NevOn

BlogAid wrap up for tsunami aid

At the beginning of January, I made a pledge via BlogAid that I'd donate any earnings from this blog that I make in January from my Amazon Associates membership to the Dutch Red Cross tsunami relief programme.

A notice yesterday on the BlogAid website says:

BlogAid is now over so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who offered to donate their blog earning from January to help the Tsunami relief efforts. We've had 225 people pledge their support and so far these people have donated $6922.58 in advertising and affiliate earnings to a charity of their choice.

It's too early to tell yet what any earnings from my blog might be as I've not yet had the Jan statement from Amazon. But if it's like the last few months, I'd expect it to be in the cents range as opposed to dollars.

I've already donated $20 to the International Red Cross. So I've donated another $10 to the Dutch relief programme as meeting my BlogAid pledge.

Andy Budd, the man behind BlogAid, deserves a lot of thanks for organizing this grassroots support campaign.

Tsunami help wiki for broadcasters launched

Launched yesterday - Broadcasters-Tsunamihelp, a new wiki-based portal that aims to ensure there is coordination between broadcasters and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster:

This site attempts to get an overview of how various organisations around the world have reacted to help broadcasters affected by the December 26th Earthquake and Tsunami. There is the immediate need to replace stations put off the air. But also longer term thinking about the role of broadcasters in times of natural disaster.

The authors believe by sharing this information on a portal, that broadcasters will be stimulated to coordinate their efforts.

Fellow Netherlands-based business blogger Jonathan Marks is the architect behind the portal, with tech setup by Ton Zijlstra. It's part of a much larger global public (non-profit) effort to ensure better communications between NGOs, governments and, now, broadcasters. It's already generating a lot of traffic, Jonathan says.

The larger global effort Jonathan mentions is the Indian Ocean Disaster Relief Portal, a wiki maintained by the creators of The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog.

This is a great initiative at a time when news and information outside the affected tsunami disaster area is beginning to disappear from the front pages. It's also another great example of a key role new communication tools like wikis (and blogs) can play in helping maintain channels of communication - as well as help others maintain their channels of communication - in times of tragedy.

Related NevOn post:

• A catalyst for the future of blogs

Watch out for tsunami relief email scams

The millions of dollars donated by individuals to relief efforts in Southeast Asia have brought criminals and scammers out of the woodwork, US government agencies and private anti-fraud groups warned last week, Internetworld.com reported.

Internetworld quotes Jim Lanford, the co-editor of ScamBusters.org in an online alert, saying, "Within hours of the earthquake and tsunami, scams began appearing online and offline. We're not surprised by these scams. The same thing happened right after 9/11, and after every major natural disaster since then."

Ploys include e-mails purporting to include photos or video of the disaster and its aftermath; such attachments can, in fact, be worm and/or virus payloads, the FBI warned.

Among the ways scammers are using the disaster, said Finnish security firm F-Secure, is to twist the typical "Nigerian" banking scheme with fresh and topical details from the affected countries.

Internetworld.com | Groups Warn Of Tsunami Scams

The best advice - don't click on anything in an email. Instead, go directly to the website of one of the aid/relief organizations. Both the BBC and CNN, for example, have lists of such places on their news sites:

• BBC News | Asian disaster: How to help
• CNN | Aid groups accepting donations for victims

The agony for Sweden continues

While pledges for financial aid continue to mount in the aftermath of the Asian earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago, the nightmare continues for millions of people in South Asia whose lives have been destroyed by this tragedy.

The same is true in a wholly different way for the families of the thousands of foreign visitors who are missing. I wrote a few days ago about there being an estimated 10,000 tourists still missing in the region. It's almost unimaginable that this horror appears to be without any end in sight.

For the UK, the number of missing has now more than doubled, from nearly 200 to over 440.

But Sweden is the country outside the disaster region that's enduring the most suffering right now, as well as undergoing much soul-searching in social attitudes - and considerable anger towards the government for how it's dealing with this crisis.

