The BBC's coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami been better (and possibily more thorough) than any of the news sources I've read. Their coverage has been filled with great photographs, videos, helpful maps, etc. And this link is no exception.
No, I don't get paid by BBC News. :-)
Link to the most recent photos, videos and coverage from BBC News.
Over the past ten days I have conducted a very unscientific poll (Read: asking questions of friends and acquaintances over a cuppa joe) to uncover how they are responding to the catastrophe in Asia. Though the mere mention of the tsunami elicits a pained expression for nearly everyone, a sizeable cut of the "poll" subjects have yet to send in donations for emergency relief.
Two concerns pop up consistently among those who have not yet acted. There is widespread concern that the funds one donates will not reach the actual victims, and will get lost in an administrative black hole. That's not an irrational fear. The same malfeasance that took root in the corporate world found its niche in several large aid and relief agencies. Who wasn't shocked by the revelations that leaked out of the Red Cross over the past couple of years? The Red Cross, of course, has done considerable work since to fix what was broken.
The other concern among reluctant donors is how "effective" their gift will be. Donors have a heightened interest these days in making sure that they are part of fixing problems. That makes raising funds for disaster relief exceptionally difficult.
Indeed, the goal is to work toward solutions. In the wake of a disaster like what took place in Asia the final week of 2004, however, development and aid works most "effectively" when it makes a priority of the needs and delivers material assistance with a long-term vision in mind. In times of crisis, the most credible relief organizations are those that already were on the ground in affected communities before the disaster struck.
A smart (and compassionate) aid agency will respond to a crisis with three key phases. The first phase is emergency relief. People have lost their homes, their livelihood, and are on the edge of survival. Immediate food and medical supplies are critical.
The second phase is reconstruction. A good deal of the critical infrastructure in the affected areas of Asia were wiped out. In order to alleviate the demand for emergency aid, reconstruction efforts are primary. A good relief organization will know which systems - sewage, water, housing, food sources - must be replaced, and in what order of priority.
The third phase is sustainable development. Here is where the credible development organization offers a plan for community education, nutrition, health care, appropriate technology, microenterprise, et al.
In consideration of the above, Sojourners is partnering with two faith-based relief organizations to deliver assistance to the victims of the tsunami in Asia: Jesuit Refugee Service and World Vision.
Long before this tragedy, both organizations had a strong presence in Sri Lanka and Indonesia among the poorest of the poor. Jesuit Refugee Service, for instance, had established strong, viable projects among displaced communities in these respective regions. They are now in "phase 1" of their relief efforts, delivering "emergency relief kits." And long after the media coverage is gone, Jesuit Refugee Service will be seeding sustainable development projects. Remarkably, 100% of your donations will reach the victims in Asia. In other words, no agency costs will be deducted.
World Vision has long had a presence in Asia as well with 3,700 staff, most of them members of local communities. They are now leading relief efforts, such as establishing 20 children's centers in Indonesia with special tents where traumatized children can receive physical and psychological support. Meanwhile, relief supplies - tarpaulins, sarongs, kitchen utensils, buckets, and other necessities - are heading toward the devastated province of Aceh in two cargo ships supplied by World Vision.
World Vision has worked out the amount of money needed to supply a single family a "survival" kit, containing things like blankets, water purification tablets, and tarps for temporary shelter: A gift of $100 provides an entire family with the basics of survival. In the spirit of full disclosure, 87% of a gift to World Vision reaches a family in need. Frankly, that relatively low "administrative cost" helps pay for the infrastructure for World Vision to deliver enormous quantities of aid in quick fashion.
Sojourners urges you to give generously to Jesuit Refugee Service and World Vision. These faith-based organizations have become our hands to deliver the compassion that we all feel toward the homeless and hungry in Asia at this moment.
David Batstone, Executive Editor of Sojourners, worked in economic aid and development in Latin America for over twelve years.
Source: SOJOmail (the on-line newsletter of Sojourners)
NOTE: I received an e-mail from World Vision today. It included this appeal and this video. Check out this slideshow too!
