black thursday

I don't know about you, but I wasted a fair chunk of my day either loudly ranting about or quietly grinding my teeth over the coronation that took place in D.C. today. So, this evening I decided to do something to make myself feel better.

Remember how good it felt to send some cash to help the tsunami victims? Well, here's a chance to recapture that lovin' givin' feeling. Consider these quotes from an article in the January 11 Toronto Globe and Mail:

• "Since the tsunamis struck on Dec. 26, 136,000 people have died of AIDS, 6,500 people a day in Africa alone."


• "While 50,000 children are believed to have been orphaned by the tsunamis, UNICEF says 11 million children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa."


• "The tsunami-relief pledges may soon equal the total amount, $5.8 billion, that the United Nations received for all humanitarian relief around the world last year."


• "'This has proved the money exists -- it's there,' [Mercy Otim, Kenyan activist in the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement] observed yesterday. 'They can get hands on it quickly when they want to.'"

Oh, and don't forget about the 50,000-plus people killed and 1,000,000-plus people (mostly women and children) displaced in Darfur.

Suddenly the global AIDS crisis and the unrest in Sudan seem to be tragedies of tsunami-like proportion, eh?

So, even though it was right after the holidays and you were broke, you still managed to scrape up the dough for tsunami relief. Well, scrape up a little more. It'll make you feel nice and morally superior to the DubyaClubbers who are spending their money on a "three-day inaugural feeding frenzy."

Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, and Mercy Corps are just three of the organizations that will put your money to very good use in Africa and elsewhere.