Bloggers for Haiti – Put your money where your mouth is
A couple of days ago, I was idly watching Twitter when a twit tweeted.
They want everyone to stick a ribbon on their avatar in support of Haiti.
What an unadulterated heap of steaming shit.
It really pisses me off when people start that act â turn your blog green in support of the environment, or add a ribbon to your avatar in support of a fucking football team or whatever. It is a trite piece of shite to make you feel you are doing something, when in fact you are doing sweet fuck all.
I received a mail from English Mum this morning. She started on about âbloggersâ getting together to support Haiti. I groaned. Here we fucking go again. Lets all write about the terrible situation so we can feel like we have done something. Wonât it be a great consolation to some poor bloke in Haiti who has just lost his house and family to know that people are writing about him?
But then I read further. I should have known better. English Mum wants to promote a campaign to actually do something. She wants everyone to write about Haiti under the banner of âBloggers for Haiti’ on Monday and to donate. Thatâs more like it. Good old English Mum.
This is what she wrote:
We are going to try and rally as many bloggers as possible to create a blog post on Monday (or before if you’re that keen!) about the wonderful Shelterbox.org and encourage as many of their readers, commenters, friends and family to donate. We’d love to be responsible for lots of Shelterboxes making their way to Haiti.
If you feel you can join in, then please create a post on your blog and encourage your fellow bloggers to do the same. Make sure you include a link to the justgiving page. There’s tons of info on Shelterbox on their website, including pics that you can use.
Iâm writing today, because at my age and earthquake could strike during the night and I may not be around on Monday, so I am writing today instead.
So what I want you to do now is to shift your arse over to Shelterbox and give âtil it hurts.
When you have done that, maybe write a piece yourself if you have a site? Spread the word.
Itâs a lot more useful to a homeless Haitian than a fucking piece of tatty ribbon.
Thanks Grandad. You’re a legend (and I don’t mean a leg end) xx
.-= English Mum´s last brainfart .. Bloggers for Haiti =-.
I know. I’m a legend in my own lunchtime.
“What an unadulterated heap of steaming shit.”
Yes!!!!!!!
I struggle to find the words to express how much this “help the sufferers by doing something that won’t help at all” thing on Twitter (never mind the bewildering number of increasingly pointless Facebook groups) pisses me off.
Thankfully you don’t have that problem. I applaud you, sir.
Haiti 80%? Catholic. I will be interested to see how much the Vatican kicks in.
Hails – I do have a Facebook page, and love the groups I’m invited to join! Needless to say, I don’t in the vast majority of cases. Waste of fucking time.
TT – Hahahahaha!!!!!!!! The Vatican? They’ll pray for five minutes, but their money is strictly for the Vatican.
Thats a good comment tt. If the Irish Famine is any measure of the Vatican’s traditional response to disaster it will be a collection among the faithful everywhere else and the oul German chappie will declare 3 days of prayer.
During the Famine the then pope sent one thousand vatican dollars to aid in feeding hundreds of thousands in Ireland.
The Catholic church offered no real assistance whatsoever. It never opens its own coffers.
Ironically we received more practical assistance from the British and from Anglicans & Protestants in England than we did from Rome.
Rant over.
This is a great post – and a great idea from the people who are organising Bloggers for Haiti. I’ve been umming and ahhing about the best place to donate for a few days now. I’ll get posting…
.-= J Adamthwaite´s last brainfart .. The Three Bears =-.
Good onya Grandad. Here’s a link for the foreigners,(aka non UK residents) saves credit card bozos charging exchange rate fees . . .http://shelterbox.org/. They’ve delivered 1500 already, that’s accommodation for 15000. Pretty good cause if you ask me and a goodly amount goes to the relief effort rather than paying admin fees. I was surprised, very surprised to see that more people have died and become homeless in this event than during the 2004 Tsunami. Incredible.
Good for you Grandad, and thanks to English mum. I’ve challenged my family & friends on facebook to donate to Doctors Without Borders and ShelterBox as well. Both great organizations.
.-= Brighid´s last brainfart .. FUR FLYING =-.
I totally agree. It’s one thing to pick up a pink ribbon or whatever in exchange for a donation in a street collection, because it signals to the other tin-rattlers that you’ve given already and shouldn’t be hassled. But meaningless decoration on Facebook is annoying and useless.
I do feel for the people of Haiti. They had so many problems before all of this and now they have nothing. I like Just Giving. It’s a good way to set up a place to donate or sponsor an event.
Dunno if I’ll post on Monday, because I hate asking people for money and never do it in an unofficial capacity. I won’t even sell raffle tickets. But I’ll think about it.
I had been intending to do something about Haiti, but I confess, like JA, I hadn’t jumped straight in. I needed just that tiny push, and this was it. I’m delighted with progress so far – over â¬1,000 as I write.
The point of this is that people who can’t [or don’t want to] donate needn’t. If there is any way of spreading the word a bit though, that would help.
You were blogging at 2.28am? Such a shame when Alzheimers kicks in and you can no longer read the clock…
Total at £1760 and Bloggers for Haiti has been picked up by the ‘great and the good’ (well, retweeted by Chris Evans, anyway) x
.-= English Mum´s last brainfart .. If you register your site for free at =-.
Money down and blogged. Will keep spreading the word, thanks Grandad and English Mum…
.-= Sean´s last brainfart .. Shockwaves =-.