Donate to Tsunami Relief?

[Nickdfresh]

You may donate to the cause of tsunami relief, from the comfort of your home, online to a reputable charity (i.e. The Red Cross or USAid) by using the Apple homepage and breaking out your credit card!:

APPLE HOME PAGE (http://www.apple.com/)


Thank you for your support!
http://gavage.com/pics/mac.jpg

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so this is Christmas and what have you done
Another year over; a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one, the old and the young
A Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear

So this is Christmas, for weak and for strong
The rich and the poor one, the road is so long
So Happy Christmas for black and for white
The yellow and red one, and stop all the fight
A Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear

So this is Christmas and what have we done
Another year over, a new one just begun
So Happy Christmas, I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one, the old and the young
A Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear

[Intstrumental]

So this is Christmas and what have you done
Another year over; a new one just begun
And so Happy Christmas; we hope you have fun
The near and the dear one, the old and the young
A Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear


http://www.poster.net/gruen/gruen-john-lennon-nyc-2801082.jpg

[Nickdfresh]

These are the charaties linked to Apples homepage:


American Red Cross International Response Fund

AmeriCares South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund

Direct Relief International International Assistance Fund

Médecins Sans Frontières International Tsunami Emergency Appeal

Oxfam Asian Earthquake & Tsunami Fund Highly Rated!

Sarvodaya Relief Fund for Tsunami Tragedy

Save the Children Asia Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund

UNICEF South Asia Tsunami Relief Efforts

[Nickdfresh]

More information on the best charities below.


I recommend Action Against Hunger-USA, The American Red Cross, AmeriCares, and the American Jewish World Service. They claim an 80% to 90% delivery of funding to relief efforts. They also appear to check out.

Guidestar is an American organization that evaluates Non-Profit Organizations. Charity Navigator is also a trusted source. The following link will take you to their list of charities they deem the most legit!

Guidestar List of Charities (http://www.guidestar.org/controller/search.gs?action_searchFin=1&keywords=disaster+relief&subCategoryCriteria=%3a32)

Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/content.view/catid/38/cpid/227.htm)

[FORD]

Gonna give this one a "sticky" for a while.

Please post any other links/info concerning tsunami relief in this thread.

[DLR'sCock]

Thanks for the info bro!!!! I did what I could, strength and peace to all of those people suffering from this horrific tragedy.


The planet hiccups, and well over 135,000 dead, and millions of lives on the brink of destruction.....it really puts perspective on things...

[Nickdfresh]

Candles, tears and white flowers for victims

U.N.: Toll approaches 150,000

Aid has begun to reach tsunami victims in remote areas of Indonesia, as the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator says the death toll is approaching 150,000. "We will never have an exact figure because of all the nameless fishermen who are gone," Jan Engeland said.

FULL STORY CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/asia.quake/index.html)

DONATE (http://www.apple.com/)

[Nickdfresh]

Bush: Lower flags for tsunami victims
President says carnage 'defies comprehension'
Saturday, January 1, 2005 Posted: 10:26 AM EST (1526 GMT)

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) -- President Bush, seeking to bolster America's humanitarian image after the Indian Ocean tsunamis, called Saturday for flags to be flown at half-staff next week to honor victims of the disaster.

A day after he raised the U.S. aid contribution to $350 million from $35 million, Bush used his weekly radio address to emphasize the need for private relief donations for devastated areas where massive waves killed at least 124,000 people and left five million others homeless.

George W. Bush

Rest at CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/01/bush.radio.reut/index.html)

[Nitro Express]

A large earthquake off of the Canary Islands could hit the Eastern United Startes with a large sunami. If New York City ended up underwater and everything up and down the coast was toast, what would India, Sri Lanka, Tailand, Malaysia, Indonesia do for us? A lot less than we are going to do for them.

The United States will give more aid to the region than any other country. It doesn't matter that some of the regions affected were supporters of Al Quaida and Bin Laden. They will take our money and help and then it's business as usual. The population density in the sunami destroyed regions is so huge, the death toll is a drop in the bucket.

[Nickdfresh]

One week later: Tsunami aid arriving

One week after a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean sent walls of water crashing against the shores of at least 11 countries, health workers are warning there could be a "second wave of death" from disease in the devastated areas. The warning comes as relief supplies begin reaching survivors.

FULL STORY at CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/02/asia.quake/index.html)

Donate (http://www.apple.com/)

Sri Lankan children bathe today at a camp for displaced people

[Nickdfresh]

January 3, 2005 LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-quake3jan03.story)

CATASTROPHE IN SOUTHERN ASIA
Navy Airlifts Supplies to Ravaged Coast
U.S. copter crews flying into Indonesia's Aceh province report being mobbed by tsunami survivors and learning of huge casualties.


