Pakistani Earthquake

The 6.4 magnitude earthquake Wednesday in the south-western Pakistani province of Balochistan has left up to 50,000 people homeless and 215 dead. Aid organizations have already started flying in supplies and help.

photo from BBC News

As can be imagined, there is a serious lack of much-needed supplies for the survivors of this tragedy. If you would like to help, just send a donation to one of the following organizations:

American Red Cross
CARE
Mercy Corps
Oxfam
United Nations World Food Programme

Trouble the Water

Here's the trailer for a new documentary about hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans.



This documentary is sure to create even more discussion of how our government totally dropped the ball.

Trouble the Water

Myanmar

According to new information, the number of dead in Myanmar could be well over 22,000, with over 1 million homeless and 40,000 missing. That's almost unfathomable.

Even more unfortunate than the tens of thousands of lives lost and the million-plus lives turned upside down, the government of Myanmar, according to MSNBC, "is dragging its feet on giving visas to aid workers who are waiting to help the survivors of Cyclone Nargis." This means that aid is being put together in countries all over the world, by the government of the victims is slowing down much needed recovery efforts. How horrible is that?

France is trying to convince the United Nations to allow nations to go ahead and take aid to Myanmar without going through the government, since time is very, very important in a case like this. Hopefully either Myanmar's government (which isn't known to care much about its people) will step up and let aid agencies in, or the UN will take France's advice. People are suffering and politics need to be the last thing on people's minds right now.

If you want to help the victims and recovery efforts in Myanmar, here are a few organizations you can check out:
UNICEF
Oxfam International
Doctors Without Borders