I just wrote about the virtues of solitude.
The goal of a healthy solitude is love, love and acceptance of ourselves as we are and where we are, and love and compassion for others. - Dorothy Payne
If you haven't already, consider helping or donating on behalf of Katrina victims and survivors. Jeff Jarvis says today is the day bloggers have unified to urge everyone to contribute. I still feel indebted to the graciousness of all the volunteer workers whom distributed food, clothing, shoes, drinking water, and compassionate smiles to me and thousands of others in Phuket, Thailand following the tsunami. These are items that are crucial for basic survival and are simply not accessible to folks that have had their homes and/or wallets washed away in a flood. Not too mention the medical and psychological care that is required for the wounded. Or the massive reconstruction efforts.
The Hurricane 2005 Relief Fund is the American Red Cross' largest mobilization of resources in its history for a single natural disaster (American Red Cross doesn't reflect global disasters). I'm having trouble with the Red Cross website myself, so just in case their phone number for US residents is 1-800-HELP-NOW and Yahoo's Red Cross donation system works fine. Here's a larger list of other Hurricane Katrina relief organizations.
I particularly liked cehwiedel's idea to keep attention on the long-term relief efforts. It reminds me too that Phuket provencial hall (i.e. city hall) was converted into "aid central" - a sprawling carnival-like massive booth complex - for days and possibly weeks after the disaster:
I’ve created a mailing address (hurrel -at- cehwiedel.com) for a repeating Hurricane Relief Carnival. I’ll have a webpage up later today listing hosts — “Kicking Over My Traces” will host next week. Let me know if you’re willing to host. The idea is to support long-term relief, keeping it in everyone’s mind.
Extra: That's always a challenge when media attention drifts on to the next breaking news.
On January 7th, Jen & Brad overtook tsunami news in the U.S. (And somehow Jen, Brad and Angelina are still in the news nearly eight months later). As an idea for the upcoming ninth-month anniversary of the tsunami (September 26th), I'll start collecting weekly posts (rather than full carnival) leading up to the one-year anniversary. Relief efforts continue and it's time to hear more stories. I'm particularly interested in hearing about the resiliency of the people which was starting to be evident in the immediate aftermath. In the last month, a full carnival may be in order. If you'd like to take a week starting October 3rd, let me know and I'll begin the posting schedule.
p.s. InformationWeek has a good round-up of Internet coverage including a list of Boing Boing's posts.
Technorati tags: Flood Aid, Hurricane Katrina
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