By Richard C. Paddock, Times Staff Writer

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN — Helicopters from this Navy aircraft carrier flew repeated relief missions along the nearby shoreline of Indonesia on Sunday, delivering food, water and medical supplies to thousands of survivors stranded along the west coast of Aceh province after last week's devastating tsunami.

Crew members returned from a second day of relief efforts with reports that the helicopters had been mobbed by residents who in some cases tried to clamber aboard and get a ride out.

They found that many towns and villages had suffered huge casualties: In the city of Meulaboh, about 110 miles south of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, only 1,000 people survived out of a population of 60,000, said the Lincoln's skipper, Capt. Kendall Card.

American naval officers set up a command post in Banda Aceh to coordinate U.S. flights in the province, raising the cooperation between the militaries of Indonesia and the United States to a level rarely seen in recent years.

"This is the largest natural disaster of my lifetime and it changes the rule set. It can't help but be positive, in my view," Rear Adm. Doug Crowder, commander of the carrier group that includes the Lincoln, said in an interview Sunday aboard the warship.

After a week of climbing death tolls and tales of devastation from the Indian Ocean region, where an estimated 150,000 lives were lost in the Dec. 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the coordinator of U.N. emergency relief efforts said Sunday that backlogged supplies were beginning to reach afflicted areas.

"Good news is coming in by the hour," said coordinator Jan Egeland.

He warned, however, that it still might take three more days to establish distribution centers for food in Sri Lanka and longer for Indonesia's most distant areas.

Meanwhile, U.N. agencies also are dropping emergency supplies by helicopter in isolated villages in both nations, which sustained the greatest damage in the disaster.

Indonesia said today that its death toll had topped 94,000, while Sri Lankan officials said they expected their island nation to have suffered 35,000 fatalities.

Unlike in the Pacific Ocean, there was no warning system in the Indian Ocean to alert people to last week's impending disaster.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters today that Indonesia and its southern Asian neighbors would set up such a system, though he did not specify which nations would participate.

But for now, the immediate focus is on aid.

Governments around the world have pledged nearly $2 billion toward relief efforts, backed up by contributions and projects by private organizations, and emergency supplies have been flowing to airports and warehouses in the region. But the effort to get those supplies to the people most in need has been slowed by damaged roads, shattered infrastructure and too few aircraft.

U.N. coordinator Egeland said that an estimated 1.8 million people needed food, including 100,000 people in Somalia, on Africa's east coast, at the farthest reaches of the great wave's destruction, and the United Nations would be able to reach most of them.

"Overall I am more optimistic today than I was yesterday, and especially the day before yesterday, that the global community will be able to face up to this enormous challenge," Egeland said at a daily briefing at U.N. headquarters in New York. "The international system is working."

Aid officials have said as many as 5 million people in the region lack the essentials for survival.

In Sri Lanka, aircraft carrying relief supplies continued to arrive in the capital, Colombo, from around the world. Aid trucks appeared in far greater numbers Sunday on the main coastal highway heading from Colombo to refugee camps and disaster sites in the south. Many carried makeshift white mourning flags and hand-painted signs on their grilles advertising their affiliation.

Groups of people lined the highway along some stretches waiting for supplies to be dropped off.

Yet despite the progress, aid workers and victims complained that shortages and distribution problems remained a significant issue.

"The government is still locked in meetings," said one aid worker who requested anonymity. "We're a week into it. How many died in that time because of these delays?"

Critics said the Sri Lankan government was causing delays by continuing to insist that all medical aid be routed through its offices, and had only reluctantly voided import taxes on medicines destined for the victims.

In the Indonesian city of Medan, meanwhile, a mountain of rice, instant noodles, crackers and bottled water sat Sunday on an Indonesian military airfield waiting for shipment to Banda Aceh, about an hour's flight to the north. Operations were slowed by physical constraints of the airport and limited infrastructure, the lack of coordination and miscommunications.

Maj. Dwight Neeley of the U.S. Marines could only scratch his head when he saw a C-130 land at the adjacent commercial airport, far from the cargo and supplies at the military base.

"This is the kind of stuff we have to deal with."

Aid workers swarmed around Neeley, eager to get on what would be the only flight out to the north at that time. Neeley had made promises to some, but there was only enough space for about 35 of the 50 Spanish doctors, plus a few Marines.

"I'd like to fly more flights out there," he said. "It's frustrating."

