![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Japan quake
Oh Japan. I honestly don't know what to say -- I got back from my Internetless vacation to this. I am so, so sorry for the many thousands who are suffering, but very glad that my friends in Japan are okay.
Here's a list of links on how to donate and volunteer; also some links on finding the whereabouts of people who were in the affected areas. And here is another one with links to news sources as well. I hadn't used (or heard of) GlobalGiving.org before following a link this morning (in the past I've usually just donated directly to Red Cross or MSF), but if you don't have any special preference as to which charitable agency gets your donation and would like it to go where it would be most useful, they look pretty good -- I checked them out online and didn't find any problems/issues, and having now used them, they are very transparent about their fees in the donation process.
There is also![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
help_japan/![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
help_japan, a fandom auction site. It's taking offers of donation incentives, but not yet taking pledges.
Also, I dithered on whether or not to mention this, and it is truly is not meant to be critical of people on my flist -- I know that everyone who's doing this is genuinely well-meaning and just trying to help. But I've seen a number of people picking up and reblogging banners that use pictures of the tsunami destruction in their posts promoting the donation sites, and while it's definitely attention-getting, I'm very uncomfortable with it. It just seems to me that it would be very difficult and heartbreaking for someone who has friends or family in the affected regions to view those images, and traumatic to see them over and over again on LJ and DW.
Here's a list of links on how to donate and volunteer; also some links on finding the whereabouts of people who were in the affected areas. And here is another one with links to news sources as well. I hadn't used (or heard of) GlobalGiving.org before following a link this morning (in the past I've usually just donated directly to Red Cross or MSF), but if you don't have any special preference as to which charitable agency gets your donation and would like it to go where it would be most useful, they look pretty good -- I checked them out online and didn't find any problems/issues, and having now used them, they are very transparent about their fees in the donation process.
There is also
help_japan/help_japan, a fandom auction site. It's taking offers of donation incentives, but not yet taking pledges.Also, I dithered on whether or not to mention this, and it is truly is not meant to be critical of people on my flist -- I know that everyone who's doing this is genuinely well-meaning and just trying to help. But I've seen a number of people picking up and reblogging banners that use pictures of the tsunami destruction in their posts promoting the donation sites, and while it's definitely attention-getting, I'm very uncomfortable with it. It just seems to me that it would be very difficult and heartbreaking for someone who has friends or family in the affected regions to view those images, and traumatic to see them over and over again on LJ and DW.
no subject
Um, yeah, exactly. I'm a lurker living in Tokyo, and I haven't been able to watch TV since Friday night when I first saw the footage. It's just way too depressing for me, and I didn't even know anyone in the Touhoku region. There are entire towns that are simply gone. Luckily, I've turned off images on LJ and DW, so I haven't seen any of the banners, but I can imagine what kind of images are being used.
no subject
The devastation ... I just can't wrap my mind around it. I don't know what to say.