia. Mangroves provide important
livelihood benefits to local communities but these once-extensive
coastal forests have been increasingly uprooted for development
projects, tourist resorts, and shrimp farms mainly benefiting outside
interests. Mangroves also provide significant protection against the
type of devastation that occurred with the tsunami. One these mangroves
are gone, coastal communities are much more exposed and vulnerable. MAP
is working with local communities to restore mangroves. They get by on
very little money, work closely with local groups in Indonesia,
Thailand, and Cambodia, and are doing good work. Even the conservative
Wall Street Journal had a December 31st article about how the loss of
mangroves has contributed to the tsunami impact. MAP's efforts are the
type of long-term work that is needed and I believe that support for!
this kind of thing is much more effective than is that for short term
relief work. MAP could use your support. You can find out more about
them on their website: *http://www.earthisland.org/map/map.html.
*I also do hear of other efforts here in the region I work in (Laos,
Vietnam, and Cambodia) that are particularly worthy and I am happy to
provide more info on some of these groups to anyone interested. I also
urge you not to forget your own local groups, particularly alternative
community media efforts, that are working in the US in order to better
provide Americans with access to non-corporate controlled news and
information. For more information on those efforts check out the
website www.democracynow.org.
All the best,
Bruce
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