Japan Earthquake Options

[Pikasyuu]

Hi!
As you may know, Oni_Usagi and I are your personal Matazone Japan ambassadors, komusume kirai. Anyway, as you also may know, an 8.9 earthquake hit Japan late last night (PST, anyway) and was so far the largest quake to hit such a populated area. There have been warnings issued for basically every single island in the pacific and most island countries are either experiencing outages or are down completely. The death toll so far is thankfully low, around 200 last I heard, but there was so much devastation that we wont know exactly what the number is for a very long time.

I understand many of you consider yourselves unique and so naturally recoil at the sight or sound of Lady Gaga because you're really totally edgy like that, but please put that aside for now if you'd like to donate - hers is the first relief fund I've seen or heard of so far today.

http://ladygaga.shop.bravadousa.com/Produc...amp;pc=BGAMLG88

Their severs seem to be slammed right now, which is awesome, but please try and give some money to the efforts. These people have lost things that most of us take for granted every single day, and enough to buy some breakfast and a coffee doesn't seem like very much to give up to help them out.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Or if you don't want a lame wristband:

http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make...-Tsunami-Appeal

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/201...ami-how-to-help

[Pikasyuu]

If you care about the wristband at all, whether it's good or bad, I seriously suggest you go look at some of the Sendai footage and re-evaluate your priorities asap.

[Mata]

Crazy was just saying that there are other ways of donating that don't have a wristband associated with them - I'm fine with using the Red Cross site myself. They have a strong history of getting well organised help to people in need.

(Oh, and I deleted a signature spammer too. Trying to sell financial services in a thread about the Japanese earthquake? That's pretty horrible.)

(Brilliant - there goes another spammer Apparently the Japanese earthquake is a good target for spammers at the moment.)

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

^ yep.

Also if you haven't already seen it, this footage of the Tsunami is terrifying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpuLlIrUYsI

[Mata]

I donated today through my PS3 - 100% of the money goes to the Red Cross. Sony have already donated a lot from their own funds (in money and hardware like radios for the victims so they can hear what's going on), and it's really cool that they are making it so easy for gamers to donate this way.

[Pikasyuu]

and my point was that the wristband is irrelevant and shouldn't even warrant mention in this thread as a talking point. i tried to cover that in my original post.

we still haven't heard anything about our missing exchange student - from here on out known as Saori, since the previous title devalues her a little. the earthquake finder would work a lot better if i could find which characters she used to write her name. working on it - we still have a lot of paperwork from when she was here.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

That's true, but I'd rather give to the red cross for the reasons Mata said.

Probably the Lady Gaga thing goes to the american red cross or something similar, but I couldn't find the details. Also I think giving to a UK charity is better for UK people as they can get some tax back?

[mooooooooooopo]

I don't understand all the fuss about the wristbands. It probably encourages a few extra people to donate, and that's cool but for everyone else it's just a waste of the money spent manufacturing and shipping them that could have been part of their donation instead. Assume it takes 10c to ship one, that's 100k per million people who donate so certainly not to be sniffed at. Looking at the site it seems to cost $5 which is could be much better spent.

As CrazyMat said: people in the UK would be better off donating through a UK site as it will likely support Gift Aid, which is a scheme where the charity can claim back the tax you've already paid on the money donated. That usually means they get about 20% more than you actually donated.

[Pixelgoth]

Donated to the Red Cross via their web site and I'm going to a concert being held in London by Southwark Sinfonia in aid of the charity

[Mata]

Syuu - has there been any news on Saori yet?

[Pikasyuu]

none. :/
i don't think there will be anytime soon unless i find the specific characters she used to write her name. iwate's power is still messed up.

[Pikasyuu]

Update - I just got a reply e-mail from her! She and her family are safe..I'm so happy. It's one thing to know she's okay, it's another to re-establish this wonderful connection I have with my big sister. This is so amazing..I'm just beside myself. Thank you so much everyone for the well wishes.