I wish each and every person visiting my blog a happy, healthy and peaceful 2005. That said, let’s not pretend that this is like any other New Year’s Day. In the last seven days, those usually quiet, restful days between Christmas and the New Year, 150,000 people fellow human beings have died with millions more injured, homeless and dispossessed.
As we celebrate the coming of a new year, let’s take a moment to reflect upon those less fortunate than ourselves, particularly those in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and other islands so awfully affected by the Asian tsunami earthquake. Please consider making a donation to assist those affected. Whilst it was announced yesterday that, in the last three days, the British public have donated over £50,000,000 to aid those affected by the Asian tsunami earthquake, this is probably not even 1% of what will be required in the long run. Elsewhere in Europe, governments and individuals are giving in a similar fashion. For a ‘local’ take on North American donating, you might try Matthew Good’s piece.
Though there are myriad ways to donate at banks and stores, below are ways to donate now and two way to help emerging economies and poorer nations long term:
MAKE AN IMMEDIATE DONATION
via Bloggers without Borders – a project/mission conceived by Metblogs’ Sean Bonner and launched ahead of schedule in response to the Asian tsunami earthquake. “Bloggers without Borders is dedicated to raising awareness for charities and charitable events around the world. We use the tools and exposure of modern citizen journalism as a means to lend a hand in the solicitation of donations and outbound information management.†Jonas Luster posted yesterday to answer some questions about the project.
via The Guardian’s Charity Christmas Appeal
via amazon.co.uk’s British Red Cross Disaster Relief page
ABOLISH THIRD WORLD DEBT
The UK in the guise of Prime Minister, Tony Blair, assumes the Presidency of the G8 today, 1 January 2005 and it’s annual Summit will be taking place in Scotland from 6-8 July. Tony Blair’s is on record as saying “I really want to focus on the challenges of Africa and climate change during our Presidency”. Billions of people living in the world’s poorest countries are effectively imprisoned by debts that they nor their governments can ever repay. Year in, year out, those governments struggle to pay back millions of pounds and dollars with almost no chance of ever clearing their debts. The fact that these debts could be cancelled without impacting the world economy makes this state of affairs even more unfair and punitive. Debtlinks.org carries links to scores of projects and sites worldwide that are working towards the abolition of third world debt or simply check out “third world debt†on Google to make yourself better informed.
BANK WITH COMPASSION & CONSCIENCE
Move your current & savings accounts, your pensions and your investment to a banking or financial organisation that has a provable track record in ethical investment and money management. In the UK, The Co-operative Bank leads the way by providing competitive banking services whilst maintaining clear ethical policies, promoting trade justice and a whole host of other campaigns.
Once again, I hope that 2005 provides each of you with what you hope for and, just as importantly, that as a global community we really focus on what people need, rather than simply what we want.
An earlier version of this post was posted to london.metblogs.com and bloggers without borders.