terabient | Stop sucking

Hey humanity, it's not that hard to act appropriately in the aftermath of a horrific natural disaster.

-Give what you can, when you can.
-If someone can't or won't give, ffs don't get all high and mighty and try to shame them into doing something. Giving aid is a wonderful act and one that is desperately needed, but even so - no one is obligated to do anything. Do not assume a person is in a position to give more than they have, or give at all. Ask, encourage, but do not judge.
-If you are one of those people who feel the need to dismiss the entirety of the quake/tsunami disaster because you don't know any Japanese personally/hate anime/j-pop/games/whatever - you are a gigantic gaping asshole. This is non-negotiable. You are a hateful creature whose opinion merits no serious consideration whatsoever.
-If you are one of those people who have decided this tragedy is a great plot device for your slash j-pop fic, you are going to the Special Hell. Yes - the one with the child molesters and the people who talk during movies.

Seriously, people. Do good when you can. Move along quietly if you can't. IS IT THAT HARD TO BE DECENT.

Current Mood: pessimistic
Current Music: Janelle Monae - Locked Inside

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I have experienced so many silent fits of screaming rage and some actual very near-screaming fits of rage since Friday that I'm getting to the point that I knock people off my contacts for being assholes once.

If you are one of those people who have decided this tragedy is a great plot device for your slash j-pop fic

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AUGHGHGHHGHGHHHHHDGKIDSAHGLKAHAHHHALKDSHGA

For the record, my ranting about the general fail of fundraising for relief efforts is more total fucking disdain for the larger philanthropic pools from corporations and other organizations. Aflac insures most of Japan and still didn't pledge any real cash until after Gilbert Gottfried made those horrible, horrible "jokes" on his Twitter. It's been like that across the board. $100+ million doesn't come strictly from small-scale donations in four days, obviously, but that's what other disasters have managed in the same time that Japan got $12 million. This may well be the worst natural disaster in modern history and too much of the world is fucking around just because it's Japan and not someplace recognizably needy. Knowing what I do about philanthropic efforts in America, seeing as every single Christmas present I received as a child was basically paid for by donations, government and corporate grants, and organizational sponsorships, the neglect makes me rage. There's a lot of money out there, even in a downturn, and WHERE THE FUCK IS IT NOW.

And I'm going to slap the next person in the mouth who says that they don't want to line bureaucratic coffers. These organizations are the best that humanity has to offer in so many ways, completely independent of federal funding and operating as wholly donation-funded private nonprofit entities. That I will absolutely judge people for -- being able to help but instead busying themselves with blanket statements of bullshit and unfounded suspicions, rather than figuring out through the boundless resources available how these things work and lending aid where it would do the most good. I've seen so much eyerolling over the text donations to the Red Cross, not because of the small amount but because it's to the Red Cross, that it blows my fucking mind. Lately there seem to be as many people around who can and even want to donate decent amounts of money, but treat the whole thing like snobbish hipster bitches looking for something less mainstream than the Red Cross or any other large organization, as there are people bitching about Pearl fucking Harbor.

Oh! Oh! And you know who's obligated to give?! Every single one of the sparkling bright-white overprivileged churches I have set foot in in my life. EVERY ONE. They suck up tithes like Biblemonsters and vomit them out in the form of renovations and overpriced youth activities. They poured money into all the glamorous disasters befalling people they could recognize from the weepy sponsorship ads their people produce, as they should have, but now? Only the more "liberal" churches are giving. Apparently Jesus only cares about the naked and hungry if it's their default state. Weird, mostly non-Christian foreigners who live lives that look a lot like our own but wear crosses with as much knowledge and sincerity of a Gen-Xer with a Yin & Yang tattoo aren't really on the radar. alksjdglkasbdkjyrblarewk

This! It reminds me of the Haiti last year, so many churches - and I mean mainly independent sects - sending aid to those poor folks and using it as cover for their missions. They're not interested in giving aid if it doesn't produce converts and they'd have a very hard time in Japan trying.

What gets me even more is that just yesterday I read an article on the BBC website where a cardinal was bemoaning that 75% of religious persecution around the world was against christians, and had the temerity to accuse UK foreign aid policy as anti-christian. Considering this 75% figure was produced by an organisation which is part of the catholic church, you'll excuse me while I accuse the catholic church of extreme bias. I imagine that an awful lot of this persecution is actually christianity losing it's privileged status as the state religion in a lot of countries and suddenly discovering that it's now on a level with all the others.

i do think part of the reason large-scale donations have been lagging so badly is due to the lack of established aid channels - Haiti, for example, has been the recipient of international and private aid for years, and that kind of 'giving' is less selfless donating as it is a business transaction - organizations gave because they could keep tabs on their 'aid' and would, in some way, see a return on it. I would not be at all surprised to find that organizations/countries are wary of giving money because there isn't the 'guarantee' of certain outcomes that they can demand from countries like Haiti.

And yeah, you can never discount religious and racial bigotry as a major factor when it comes to giving help.

sometimes it is very hard to have faith in the world ._.

when i wrote this i was really sad over comments/posts that were making fun of communities like

help_japan - it's just incredibly mean-spirited and unnecessary to snark at people who are too young or too financially strapped to give their own money and resort to offering their creative services to encourage others to donate. It may not amount to much or even anything, but they are trying to do the best they can, and the people who dismiss that energy as useless reek of entitlement - being able to make a sizable donation to any cause is a luxury not everyone can afford. :/

I've seen this a few times on the interwebz, auctioning off fic or fanart with the proceeds going to the disaster area, and quite honestly I think that's a lovely idea. How different is that from Children in Need or Comic Relief? Just because it's done by ordinary people and not celebrities? Anyone denigrating such efforts need a clip round the earhole and a good telling off.

I completely agreed with all of your above points by the way, just got distracted by snapcakes rant and was reminded of my utter disgust at that article I read yesterday. Granted there are countries where christians are in the minority and some do suffer for it in terrible ways, but 75%? Apart from sounding patently ridiculous to then wail that foreign aid is anti-christian when we're currently in the process of helping a non-christian country...well!

This is perfect:
-Give what you can, when you can.
-If someone can't or won't give, ffs don't get all high and mighty and try to shame them into doing something. Giving aid is a wonderful act and one that is desperately needed, but even so - no one is obligated to do anything. Do not assume a person is in a position to give more than they have, or give at all. Ask, encourage, but do not judge.

Every little contribution should be welcomed no matter how small for that 'small' might be a chunk of someone's weekly shop for all you know. And some folks can't even afford to give that, and for them charity really begin at home.

I agree with Snapcake's rant on philanphropic organisations being snubbed because they are seen as too big, I donated monthly to Red Cross and others before finances dictated that my charity had to begin at home. However, I have to admit to some distrust of the huge charities - and it's the reason why neither I or my husband donate to Comic Relief or Children in Need, you really really cannot account for what has happened to your donation. Some folks are content to just give to assuage their need to 'do something' and don't really thing about it after, and that's fine because it's just as important to pay for the admin and travel as it is for the aid. It's when it gets lost in the system or is channeled into places where it shouldn't be, and for large aid efforts that is a big possibility. So I would prefer to donate locally where I can.