Hey guys, just plugging a couple places you can go to help out the rescue efforts in Japan;
Google has set up a crisis response page where you can go to donate money to the Red Cross, as well as a person-finder and information on the status of transit and electric companies and contacts for the government and related embassies.
Second Harvest Japan is a foodbank where you can send physical ojects for the relief efforts such as provisions, blankets, or clothing. Shipping can be pricey, but the option is still out there.
Cartoonist DJ Coffman has started the Comics for Japan blog where he will continue to update with other information for how you can help with the relief efforts as well as collections of related strips from different webcomic artists.
If anyone has information about any kind of relief effort for the firefighters at the nuclear plant, please send me a link. I feel like if people want to reward some real life badassery, there aren’t many people more deserving than firefighters who are willingly charging into a radioactive disaster zone and exposing themselves to a potential meltdown for the good of their families, country, and fellow men.
Thanks guys.
Amazon got something:
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_355543322_2?ie=UTF8&node=2673660011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-csm-1&pf_rd_r=0EJ4ZGNQ5MQD3RCX76TB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1290944142&pf_rd_i=507846
A good idea since half of the internet have saved their creditcard info in amazon. It goes through the american red cross through, so if you have any beef with em…
Something to keep in mind:
Japan is a first-world country with the third largest economy in the world and some of the best expertise anywhere in disaster preparedness and relief. The destruction of the earthquake and tsunami is indeed terrible, but almost no one is better equipped to handle it than they are. Japan isn’t Haiti. In point of fact, Japan has refused the vast majority of outside aid, including from organizations that continue to solicit donations for Japanese relief. So please, if you want to help, consider two things first: 1) Will my donation actually go where I want to go? 2) Might I prefer to send my donation to an area where there is destruction, poverty, etc. and not nearly as much publicity and existing infrastructure to mitigate it?
This.
Some more things to consider;
Just becasuse a country is ostensibly wealthy, this does not mean that everywhere in the country is wealthy and well equipped to deal with disaster, or that every family is wealthy and equipped to deal with disaster. Saying people should not give to relief efforts in Japan because Japan has money is akin to saying that people should not have donated to Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans because America has money. I posted this blog because I was politely contacted by a resident of Japan asking if I could please spread the word that the Japanese Red Cross Society is accepting donations via google and that Second Harvest would appreciate donations of food for families recovering from the disaster.
Playing the “these peple are worse off card” is a dangerously slippery slope because there are always people who have it worse than someone else. Don’t help domestic abuse organizations, teen crisis centres or animal shelters because there are impoverished third world nations that have it worse. Or don’t donate money to Multiple Sclerosis research because cancer kills more people. People are free to choose which charities resonate with them and donate to those efforts.
It is important to know where your donations are going regardless of what you are donating to, this is an unbending rule of all charity organizations anywhere, in every country, regarding every facet of philanthropy. You are just as likely to find organizations underhandedly exploiting the situation in Japan as you were to find people doing it with Haiti, and China, and the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and any of the multitude of efforts to quell global poverty and starvation, and animal rights organizations, and community restoration projects, and just about any situation where people are collecting money for a cause. This does not mean people should stop helping each other, just that they should be aware of where they’re handing their money. From what I understand, Google and Red Cross are both respectable organizations, and I’m sure if either were smuggling funds away from the cause they’re claiming to stand for there would be a media hayday over it.
Thank you!
Japan accepts help where their is a real need. They turn away help where they can deal with it themselves. I think that’s pretty respectable!
Also, many of those towns were fishing and farming towns. They are not wealthy, they will not have a ton of money to rebuild. And those people lost everything. No matter where you live, that hurts and help will be needed.
Also, er… minor point… everyone talks about New Orleans, like that was where the majority of the damage was caused by the hurricane. It’s not. Most of real severe damage happened to the west of that city. My home town, Biloxi MS, got 10X the damage that New Orleans did, and without the looting and shooting afterward. (Which is probably why they and other coastal cities got less press.)
And you know what? People in those devastated coastal areas (of the USA) really did appreciate any help they could get. Food, clean water, and helping hands to rebuild were needed. This is true for Japan as well, and what you’re seeing is a lot of donations being funneled to those areas. I’m sure the Japanese will appreciate the help as much as my parents and friends did.
Absolutely. I made a point of not telling anyone whether they should donate, nor where; I just want to encourage people to think a little further than their gut reaction to the front-page headline. It sounds like you’re already doing that, which is great.
Google and Red Cross are NOT respectable organizations, America does NOT have money, money you give to “charity” organizations are VERY often diverted or simply taken by someone who wants them.
Remember the whole “buy a goat for a poor man” thing? It was all a scam.
Red Cross gather shitloads of money, help out a little, give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done, ask for more money even though there is absolutely no need for it (More money does not equal more help, there is a cap where further funds are completely useless), and give themselves huge bonuses. It’s a money machine.
Google is one of the greediest corporations you interact with on a daily basis and have no issues with breaking human rights or helping others to do so.
Give some to Doctors without borders instead, they actually help, and stop being so trusting.
No wait, be trusting.
Hello, I’m a Nigerian prince.
I have to move all my money for some reason, it’s a lot, and you can keep some of it if you help me. Just send me your full name, social security number, credit cards, bank account, pin, all your user names and passwords, and some damn soda, I’m thirsty.
Visit the link in my name for contact information
We’re all being quite civil here, there’s no reason to get worked up and impolite.
I x’d out whatever the url in your name was because I didn’t feel like checking where you were linking to, but if you try to send people to spam or virus ridden sites in the future, I’ll be inclined to leave your comments in the spam filter where I found this one.
This isn’t a comic! Why are you messing up my RSS feed with this!?
I’m assuming this is your way of trying to slosh over the crap that was happening on the Mr. Fish Facebook page to the main site, but either way it’s quite rude.
What crap? What is going down now?
Just the passive aggressive announcement of everything that might be off topic. I would rather that stay off the main site.
Supplies are very needed, especially food and water, warm clothing, and diapers. Anything helps!
There’s just one problem: the roads are completely destroyed and there is no way to get them to the area of the earthquake. Delivery centres are completely filled with supplies, but there’s no way to get them to where they’re needed, at least not yet… So even though there are supplies, people still can’t get food and drinking water.
Hopefully the roads get cleared soon so they can start getting things up there!
Thank you very much for posting these links. I don’t have much to give and I’ve been feeling pretty bad about not being able to help out as yet. Since I don’t have a lot of money to spare I figure may start making quilts (I’ve always been a fan of practical items). Now I know where to send them when I’m finished.
Thanks again and keep up the good work!
The big thing here ended up being terror fed and enhanced by idiotic foreign news reporting after the Fukushima reactors were damaged.
The roads are being repaired. Goods are finally being sent where they need to be. The people who lived through what happened are still suffering. Children from near the nuclear plants now entering schools down south are suffering from being ostracized by classmates who are afraid of picking up radiation poisoning from them (yes, people are idiots). Domestic animals are dying in the zone from 1. being left without enough food and water 2. from having gone out searching for food and water and thus ending up with radiation poisoning. Domestic animals are dying in the non-zone from #1. Some animal rescue agencies are making trips in both to get animals out and proper medical care.
Children have been orphaned. Parents have lost their children. Old people are losing their health from being stuck in shelters where they have nothing to do to occupy their time. TEPCO is offering a million yen per family and something like 750 thousand for singles. A million yen. That is, at the moment, slightly more than ten grand. Some people could use that money wisely and benefit from it. Other people have too much they’d need to spend it on, what with EVERYTHING they owned gone.