Unfortunately, this qualifies as a “mind-blowing” event
When I decided earlier this month to go on a brief blogging sabbatical, I said it was “barring some mind-blowing event.” Regretfully, I think the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves in Southeat Asia qualify. 24,000 people dead. UPDATE: the latest estimate is approximately 44,000. It will likely increase further due to the poor health infrastructure ...
When I decided earlier this month to go on a brief blogging sabbatical, I said it was "barring some mind-blowing event." Regretfully, I think the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves in Southeat Asia qualify. 24,000 people dead. UPDATE: the latest estimate is approximately 44,000. It will likely increase further due to the poor health infrastructure in the affected countries. ANOTHER UPDATE: It's obviously higher than that now, but I'm not going to update the number further. Just let that figure sink in for a minute. A 9/11 attack -- six eleven times over. For those who would like to help those affected by the earthquake and tidal waves, the Associated Press has a list of aid agencies that are directing funds towards that end. Here are the aid agencies listed in that report who have already posted about their activities on their web sites:
When I decided earlier this month to go on a brief blogging sabbatical, I said it was “barring some mind-blowing event.” Regretfully, I think the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves in Southeat Asia qualify. 24,000 people dead. UPDATE: the latest estimate is approximately 44,000. It will likely increase further due to the poor health infrastructure in the affected countries. ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s obviously higher than that now, but I’m not going to update the number further. Just let that figure sink in for a minute. A 9/11 attack — six eleven times over. For those who would like to help those affected by the earthquake and tidal waves, the Associated Press has a list of aid agencies that are directing funds towards that end. Here are the aid agencies listed in that report who have already posted about their activities on their web sites:
American Red Cross (International Response Fund) Direct Relief International Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres Mercy Corps Operation USA Save the Children (Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund)
Commenters are strongly encouraged to post URLs for relevant charities. UPDATE: The Command Post has more charitable links. This tsunami blog has more as well. UPDATE: Here’s InstaPundit’s blog summary — and Tim Blair is performing the thankless task of updating the death toll. It’s still too early to estimate the aggregate economic damage, but it has to run into the tens of billions.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner
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