Japan quake

[sholio]

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 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.

This entry is also posted at http://friendshipper.dreamwidth.org/317876.html with comments.

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

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.

Yes, this. Thank you. I felt the same.

A friend tells me it might be better not to use one of those "neutral" banners with the red font: problematic in light of the events.

[sholio]

I'm a little confused about the last part: maybe I'm being dense, but problematic how?

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure either; Google is uniquely unhelpful. :/ Just passing it on.

[rydra_wong]

The only possibly-relevant thing I know is that in Korea, only the names of the dead are written in red (it came up as a problem with the default site scheme on Dreamwidth). But I haven't heard of that as a Japanese tradition.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

only the names of the dead are written in red (it came up as a problem with the default site scheme on Dreamwidth)

Thanks, that'd make sense in context...

[cat-77.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I saw your post this morning and was like, "Huh, I haven't seen that yet, maybe it was just certain communities that pimped it that way?" Then I paged down my f-list and saw multiple *huge* banners with pictures of the destruction. Not cool, people. So not very cool.

You want to catch people's attention so they donate? Good. But find another way, really. My mind is leaning towards the pic I saw on BBC that was simply a map/drawing of Japan with the concentric circles spanning out from the epicenter - poignant but not too graphic, but I don't know if even that would be too much for people still living through this and trying to find out what happened to friends or loved ones.

[sholio]

*nods* Yeah; it almost feels, I don't know, kind of ungracious to point this out to people when I know that everyone who's using that banner is just trying to help and picking up the banners that are available -- and someone pointed out that they did the same thing for help_haiti, not that that's any better -- and I certainly don't want to stop people from helping! But it bothered me enough that I felt like I had to say something.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

"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."


***NODS***
Fully concur. Thank you for mentioning this.........If they want to get involved then do it. There is much need out there, but just leave the rest of it alone.

[sholio]

Yeah; I do feel kind of ungracious to mention it, because I know that people mean well and are genuinely trying to help. But I'm not sure if using those images is right.

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

True with the images, I'm getting to the point where the pictures are slightly overwhelming. I had it a couple of weeks ago with the Christchurch Earthquake and I completely overloaded with September 11. There's news and then there's showing it to us to the point where we just want to turn it off.
I'm just glad that all the LJ names I recognise are safe.

[sholio]

Awww, your icon. *hugs*

Yeah, I guess it's sort of the standard thing after a disaster, but it does feel like we're just being bombarded with images and tragedy. Maybe it's hitting me harder this time because there have been so many tragedies of that nature lately.