Tsumani update: People are uploading photographs of missing friends & family on FlickR.com. Oh my. We can only pray that people like Craig & Julie will be found. And to your families: Please be assured of our concern & prayers!
Photo credit: Lookingforcraigandjulie (via)
Respected author & theologian, Tom Wright, speaks out on the tsunami:
Does God have a responsibility to stop earthquakes and tidal waves? The story of Jesus raises much subtler questions.
The ancient Jewish writers saw the sea as evil. It floods and destroys the world. It stands between the Israelites and freedom. It rages horribly; monsters come out of it. There is a hint that God had to overcome the dark primal waters in order to create the world in the first place.
Ancient symbols spring into unwelcome new life. The murderous mountain of water that charged across the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day rivals the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 in its deadly power. Lisbon caused a sea-change in the Enlightenment itself: before it, Bishop Butler could gaze at the natural world and infer Christian theology, but Lisbon drove a wedge between God and the world, giving fresh impetus to the idea of God as an absentee landlord and then, not long after, a mere absentee. Since then, it has been assumed that "God" has a responsibility to stop things like earthquakes and tidal waves; if He doesn't, they constitute a standing disproof. What's the point in saying "The heavens declare the glory of God", if tidal waves declare His incompetence? Western culture hasn't advanced much beyond that sterile stand-off. This week's horror won't change it any more than did the man-made nightmare of 11 September 2001.
People today assume that a "religious" view of life must address "the problem of evil", the toughest part of which is so-called "natural evil". Evil isn't as bad as it seems, say some; or it's all someone's fault (or, with natural evil, Satan's fault); or it offers a chance for greater moral virtue (courage, and so on). One major tsunami does to theories like that what it does to buildings and people: it crushes them to matchwood.
In a culture heavily influenced by Judaism and Christianity, one might have hoped that the Bible would play a part in the discussion. People seem to assume that it's irrelevant. The general view is that the Bible offers an escape from the world into a personal religion. But that view is itself the result of the Enlightenment's reductionism.
The Bible itself resists such treatment. It constantly acknowledges evil - "human" and "natural" alike - as a terrible reality. It doesn't try to minimise it, to explain that good will come of it, or to blame someone (reactions which correspond uncomfortably closely to the excuses offered by immoral or warmongering politicians). It tells a story about the Creator's plan to put the world to rights, a plan which involves a people who are themselves part of the problem as well as the bearers of the solution.
That people, the family of Israel, are brought through the sea to the promised land, despite grumbling on the way. Through long years of Babylonian exile, they cry out for a new Exodus, for their God again to overrule the mighty waters from which came the monsters of pagan empire. This is the people whose prophets tell of God's intention to deal with evil itself, so that the wolf and the lamb would lie down together, and the earth be awash with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The healing of creation will result from the Servant of the Lord going down to the depths, taking evil's weight on to himself, exhausting its power.
When the early Christians wrote about Jesus, this was the story they believed themselves to be telling. They didn't see him as simply a teacher, a moral example, or even as one who saved people from a doomed world. They told his story as the point where the dark forces of chaos converged, in the cynical politics of Herod and Pilate, the bitter fanaticism of the Pharisees, the wild shrieks of diseased souls, the sudden storms on the lake. They invite us to see his death on the analogy of Jonah's being thrown into the sea, there to be swallowed by the monster called Death. They insist that in this death God has taken upon Himself the full force of the world's evil. As a sign of that, the final book of the Bible declares that in the new world, now already begun with his resurrection, there will be no more sea.
Saying this precisely does not give Christian theology an easy explanation ("Oh, that's all right then") for the continuing presence of evil in the world. On the contrary, it tells a story about Jesus's own sense of abandonment, and thereby encourages us to embrace the same sense of helpless involvement in the sorrow of the world, as the means by which the world is to be healed. Those who work for justice, reconciliation and peace will know that sense, and perhaps, occasionally, that healing (emphases mine).