The initial slowness and inadequate size of relief efforts were a source of complaints from the region last week, including some directed at the United States. After initially pledging $15 million to the effort, the Bush administration on Friday raised its contribution to $350 million.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell defended the U.S. response before he and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush left for a tour of disaster sites in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand over the coming days.

"This disaster took place just seven days ago, and during the first 24 hours, I called every single foreign minister of the most affected nations, and said to them, the United States stands ready to help," he said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

"Beyond the $350 million, our Department of Defense is spending tens of millions of dollars more as we dispatched two carrier groups, a regular big aircraft carrier group and a Marine amphibious group to the region," Powell added.

"And private donations are significant. So I think that we have responded appropriately."

The arrival over the weekend of the Lincoln and other U.S. warships, which are being joined by forces from Britain, Australia, Pakistan, Germany, Singapore and India, will help address what U.N. relief coordinator Egeland said were the most pressing needs: cargo planes, forklifts, ships and especially helicopters to deliver aid to remote areas.

"We have very good pledges but it takes time to convert pledges to assistance," Egeland said.

"But a helicopter can reach a village in no time."

The aircraft carrier Lincoln, with a crew of about 6,500, has deployed at least 10 of its 17 helicopters to pick up aid supplies in Banda Aceh and carry them down the coast to tsunami victims. It also has sent ashore medical teams and advance teams to coordinate with relief workers.

Officers say the sailors aboard the carrier are eager to help the people of Aceh province, and 1,300 crew members have volunteered to go ashore, including plumbers, welders, electricians and other technicians who could help repair infrastructure. So far, however, only 20 sailors have had a chance to go ashore on advance teams to discuss how the American volunteers should be deployed.

"This is a disaster of worldwide proportions," said Capt. David Lausman, the Lincoln's executive officer. "We all want to do the right thing and help. We are here until we are not needed anymore."

The Lincoln, which was docked in Hong Kong on Christmas, had been scheduled to head north. But after the tsunami, it set course for the Indian Ocean. The carrier traveled 2,000 miles in three and half days, arriving off the coast of Aceh on New Year's Day.

A few weeks ago, such a deployment of U.S. forces probably would have provoked a storm of protests across Indonesia — especially if the American troops had entered Aceh, where the Indonesian military has been attempting to suppress a separatist rebellion for 28 years.

In addition, the U.S. Congress has restricted military assistance to Indonesia since the 1999 savaging of East Timor, now independent, by paramilitary groups loyal to the Indonesian military.

But the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami, which wiped out hundreds of coastal villages in Indonesia alone, has altered the political landscape.

The Indonesian military, which lost hundreds of troops in the disaster, acknowledges it has little choice but to rely on other nations if assistance is to reach survivors in time.

"It is fine for the U.S. military to come, because the aid is on behalf of humanity," said Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, who is in charge of distributing tsunami assistance.

"If a disaster happens, the only power that can bring aid is the military. Aceh is so pathetic and we need help, and they are offering help," he said.

It is too early to say whether the new spirit of cooperation can lead to a greater U.S. role in Indonesia or to an end to the long-running fighting between Acehnese separatists and the government.

Last year, the U.S. was a key backer of negotiations that nearly achieved a peace accord before the Indonesian government scuttled the talks and reimposed martial law in Aceh.

Since the tsunami, the Indonesian army has turned its attention from fighting rebels to disaster relief, while separatists belonging to the Free Aceh Movement have maintained a low profile.

Many Acehnese, reeling from the enormity of the disaster, are happy to be helped by the Americans.

"I think U.S. aid is so helpful," said Zainul Arifin, 58, who lost his sister and his home in the disaster. "Who else can help us deliver it?"

Some Indonesians seemed more cautious about accepting U.S. aid.

Zulbahri, 38, a carpenter in Banda Aceh who lost his wife and three sons, said he appreciated the help from abroad but worried that the U.S. might try to affect the country's religion. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

"For me, all help is good," said Zulbahri, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

"We are here in difficulties. If the U.S. comes, it is good. But please don't bring any other interests like religion and politics."

