Who will be checking on tsunami victims 6 months from now?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

I know the world's attention is focused on the tsnami tragedy now, but I fear as soon as some other catastrophe happens, attention will be diverted. And it is going to take more than a month or two to restore the economies of the ravaged countries and to help the people their come back to some semblance of normal lives.

One group, Refugees International, has pledged to stay and to keep making reports on what needs to be done. They have had decades of experience helping displaced persons around the world, and have brought this expertise to the tsunami ravaged area. And since they are an independent NGO, they won't 'spin' what they find to suit anyone's agenda.

You can keep track of what is being done by going to

www.refugeesinternational.org

[soothsayer]

1. did we EVER care about china's EQ in 1976 when a million died?

Our care is really uneven (read: lots of europeans and some americans were caught up in the tsunami, thus it interests us---for now anyway)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. check out RI

it is an international organization headquartered in the US. They have only been around since the 80s, so it couldn't have had a voice about what happened in China in '76. Since they monitor refugee situations, they are invovled in far more things than just natural disasters. They are still checking on Cambodians and land mines left from the war there.

Board members not only donate their time, they pay their own way to visit porjects, and some even fund needed projects that no international agency will. Three members of RI (two Board members and one other)were killed helping the people of Kosovo. You can read about them at a tribute page called "True Heroes" at http://www.geocities.com/ayeshahaqqiqa/heroes.html

[bdot]

2. Not to sound cruel...

but people die. It's natural. A bunch of people die, it's a tragedy. A single person dies and it's just a normal everyday thing.
When you have people pumping out babies left and right, it's just natural that the # of people that will die in an event will be higher.
It may sound cruel to say death happens but it's true. People never learn that nature has it's ways of evening things out. You start to over populate areas and you are going to end up with things like this. These types of "trajedies" will continue to happen and attention will get diverted because there is only so much you can do.
It's real sad that helping people in these types of disasters only encourages them to get right back into the same predictament over and over. Look at the east coast as an example. Hurricanes come in and blow everything away and sure enough people are begging for money so they can build their houses right back up at the edge of the coast only to be blown away again...etc..etc..etc.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. you miss the point

do you think we should just turn our back on people and not try to help them? Do you think it is a good idea to simply 'assume' that the funds donated will be used correctly, or that funds promised will be delivered?

Check out RI and look at EVERYTHING they do. There are less than 100 on staff, the board members are all volunteers, and some have even lost their lives while on projects to help others.

[yankeedem]

5. The nerve of those people

Living near the ocean so they could have FOOD of all things. And don't they know only wealthy westerners are allowed to have sex and babies?

[Donailin]

6. "When you have people pumping out babies left and right, . . .

. . It's just natural"


where does one begin to respond to this?

edited for clarity, don't want folks thinking I said that!