From a report in yesterday's Daily Telegraph:

While 52 Swedes are confirmed dead, around 2,000 - among them leading businessmen, politicians and sports stars - remain missing or unaccounted for. This would be a huge blow to any nation, but particularly to this tight-knit family of just nine million. The scale of its loss would be equivalent to Britain losing 12,600 of its citizens.

At first, even the government did not want to face up to the awful truth, taking almost 48 hours to react to reports that the Swedish toll was heavy. Now it has angered a normally reticent, placid people by refusing to publish a list of the missing in order to "protect our citizens".

Telegraph | News | Complacency of the Swedes drains away as death toll keeps rising (registration required)

Related NevOn posts:

• Holland gives for tsunami relief
• Blogs can help keep the awareness alive

Holland gives for tsunami relief

News about fundraising efforts for victims of the the tsunami disaster tends to be focused on what's happening in countries like the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, the EU as a whole, etc.

Donations have been pouring in from governments and individuals - the UN says it has received up to $4 billion in pledges so far. The BBC has details of who's giving what.

Well, here in The Netherlands, people throughout the country have been selflessly giving on a very large scale, according to a report today on Radio Nederland:

A national fund-raising drive for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami has collected a record 112 million euros - nearly ten euros per inhabitant, including children.

The funds raised do not include 25 million euros the Dutch government pledged at Thursday's donor conference in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

The funds raised by individuals and companies will go to relief operations being carried out by nine aid organisations working in South East Asia.

The drive, which culminated yesterday with a day-long media event, sets a new Dutch record. It far exceeds the 50 million euros raised in the late 1990s for Kosovo, or the 30 million collected in the 1980s to combat famine in Africa.

Related NevOn posts:

• Bloggers without borders
• BlogAid pledge to support the Asia disaster
• Companies pledge aid as death toll rises
• Tsunami help campaign

A catalyst for the future of blogs

A very good analysis in the Guardian newsblog on the role blogs have played in the Asia tsunami disaster and the long-term catalyzing effect this will have on the significance of blogs in the future:

The tsunami may have a profound effect on blogs. These self-published sites have played a huge role in the telling of the horror that struck – and continues to strike – south-east Asia, and it seems inevitable the impact of their role will reverberate on long after the disaster, and subsequent relief effort, have faded from our newspapers and TV screens.

[…] For the first time, powerful coverage of a huge news event was not brought to you purely by established media. An army of "citizen journalists" played a new role, perhaps all the more vital considering the effect vivid reportage, online and off, has had on the subsequent fundraising efforts.

[…] It would be obscene to remember this tsunami as anything other than a huge natural disaster, a human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. But for those watching this small, comparatively insignificant world of media, this may also be remembered as a time when citizen reporting, through the force of its huge army of volunteers and their simple type and publish weblog mechanisms, finally found its voice, and delivered in a way the established media simply could not.

Guardian Unlimited | Newsblog | Blogs' new place at the media table

Seeing blogs as part of the new media landscape is also a complementary view to that Shel and I discussed in our podcast on Monday – how this awful tragedy may be seen in the coming months as a catalyst for the ‘globalization’ of blogs – connectivity and linking in far more meaningful ways.

10,000 tourists still missing

Ten days after the Indian Ocean tsunami, Western governments are still struggling to produce precise figures for their missing citizens, BBC News reported today.

The death toll among foreigners currently stands at 396, the BBC said, with about 10,000 tourists missing or feared dead. Germans account for the highest number of victims among tourists so far, with 60 confirmed deaths. In Thailand, half of the more than 5,200 people known to have died in the country were foreigners.