This isn't the kind of answer that the Enlightenment wanted. But maybe, as we launch into the deep waters of another new year, it is the kind of vocation we ought to embrace in place of shallow analysis and shrill reaction.
Tom Wright is the Bishop of Durham
On-line link to the actual article
Photo credit: Dey
From Your Daily Dig:
We do not need to weep for those who have died. We need to weep and pray and take action for all those who remain alive, for the millions who are suffering hunger and thirst, and facing diseases such as cholera and malaria. And meanwhile, we ought to ask ourselves how much time we are still spending considering the meaning of this incomprehensible disaster.
Only a week has gone by. But how many of us have already returned to petty pursuits like hunting for post-Christmas bargains at the mall? Even on the news, this event is beginning to fade - it’s back to Janet Jackson. We care so little about the rest of the human race. Nothing matters as long as it isn't us. Yet it could be us next time; it is an eleventh-hour warning. How many of us take that to heart?
Sobering, gut-wrenching photos of the aftermath. Click here.
I ran across this prayer & will be using it tomorrow during worship:
How, O God, can we joyously greet a new year
When thousands of Asians lie dead on the shores?
How can we sing songs?
The earth shakes, and the tides roar, and children
Vanish from their mothers’ arms to perish in the deep.
How can we rejoice?
Homes and hearths are gone from Thailand to Africa.
Sumatra and Sri Lanka are islands of death.
How can we be happy?
Parents in India wail for their little ones;
Little ones in Malaysia search for their parents.
How can we eat and drink?
A generation of Indonesians vanishes in a flash;
We are numb with disbelief and agony,
How can we dance?
We cannot go on, O God, except for our trust in You.
The pain is too great, the tears too heavy,
We cannot go on,
Unless we hold fast to your love and find hope
In Your promises of eternal care and consolation;
Unless we anchor ourselves in the strength of faith.
The pain is too great, the tears too heavy,
Unless in faith we respond with love and care,
To the fathers who have lost their daughters,
And the sons who have lost their mothers.
How, O God, can we not greet a new year with
Thanksgiving and wonder at your steadfast love?
Even in times of bewilderment and terror
You go with us up the mountains and into the sea.
Without You, O God, we are nothing but tumbling
Stones upon the sand.
With You, O God, we find purpose in life and in death,
And greet tomorrow, greet another new year,
Confident in You through our tears and pain.
You alone, O God, are a sure foundation.
R. Randy Day
General Secretary
General Board of Global Ministries
The United Methodist Church
Link to the on-line version.
A number of countries, agencies, companies and individuals are providing unprecedented humanitarian relief for the tsunami/earthquake-stricken countries in Asia. As you consider how you might help, don’t overlook long-term care. Groups like Heifer International provide such care. Here's how they decribe themselves.
Heifer International does so much more than put food in the mouths of hungry people. Heifer helps people feed themselves.
The goal of every Heifer project is sustainability – project partners achieving self-reliance.
And year after year, as partner families "pass on the gift" of knowledge and one or more of their animals’ offspring to others in need, they become links in a network of hope, dignity and self-reliance that helps hundreds of others care for themselves (more....)
Consider opening your heart & checkbook to help.
As we usher in the new year tonight, people are asking whether we should we pray or party? Hmmm. Maybe there's a respectul way to do both!
Have a safe, fun New Year!
These words caught my attention on the USGS Earthquake Hazards web site:
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is responsible for tsunami monitoring in the Pacific Basin. Their website is at http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/. Tragically, no such system exists for the Bay of Bengal where the recent disaster occurred.
No warning system in the Indian Ocean? You've got to be kidding!
Link to NOAA site, click here.
CNET article, click here.
USGS comment on this matter, click here.
DigitalGlobe has some remarkable satellite photographs of the tsunami devastation. Click here for the entire media gallery.
Photo description (by DigitalGlobe): This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact.