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Aid for quake and tsunami victims

These aid agencies are among those accepting contributions for assistance that they or their affiliates are providing for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Asia. For a full list of organizations, go to http://www.latimes.com/aid

Action Against Hunger

247 W. 37th, Suite 1201

New York, NY 10018

(212) 967-7800

http://www.aah-usa.org



ADRA International

12501 Old Columbia Pike

Silver Spring, MD 20904

(800) 424-2372

http://www.adra.org



American Friends Service Committee

AFSC Crisis Fund

1501 Cherry St.

Philadelphia, PA 19102

(215) 241-7000

http://www.afsc.org



American Jewish World Service

45 West 36th St., 10th Floor

New York, NY 10018-7904

(800) 889-7146

http://www.ajws.org

American Red Cross

International Response Fund

P.O. Box 37243

Washington, DC 20013

(800) HELP NOW

http://www.redcross.org



Baptist World Aid

Asia Tidal Waves

405 N. Washington St.

Falls Church, VA 22046

(703) 790-8980

http://www.bwanet.org/bwaid



B'nai B'rith International

Disaster Relief Fund

2020 K St. N.W. 7th Floor

Washington, DC 20006

(212) 490-3290

http://www.bnaibrith.org



Care USA

151 Ellis St., N.E.

Atlanta, GA 30303-2440

(800) 521-CARE ext. 999

http://www.careusa.org

Catholic Relief Services

P.O. Box 17090

Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

(800) 736-3467

http://www.catholicrelief.org

Christian Children's Fund

2821 Emerywood Parkway

Richmond, VA 23294

(800) 776-6767

http://www.christianchildrensfund.org

Church World Service

P.O. Box 968

Elkhart, IN 46515

(800) 297-1516

http://www.churchworldservice.org

Direct Relief International

27 S. La Patera Lane

Santa Barbara, CA 93117

(805) 964-4767

http://www.directrelief.org

Doctors Without Borders

P.O. Box 2247

New York, NY 10116-2247

(888) 392-0392

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org



International Medical Corps

1919 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300

Santa Monica, CA 90404

(800) 481-4462

http://www.imcworldwide.org

International Orthodox

Christian Charities

110 West Road, Suite 360

Baltimore, MD 21204

(877) 803-4622

http://www.iocc.org

International Rescue Committee

P.O. Box 5058

Hagerstown, MD 21741-9874

(877) 733-8433

http://www.theirc.org

Lutheran World Relief

P.O. Box 17061

Baltimore, MD 21298-9832

(800) 597-5972

http://www.lwr.org

MAP International

2200 Glynco Parkway

P.O. Box 215000

Brunswick, GA 31521-5000

(800) 225-8550

http://www.map.org

Mercy Corps

Dept. W

P.O. Box 2669

Portland, OR 97208

(888) 256-1900

http://www.mercycorps.org

Operation USA

8320 Melrose Ave., Suite 200

Los Angeles, CA 90069

(800) 678-7255

http://www.opusa.org



Save the Children

54 Wilton Road

Westport, CT 06880

(800) 728-3843

http://www.savethechildren.org



US Fund for UNICEF

333 E. 38th St.

New York, NY 10016

(800) 4-UNICEF

http://www.unicefusa.org

Source: Associated Press

Times staff writers Mark Magnier in Galle, Sri Lanka; Maggie Farley at the United Nations; and Don Lee in Medan contributed to this report.

[Nickdfresh]

U.S. tracks 4,000 reports of missing Americans
State Department checking thousands of calls
Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Posted: 1:49 PM EST (1849 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials are investigating about 4,000 reports of missing Americans in the wake of the December 26 tsunami disaster, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.


Full Story (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/tsunami.americans/index.html)

[FORD]

http://www.tullys.com/images/community/2_cm_wv_coffee.gif

http://www.tullys.com/images/community/2_cm_text_wv.gif

link (http://www.tullys.com/community/cm_index.html)

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
Americans are accused of being stingy in tsunami. However, Americans donate to charitable causes per capita at a rate more than any other nation in the world.

That being said, there is a serious concern for EVERYONE in the world as to how their hard-earned money is being used in this disaster. Not every agency is putting their donations to good use. Some have quite high administrative costs as opposed to getting the money to the people to where it is needed.

I couldn't agree more. These are two public interest groups that evaluate such things. The Red Cross, Action Against Hunger, American Jewish World Services, and Oxfam seem like sure bets though.

Guidestar List of Charities (http://www.guidestar.org/controller/search.gs?action_searchFin=1&keywords=disaster+relief&subCategoryCriteria=%3a32)

Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/content.view/catid/38/cpid/227.htm)

[DrMaddVibe]

Seeing that story today on the news is what prompted me to crack open the cyber checkbook.

[Nickdfresh]

Tsunami deaths soar past 212,000
Wednesday, January 19, 2005 Posted: 3:36 PM EST (2036 GMT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Indonesian Health Ministry said Wednesday that the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis killed 166,320 people in Indonesia, jumping the regional death toll for the disaster to 212,611.

The Health Ministry said 6,245 people were missing.