The tsunami is believed to have killed tourists from at least 45 countries. The BBC report includes a tally of some of the numbers so far:

• Germany - More than 1,000 still missing. About 7,000 Germans have returned home from affected areas.
• Sweden - The first six bodies arrived by plane on Wednesday morning. Official figure for tsunami victims currently stands at 52, but 1,900 more are unaccounted for. Prime Minister Goeran Persson has warned that Sweden's death toll could exceed 1,000.
• UK - 41 people have been confirmed dead, but the Foreign Office acknowledged that some 199 UK citizens were "highly likely" to have perished.
• Switzerland - One of the few countries whose figures have been revised upwards: 23 victims have been identified and about 100 are presumed dead. In addition, there's no news about a further 400 people.
• Japan - 23 are reported dead and more than 240 missing.
• France - So far, 22 bodies identified, while some 100 are reported missing and up to 600 are still unaccounted for.
• Italy - 20 dead, while the number of missing people has been revised down and stands at 436.
• Norway - 16 are confirmed dead, while the figure for the missing has been revised down to 81.
• Australia - 15 believed to have died, although the government said DNA testing was necessary to confirm the figure. About 560 others travelling to the region have not been heard from.

BBC News | Asia Pacific | Thousands of tourists feared dead

Update - additional info: A separate BBC News story today reported that thousands of US citizens are also missing:

Several thousand US citizens are still unaccounted for in Thailand and Sri Lanka after the tsunami which killed more than 120,000 people.

At least 14 US citizens have been confirmed as dead, state department spokesman Richard Boucher said. He added that 600 people initially listed as missing were later found but others had been reported as missing.

Canada said four of its nationals were confirmed dead while nearly 90 were missing and unaccounted for.

BBC News | Americas | Thousands of US citizens missing

The comforting hand of a loved one

Marketing blogger (and fellow IABC member) Angelo Fernando has converted his blog, Hoi Polloi, into a resource for focusing and helping relief efforts from Arizona, where Angelo lives, to Sri Lanka following last week's tsunami disaster in south Asia:

I began this blog, Hoi Polloi, as a MarCom and PR exercise nearly 8 months ago. I write for 2 magazines here in the U.S. and have been writing for LMD for the past 10 years, so it was a useful way to connect with my readers.

The tsunami of December 26th changed all that. It suddenly became not so important to cover topics such as Wi-Fi, and viral marketing, when tens of thousands of people in some eleven countries are dead, injured, orphaned and have lost everything they had, with no hope for the future. Their needs are fresh water, medicines, and a comforting hand of a loved one --not the latest mega-pixel camera, or that 40-gig iPod.

Such a tremendous commitment.

Bloggers without borders

Via Loic le Meur, I've just seen Bloggers without Borders, launched last week:

Bloggers without Borders is a citizen journalism hub, dedictated to raising conscience for, and about, events around the world. We use the tools and exposure of modern citizen journalism as a means to lend a hand in the creation of awareness and outbound information management.

Here’s who’s behind it:

BwoB was born in October 2004 as an idea by Sean Bonner. Sean quickly brought Jonas Luster, Xeni Jardin, and Wil Wheaton on board, and for the following weeks, Jonas worked on the technical side of things. When Sri Lanka and the South East Asian region fell victim to a 9.0 earthquake and the resulting tsunami, we knew we had to bring online what we had. This is, where BwoB is today. We continue to add features, and will introduce a few great ones in short order, but for the time being, it’s a weblog, a forum, and a means to communicate and coordinate.

Great initiative!

BlogAid pledge to support the Asia disaster

UK blogger Andy Budd has come up with an outstanding initiative to focus the support of bloggers in a very tangible way on the Asia earthquake/tsunamis disaster.

Andy has started BlogAid, bascially a pledge service - you go to the BlogAid site and publicly make a commitment:

Help support the Tsunami and Earthquake relief efforts by pledging the proceeds of any advertising or affiliate schemes you have on your site for the month of January to your country’s Tsunami Earthquake appeal.

This is just the type of thing I had in mind in how blogs can help keep the awareness alive which I posted about yesterday - but in a way that also helps with real contributions.

So I'm very happy to make the commitment that any earnings I make from my Amazon Associates affiliate scheme will go to this cause. As I'm in The Netherlands, that means to the appeal launched by the Dutch Red Cross (info in Dutch).

Thanks to Octavio Rojas for news about BlogAid.