Photo credit: DigitalGlobe.com
Added 1/7/05: Satellite photos have been synced to provide great before & after looks at the devistation.
In previous years, our youth have participated in Word Vision's 30 Hour Famine and have sponsored children through their sponsorship program.
Here is the message Richard Stearns, World Vision President, is sending to churches around the country:
THE WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN RECENT HISTORY:
VICTIMS NEED YOUR PRAYERS AND HELP
As I write this, news reports are saying the death toll may reach over 100,000. You may not have read that a great proportion of those victims are children. It's truly heart-breaking.
The number of dead will continue to rise unless we take immediate steps to help.
The first step is to pray. The place hit hardest is Sri Lanka. Then India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and Myanmar. Bangladesh has reported deaths as well. And even Somalia, in Africa -- 3,000 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake that caused the tsunami -- is reporting that entire villages were washed away and people have been left homeless.
When you pray for these countries, please remember the many relief workers and our World Vision staff working around the clock. Ask that God provide them with the compassion of Christ and the energy they need to confront the enormous need.
Our staff reported that beaches are littered with bodies. Water supplies are already contaminated. Thousands more could die in the coming days and weeks from typhoid, cholera and hepatitis epidemics.
If you can, dedicate time at a prayer meeting or during services this Sunday, January 2, to praying for those who have been hit by this incredible disaster (emphasis mine).
The next step is to give. I'm asking you to bring this need to your congregation this coming Sunday and take a special offering on behalf of the World Vision emergency tsunami relief effort.
We are ready to step in and help as many people as possible with our Family Survival Kits. Each Kit costs $100 and includes items such as blankets, tarps for temporary shelter, water purification tablets and cooking supplies. Medical supplies and food will also be distributed as needed...
I'm grateful for everything you do on behalf of the victims of this terrible disaster.
I want to thank you, too, for what you do for the poorest in the world in the name of our Savior."
An update of World Vision activity, click here.
BBC News is currently reporting the tsunami death toll might exceed 100,000. Rather than talking about the sadness and devastation, a heartfelt prayer seems more appropriate:
O God, we acknowledge that violence and cruelty, and the taking of innocent lives have no part with you. Because you are the God of love and peace.
We lift our hearts and prayers to you for the devastated countries in Asia and all whose lives have been changed unalterably by the natural disaster in the Indian Ocean.
Give strength, wisdom, and direction to the respective governments and local officials as they address the magnitude of this tragedy.
For the families and friends of the injured and those who have died, uphold and sustain them with your grace.
For all emergency personnel, humanitarian relief agencies and all others responding to this disaster: protect them; give them strength, courage and sound judgment.
And give wisdom to us all at this time of confusion, perplexity, and pain.
Keep us from becoming hard-hearted, unconcerned or oblivious to the needs of others. And help us to find practical ways to help rebuild stability and hope in affected countries and lives--to shine bright with your love.
Restore tranquility, peace, and soundness throughout our world. We ask this through Jesus, the Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen
Source: An adaptation of Prayers at a Time of National Disaster.
Added 1/6/05: Have you seen the other prayer listed on this web site? Be sure to visit this link too.
Photo credit: therev1969
The death toll has reached 68,000 and Wikipedia (see link below) predicts 90,000+ will be the ultimate number. When a tragedy of this magnitude occurs, difficult questions are not uncommon:
But what about questions like these:
If you haven't read Weatherhead's book, it's a good starting point.
Wikipedia is reporting staggering numbers--52,000 reported dead; 80,000 missing. And they're estimating the eventual death toll to fall between 56,000 and 62,000.
Link to ABC article.
Link to UMCOR relief efforts.
UMCOR's appeal, click here.
UN's (operating under ReliefWeb) most recent request, click here.
Photo: Villagers in the ruins of Lodai, one of the nearest communities to the epicenter of the Gujarat earthquake. Twenty-two people died when the whole village was destroyed. The villagers have been left with nothing.
Photo credit: Christian Aid/ Dominic Nutt 2001
