It’s all over the news, we’re looking at maybe 100,000 dead and 1.5 million displaced in Burma* thanks to the cyclone (and these are not, in fact, the highest estimates). The Burmese government, demonstrating once again that “military intelligence” is an oxymoron, are blocking international aid efforts. While I wouldn’t object to them being guillotined with a dull blade, I don’t think that should be anyone’s primary concern right now. Help is needed. Money is needed. There’s a good possibility that your attempts to help will be blocked or worse, appropriated, by a bunch of intransigent military meatheads, BUT… being too paralyzed to do or donate anything at all is probably the worst of all options. So let your sympathies move you to donate, but use your head and send your money where it will do the most good.

So I’ve been perusing the internets trying to find the safest bets. This list is NOT exhaustive. These are just some suggestions and guidelines, not necessarily an authoritative guide. So I’m not absolving you of responsibility to check for yourself, just pointing out where you can start.

What to look for:

• Look for organizations that already have people in Burma.
• Especially, look for the words “local partners”.
• I suspect, though I am being dismal, that giving money to US-based organizations will not be very effective. The junta will be more inclined to let in regional aid (india, thailand) than anything from the US, which has been pretty openly hostile to the government there.
• Look for organizations that are buying food and supplies in as local a market as possible. That will save operating costs. One commenter (it’s in there somewhere) pointed out that the aid packages being put together in the US contain cooking tools that people in Burma are not familiar with and don’t know how to use, on top of not being the most efficient use of money.

Below are some organizations that seem to be fairly effective. I’m including my sources, since I’m really just getting a lot of this info from the good people commenting over at the New York Times. My personal pick would be Avaaz.org, since they are working through the monks and temples in Burma, and those guys seem to have proven themselves quite helpful with cyclone relief efforts on the ground. But! Their website isn’t working at the moment.

from NYT article the first:

• international red cross seems to be in there already
• doctors without borders as well
• UN world food program is in, though they report that food has been seized by the govt.
• United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) says they have not been having problems.

from NYT bloggy article, they have a list of organizations that are trying to help, but we don’t know how successful they are or whether they’re being let in at all. The most helpful stuff actually seems to be in the comments:

“The aid agency Direct Relief (dot org) is already in Burma, and are seeking donations to support their medical aid work there. It is one of the two featured charities that Google has up in the “support disaster relief” link.”

“Immediate help can be provided via Avaaz.org, who funnel donations to local monasteries, thus avoiding the Junta with its possible delays and diversions of donations. The monks will distribute the donations directly to the people.”

“it would be more realistic to send relief material through channels of or in cooperation with countries like China, Thailand and India.”

“So, donate money to any relief organization (like World Vision, Red Cross, World Relief, etc.) operating in Burma. Allow them to buy the necessary recovery and reconstruction materials in the local/regional market.”

“CARE has been working in Myanmar for 14 years.” (Though commenters are wondering how they can ensure that a donation there will actually go to Burma and not some other project.)

“Please add Pact’s name to your list and visit our website at www.pactworld.org. We have been working in Myanmar for the past ten years, have nearly 1200 local Burmese staff on the ground, 429 of which are in the Delta working primarily in a microfinance program that is in 1500 villages. We are one of the few American organizations on the ground and have greater reach than most. We are in seven of the ten hardest hit townships and have already been twice to the Delta with UNDP to do assessments.”

Global Giving has a long list. look for the words “local partners” or organizations that are already there.

Burma-Network also has a list of charities, which has a good amount of overlap with the list I’m presenting here.

* The debate over whether to call it Burma or Myanmar goes like this:
1) Myanmar is the junta’s name for the country, call it Burma till Aung San Suu Kyii says otherwise.
2) But Burma is the name given to the nation by British colonialists anyway. Myanma (without the r) would be a more accurate name, in line with what people actually called the place 600 years ago or whatever. Locals don’t want you to call it Burma.
I say: colonialism sucks, but replacing one evil with another doesn’t solve the problem, so I’m going with the pre-junta name until a democratically elected government says otherwise, or until I meet an actual local instead of hearing it through someone who visited Burma once.

There’s a joke amongst the Do-Gooders in Thailand. The one’s who actually want to bring innovation, a balanced living, and a country first instead wallets first attitude to governing. They tell this joke to lighten the mood when no matter what policies or change they try to implement are faced with the “cloud of darkness.”
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Out of all the Islands off Thailand, Koh Phi Phi was one of the hardest hit when the Tsunami of 2004 hit. Despite the millions of foreign donations raised, it seems that little has actually made it to the places that need it the most. Never less, Phi Phi is being reconstructed but in a mould that is unlike any other of Thailand’s beautiful islands.

Copyright DC 2007
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Whilst Bangkok has everything a city dweller needs, it’s good to escape every now and then and experience the other parts this country has to offer. The benefit of living in Bangkok is that you are only a short distance from some of the most amazing beaches in the world.

© DC 2006
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start booking now, and help revive the tourism industry in the southern provinces. there’s a long weekend coming up soon (Jul 21-24).

(oh and there’s a party at the Bed tonight - opening event for Absolut Mandarin)

In an attempt to accelerate tourism recovery in the provinces of Phuket, Krabi and Trang, the Thai travel and tourism industry has re-doubled efforts to promote domestic tourism.