Dodi Indrasanto, a director at the Health Ministry's department of health affairs, told Reuters that the new death total reflected the latest reports from the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, which were directly in the path of the killer tsunamis spawned by a magnitude 9 earthquake the day after Christmas.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking before the Health Ministry released its latest figures, told a donors conference in Jakarta that the true extent of the catastrophe defied description.

"Perhaps we will never know the exact scale of the human casualties," he said.

Meanwhile in Japan, the U.N. head of emergency relief warned that natural disaster in any of the world's largest cities could set off a catastrophe that could be 100 times worse than the Indian Ocean tsunamis.

Speaking on the first day of a disaster prevention conference in the Japanese city of Kobe, Jan Egeland, the U.N. Director of Disaster Relief, said many of the world's megacities, including Tokyo, are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.

"Perhaps the most frightening prospect would be to have a truly megadisaster in a megacity," he told delegates from 150 nations Tuesday in Kobe, where an earthquake killed nearly 6,500 people a decade ago.

"Then we could have not only a tsunami-style casualty rate as we have seen late last year, but we could see one hundred times that in a worst case."

Megacities are densely concentrated cities, with a population of 10 million or more, and Egeland said time is running short for some of the largest cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The five most populated cities in the world are the greater Tokyo area with 35.3 million people, Mexico City with 19 million, New York-Newark with 18.5 million and Bombay and Sao Paulo both with a population of 18.3 million, U.N. figures show.

The five-day conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the Kobe quake is also aiming to draw lessons from last month's quake and tsunamis.

Key to the meeting is laying the foundation for an Indian Ocean tsunami early warning system, similar to one set up in the Pacific.

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has proposed a system in the Indian Ocean -- including offshore detection buoys and a communications center -- that would cost $30 million and go into operation by mid-2006.

Experts say well-placed breakwaters, quake-proof seawalls, detailed hazard maps showing danger areas and well-defined evacuation routes and shelters are also needed, according to The Associated Press.

In Tamil Nadu, the Indian state hit hardest by the tsunamis, more than 8,000 people died. Most of the victims lived along the state's lengthy coastline, and state officials are looking at ways to prevent natural disasters from exacting such a heavy toll in the future.

While deep-sea tsunami sensors and solid sea walls were among the proposals discussed, forest officials have suggested a simpler and cheaper alternative.

India's state government is now planning to plant 3 billion casuarina, coconut and cashew saplings along the entire coast after discovering that villages that survived were protected by forest cover.

The United Nations is also calling for the world's children to be educated in disaster reduction and prevention in the next 10 years.

Three weeks on
As experts talk about how to protect cities and nations against natural disasters, relief workers and militaries are trying to help the survivors and help rebuild communities three weeks after the tsunami struck.

A U.N. travel ban on aid workers in parts of the Indonesian province of Aceh has been lifted.

The United Nations had imposed a 24-hour ban on staff travel to specific regions because of security fears following reports of fighting between government forces and rebels in Aceh.

Indonesia's defense minister said the military is sending 5,000 more soldiers to the region to help with reconstruction efforts.

Sri Lanka is launching an extremely ambitious plan to rebuild parts of the country wiped out in the tsunami disaster.

By some estimates, almost two-thirds of Sri Lanka's coastal region was destroyed, including hundreds of thousands of homes.

The so-called "Rebuilding Nation" program is expected to cost $3.5 billion. It includes plans for constructing new townships, replanning transportation networks, and improving telecommunications infrastructure.

Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/19/asia.tsunami/index.html)

[Island Boy]

WOW what a good waste of a worthy thread!!!!

http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/

[Nickdfresh]

I wish Ford would have locked this thread down when he stickied it. I'm getting tired of this cryptic-Nazi callous bullshit displayed by certain people, that for whatever reason, have to make uninformed bullshit statements about how horrible it is to donate to Tsunami relief. If you are indifferent to human suffering or think people deserve to die because of their race or creed, then join the fucking Klan or the neo-Nazi party for fucks sake.

If you don't like it, than don't fucking donate! But stop spamming the fuck out of this thread with hateful bullshit for Christ-fucking-sakes! Start your own "I revel in the fact that thousands died" thread. Most of those killed were children that were unaware of any concepts of anti-Americanism. WTF is wrong with people!?

[FORD]

As you all can see, I took the cyber weed-eater to this thread, and now I'm locking the motherfucker.

It's a goddamn shame that certain mindless FAUX zombies have to ruin even an honest attempt at helping out some people who are suffering

[Dr. Love]

unsticking this, bosses orders.

[FORD]

Re-opening this due to the recent outbreak of stickyphobia.