Nothing is wrong with sending aid to those in need. With the unprecendented magnitude of human suffering resulting from the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the outpooring of worldwide aid is a natural and beneficial reaction. God Bless us all!

However, there is some not so good that can come from all of this giving. First off, if people are only redirecting charitable giving that they would be doing otherwise then homeless people in America, orphans in China, huricane victims in Jamaica, will lose a dollar for every dollar that goes to Tsunami relief. It’s a zero sum game. Second, the bulk of giving (and media attention) is on dealing with the immediate needs of food/water/clothing/shelter. But what is going to happen to these people when the Dan Rather and other anchors pull up stakes and go back to Redwood City to cover the Robert Blake trial?

We at Independent Sources would like to see intelligent dialog (i.e., unfortunately not the kind of thing that makes good TV) on getting the productivity tools back in the hands of the survivors. Instead of the UN sending out yet another press release on how good of a job they are doing on “coordinating” relief, how about a count on how many fishing boats have been put back into the hands of fishermen or sewing machines in the hands of sewers? Independent Sources would also encourage donors to give to general relief funds within organizations like the Red Cross so that they can deploy aid on an as-needed and where-needed basis.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 15th, 2005 at 9:09 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.