All travellers, particularly residents of Thailand, planning to make a trip to Phuket with family and friends between July to October 2005 will be able to take advantage of this special promotional offer.

Individuals planning to travel with friends or family members will be able to purchase a 3-day/2-night travel package to Phuket at a special promotional rate starting from 3,200 baht per person. The travel packages are being serviced by various airlines namely, Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Orient Thai Airlines and Air Asia in conjunction with hotel and resort partners.

International visitors wishing to travel to the three holiday destinations will also be able to enjoy the offer — simply by purchasing the travel package upon arrival in Thailand.

Packages featuring travel on Thai Airways International or Bangkok Airways to a choice of three destinations — Phuket, Krabi and Trang — range from 4,000 baht minimum to 5,500 baht. For travel to Phuket on Orient Thai Airlines and Air Asia, promotional packages range from 3,200 baht to 4,700 baht.

Each of the travel packages features a return trip air-ticket, 3-day/2-night accommodation, twin-sharing, at a participating hotel or resort, two breakfasts and airport-hotel transfers; the promotional price excludes airport tax, insurance, administrative fees, fuel surcharge and VAT.

Travellers who have purchased the promotional package will also be presented with a special discount card and leisure and entertainment guide to Phuket. During their stay on the island resort, visitors will be able to also take advantage of discount offers extended by over 300 participating travel and tourism operators. In addition to shopping and dining offers, these include discounts on tour programs and special interest activities such as yachting, canoeing and diving.

For individuals who enjoy the company of family or friends during their travel, there is no better time to be re-discovering and enjoying Phuket,

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Not to be outdone by the Hong Kong woman who had a leech extracted from her nostril earlier this month, a Thai man had 50 maggots extracted from his ear (read below). Top that, Hong Kong! In yo’ face!!
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Doctors remove 50 maggots from Thai man’s ears
Wed Apr 27, 2005 03:11 AM ET

Somsak, who used tweezers and a small suction device to remove the maggots, said Anan would be kept in for observation for a while to make sure no more eggs hatched.

Today I visited the Australian Embassy here in Bangkok, and when I got off at the Lumphini MRT station I mistakenly decided to climb the stairs as opposed to taking the escalator. Little did I know that this is one of MRT’s deepest stations and I arrived at the top short of having a heart attack.

Anyway, the purpose of my visit was to find out what all the hoo haa is about with the student visas…
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It

i went to mtv asia awards tonight. actually they renamed in it “mtv asia aid” because of recent events, they were trying to raise money to help the tsunami victims.

i hope they achieved their goal of trying to raise x amount of money, because i left half way through it. so did half the people at the show. by 10pm everybody was outside smoking or sitting in the beer garden, probably hoping that if they were drunk the show might be better.

i don’t know if it was the mtv people’s fault, or bec tero (organisers) or impact arena’s fault that the show wasn’t running smoothly. when tata young came on to the stage the microphone wasn’t working. it might have been a blessing in disguise, poor girl, did her set right after american idol kelly clarkson. as my friend put it, tata and her new titties automatically became a third world show.

and ashlee simpson won the best new comer / breakthrough award. ashlee simpson? yes. i told my friend this is because nobody watches saturday night live in asia. come on!

it was an interesting experience though. being there. and then looking at the monitor, at what was shown to the viewers at home. yeah. live broadcast. in the monitor it looked like it was packed, and people were having fun. hah. not true. i had front row tickets. standing. right up to the stage. people sat down on the floor around me between songs.

they played one song… and then a sponsor commercial plays, then a short cnn documentary for mtv portraying the tsunami disaster comes on while the next band sets up. then another artist comes to sing another song. and thus begins the cycle of bore.

the most awful part was when they were showing this montage of deaths and coffins and cemetary site, taiwan senssation jay chou’s piano was being wheeled out. and every brainless girl nearby starting screaming for jay chou. yeah. while they were showing dead bodies and orphans and cemetaries on the screen.

sick.

the show was a dissapointment in my view. i couldn’t tell what the hell mtv was thinking. yes. raise funds. but they weren’t selling any tickets. i thought about the sponsors probably covered all the expenses already, and they just wanted to make money off the 5 baht sms’s. but that doesn’t make any sense. and to the fucking brainless idiots screaming for popstar x and popstar y while the fucking unicef person was talking and giving information on how to donate and shit… i hope you trip on your shoelaces.

i understand it’s a concert. and i don’t mean to sound righteous. but there is such a thing as manners and appropriateness.

i don’t know. groupies at benefit concerts just isn’t my cup of tea.

i can’t say that this would be the last mtv event i’m gonna go to. it probably isn’t. but i feel so sorry for the little suckers that were running around the last minute in vain trying to get a ticket to the show.

bleh!

It came as a pleasant surprise that a producer for the Pacific Time radio segment at KQED, the San Francisco affiliate of National Public Radio, has been following my blog for a while, and even more of a surprise when she requested a phone interview regarding relief efforts in Phuket. I’m not much of a media hound, but given the enormous respect I have for both NPR and KQED, I couldn’t refuse.

KQED posted 2 media clips of the interview on their website (click here), a shorter segment that aired last week (halfway down the page), and a longer file that looks like everything I said on the phone (near the bottom). They pretty much strung together all my answers to their questions into a continuous clip without including the actual interview questions, so it may be a bit hard to follow in some places.