Donating to Tsunami Victim Aid

Here's a story from the Wash Post via MSNBC about how the Internet is speeding up donations to help out victims in India and elswhere.

And here's Amazon's Red Cross page, which allows you to give via their honor system and where the total collected so far is close to $4 million (as of this writing).

Comments

[aj]

as of 9:00 am EST ,
Total Collected: $3,982,893.11
# of Payments: 67042

simply amazing that amazon customers alone have done this, private charity is alive and well.

Regarding the public/private debate of the last several days, I just wish the defenders of private worldwide charity from the USA would deduct the amounts that are evangelization-related from their numbers, because presumably that is included since it is a IRS-qualified as charity as well. "Feed ya for your soul."

[Adam]

I was watching the Amazon page all day yesterday...it was at $1.49 million at noon yesterday and it's over $4 million now..they were collecting donations at a rate of $12,700 a minute yesterday..

[Adam Soudure]

I donated through the Red Cross's own page, but I agree that the job Amazon is doing is remarkable. I'll be keeping tabs on this. I think people in the developed world have really responded to it.

[R C Dean]

I just wish the defenders of private worldwide charity from the USA would deduct the amounts that are evangelization-related from their numbers,

Why? The evangelicals/Christians that I know who do charity work (and I'm not one, BTW) run very low-overhead operations that deliver the goods. ALong with a sermon, sure, but they deliver the goods.

Is it just me, or has Amazon's drive alone out-performed more than one European nation? How much has France given? Germany? Sweden?

[Ruthless]

Anybody here a tsunami disaster expert?
What needs to be done to help long term?
What are priorities?
What's missing the mark so far?

[Adam]

R C - Here's the European totals...someone noticed on the Columbia Libertarians blog that donations through Amazon alone topped the German government yesterday, but the German government has since multiplied it's original donation by a factor of 10 ($2.7 million to $27 million). With a population of 83 million, that works out to $0.33 per capita, while the US, with a population of 300 million, works out to $0.12 per capita. (Add in the Amazon donations through $4 million and the US is up to $0.13 per capita - and that's just Amazon's donations, not counting church, temple, Red Cross, America Cares, Save the Children blah blah blah donations.)

[Adam]

And France, pop 61 million, is in for $20.5 million, appx $0.33 a head, on par with Germany as well.

[PintofStout]

With all the news coverage of these poor disparaged people and the outside help they are getting, I'd like to see some coverage of how the survivors and victims are overcoming and working to overcome al of this mess.

The news portrays them as completely helpless, which is almost certainly not true. They will need help to recover, but the majority of the work will likely be their own effort, regardless of the amount of aid and lack of credit they will get.

A good, complete story would highlight the connection that humans have with each other (the help and aid from around the globe) and also the collective triumph and resiliency of the species by overcoming with their own efforts (albeit with some help). This story may have already been told somewhere, but I have long since averted my attention from the "news" of this.

[SixSigma]

Other reports say that by the time it's all done, the US's complete contribution will be around $1 billion, and that's government help, not private donations.

Adam, that's rougly $3/person.

And these numbers, don't include the Naval ships speeding to the impact zone with water and such. It's very easy to chery pick the numbers and leave the volunteer services, or make the volunteer services seem higher than then numbers.

Either way, it's a value judegment to who's giving more than whom, so a very pointless exercise indeed.

[PintofStout]

Ask and ye shall receive, sort of.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041230/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_self_help

[Dan]

With a population of 83 million, that works out to $0.33 per capita, while the US, with a population of 300 million, works out to $0.12 per capita.

We're also donating several hundred million dollars worth of our military's time and material. It's stupid to only count the cash donations.

[aj]

Total Collected: $5,058,472.51
# of Payments: 82113

just go to the amazon page and keep refreshing the browser, it climbs and climbs.

I just gave 200.00, not much but a damn good cause.

I guess I was being somewhat of a smartass earlier this morning. I would eat anybody's food if I were over there, even if it were Operation Blessing and Big Pat himself dishing it out.

[dlc]

Seeing as how it took the partisan pudnit hacks about 0:02 to turn this into a partisan issue, even as the death count reached 100,000+, it sure is nice to see people step and give in such amounts - kind of a good f you to the R's and the D's and an affirmation that people do indeed care about something.

"We're also donating several hundred million dollars worth of our military's time and material. It's stupid to only count the cash donations."

The rallying cry of the R's hacks.

"The US contributes only .13% of GDP"

The rallying cries of the D's hacks.

Who the F cares what or how it is counted?

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean, etc.,

Why are we getting into a pissing contest about who gave what?

[Gary Gunnels]

I do find it humorous that a Bush administration official would be part of this pissing contest:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142934,00.html

[matt]

This is slightly off topic but does anyone know of former disasters' death tolls being inflated in the hopes of certain areas receiving more aid?

I think the idea isn't that crazy if you are the government of an economically deprived area. Kind of like the Oil for food program but with disaster relief.

[Dan]

Who the F cares what or how it is counted?

The people pissing and moaning that the United States is too stingy.

And why are you assuming that "the Democratic hacks" will automatically side with foreigners in unfairly criticizing Americans? You sound like Ann Coulter.

[Gary Gunnels]

Dan,

Note that the U.S. government is hardly innocent in these matters, since the head of USAID essentially accused France of being stingy on Wednesday.

[credit cards]

You can also check some helpful info dedicated to credit cards credit cards http://www.easy-application-credit-cards.com/ debt consolidation debt consolidation http://www.e-debt-consolidation-loans.com/ student credit cards student credit cards http://www.alumnicards.com/ mortgage loans mortgage loans http://www.mortgagequestaz.com/ bad credit loans bad credit loans http://www.all-calmortgage.com/ low interest credit cards low interest credit cards http://www.lowinterestratecreditcards.net/ credit card credit card http://www.credit-cards-credit-cards-credit-cards.net/ capital one credit card capital one credit card http://www.firstchoicebanksandpremiercredit.com/ payday loan payday loan http://www.fast-cash-quick-money-easy-loan.com/ credit repair credit repair http://www.repair-restore-bad-credit-report-identity-theft.com/ credit report credit report http://www.creditsharpie.com/ credit cards credit cards http://www.internet-merchant-account-pro.com/ discover credit card discover credit card http://www.acceptcreditcardsrealtime.com/ chase credit card chase credit card http://www.exclaim4creditcardprocessingmerchantaccount.com/ credit cards credit cards http://www.acceptcreditcardsonlineinternetmerchantaccountservices.com/ credit repair credit repair http://www.repaircreditonline.net/ debt consolidation debt consolidation http://www.consolidate-debt-usa.net/ debt consolidation debt consolidation http://www.smart-debt-consolidation-and-credit-services.com/ debt management debt management http://www.1st-advantage-credit-repair.com/ mortgage mortgage http://www.mortgagemarketinginc.com/ mortgage loans mortgage loans http://www.low-low-rates.com/ real estate mortgage loans real estate mortgage loans http://www.123-home-improvement-equity-loans.com/ home equity loans home equity loans http://www.home-equity-loans-mortgage-refinancing.com/ credit card applications credit card applications http://www.goapplyonline.com/ ...