AID folks in Action

Check this news video on AID volunteers at UMCP handling calls from donors for the Tsunami victims.

link:
http://www.wusatv9.com/video/player.aspx?aid=17708&sid=&bw=hi

Relief Efforts

With all the aid pouring in, looks like the trouble now is getting enough volunteers to manage all the resources. Contrary to what many might believe, at times of disaster and even during othertimes, the easiest of all tasks is raising money. Especially during such times, people are more than willing to contribute how much ever they can, sometimes even more than they could afford - like my friend in Minneapolis. Hats off to him. But then, the difficult task is managing the aid and getting volunteers so that help reaches the right people at the right time.

There are many organizations out there trying their best to do what best they could possibly do. The problem is, there is no umbrella organization to coordinate the whole effort. One team could possibly go to a village to help them out and it is very possible that another organization also decides to send a team to the same village. Its very likely considering that the call for help from a place reaches multiple people at the same time. Also, there are many places where there are no one to help.
Like the islands of Andaman. There are hardly any contacts there and not enough local volunteers either. Its here the army, the navy and the air force are trying to do their best.

Its great that certain organizations are collaborating in their efforts. To me, it is a great move. Something along these lines need to be done for the long run. Even within the same organization like AID, with so many different chapters and NGOs contacting different chapters, there is a lot of overlap - in the projects we undertake, the mistakes committed and the lessons learnt. So the more coordinated the efforts, the better for the victims, better in terms of number of people helped and better in terms of volunteers not feeling their efforts were not 100% useful at the end of the day.

With so many volunteers on the ground on extremely demanding situations, it is very important that they remain emotionally strong, are not overwhelmed by the task and last but not the least, feel satisfied they did something that helped someone. Volunteers are the backbone of this entire operation and they need to be taken care of. Especially the ones exposed to all the elements. Hats off to them. Its really nice to note that people of all ages and capacity are doing their best. Like the story here about young NCC cadets in Kerala.

Donors are in plenty. So are organizations accepting donations. It is easy for donors to fall prey to fly by night operators. Please refer to the following sources before donating:
http://www.benjaminrosenbaum.com/blog/archives/2004_12.html#000151
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/quake.aidsites/
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

These lists are not exhaustive. But plz make sure before making a donation. Also plz check with ur company if they would do a matching donation. That could double the donation with no additional input from you.

Nature's fury

PS: I am constantly updating this post as and when I get links to new information/links.

WashingtonPost Article on relief efforts from DC area, including AID's efforts.

Blog exclusively for relief efforts, fund raisers, information etc. This blog is being constantly updated by volunteers and is an excellent source of information regarding whats happening where and by whom and how you can contribute.

Btw, AID online donations for the victims set up yesterday has collected more than 125,000$ in 24 hours. Spread the word and help AID and other organizations raise more for the victims.

Once again nature has proved that no matter what man achieves, he still cannot control what nature does. The devastation in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and so many other places in South East Asia is terrible.

AID (Association for India's Development) is organizing relief efforts. In case you want to help, and want some first hand information on the devastations in Chennai, click here. I am sure there are lot of other organizations in India and else where working hard to help the people. I strongly recommend people to provide whatever they can through one of them. Here is the link to the red cross page on the disaster. Find here a list of other organizations accepting donations.

Plz have a look at these snaps and see the extent of destruction.
Link1 Link2

tour of sfo

Saturday. off from work. no commitments. decided to explore sfo downtown. no prior itinerary. armed with a bus time table, dollars and quarters, jacket and enthu, set off on a self guided tour of sfo. turned out to be a wonderful experience. can now claim have a feel for the city. chennai minneapolis and chicago. cities i would right fully claim to have a feel for. SFO. Welcome to the club :).

With a heavy breakfast in my tummy and a heavier back pack filled with goodies, water and camera, i set off from my house to the nearest bus stop. yes all the way up and down using just the public transportation system. Golden Gate Transit. MUNI. Tram. Yes its possible. SFO's transportation system rocks. Now lesser inclined to get a car. On reaching downtown, called up a few people who knew/have been to sfo downtown and one of them offered me the suggestion of going to Fisherman's Wharf. The other suggested loitering in the downtown and do some shopping. Did both. Got myself a new sleeveless jacket for peanuts. i had a chance to walk down market road. could not help comparing this road with chicago's magnificent mile. Does not come anywhere close in terms of crowd or variety to that mile in chicago. But felt this road in this Golden Gate city was more practical, more reachable to ordinary purses, and did not come with a 'see it but dont touch it' tag. The place was filled with ordinary folks in ordinary dress walking and doing normal things. I always felt that in Chicago's magnificent mile, there were two very distinct set of people present - the ultra sophisticated afford all type and the ones who come to gape at the first kind and their shops. The market road was entirely different in that sense. May be I am comparing apples and oranges.

Took the famous trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. Man the streets of SFO. I pity the horses that were used in earlier times here in SFO. The roads seem to be inclined at 45 degrees. I have seen these angles only in the entrances to some parking garages. Imagine whole streches of roads exending to couple of blocks inclined at such angles and worse.

Fisherman's Wharf reminded me so much of Navy Pier in chicago. Again, whatever I felt about the downtown was re-enforced here. Less crowded. Less showcase like. Chicago's navy pier sometime feels like it is an outdoor movie set and all the people over there are extras playing their roles. Fisherman's warf seemed more natural, authentic seafood restaurants showing off what would be cooked, right in front and allowing the customer to see all the dirty process that goes on before it becomes a delicacy in our plate. The shore there had a nice view of the alcatrz island and the bay. Took tons of snaps. I was alone. Yet I wanted to take some snaps with me in the foreground. So I asked a couple of people and they all obliged whenever I asked them. Another guy, from India, was there alone and he asked me to take a snap of him. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I asked him to take one of mine there. Since we both were alone, and may be I thought I could use some company and he, some guidance given that he had been in the us for only 3 weeks and was leaving back to India the next day, we decided to walk together. It also helped that neither of us had any thing planned in particular. Every now and then, both of us exchanged our cameras and took snaps of each other. So much so, he told me all about where he is from, where he works, what he does,what he thinks of US etc etc. We then went to the golden gate bridge together by bus and continued our snap exchange. Took some really cool snaps of the bridge. Atlast when it was time to head home, we exchanged contact info hoping to keep in touch. Strange how strangers become acquiantance.

Golden Gate Bridge. An engineering marvel. Would be a marvel even if constructed today with the help of all the technology at our disposal. It was constructed 60 years back and has withstood earthquakes better than other modern bridges. Whoever said we improve as time progresses. Me describing it wont do justice. Neither to the bridge not you. It needs to be seen. Stand still and take it in. Dont just drive by. I did that for a whole week. Really din't appreciate its beauty. Only today when I had a chance to walk under it and savour it true magnificence did it strike me what character and charm it possess. Its not like one of your usual run of the mill huge structure. Its hugeness adds a majestic stature to it. Its not gigantic. It stands tall.

Look at these snaps.

Compare the height of the vehicles to the first portion of the tower and then see from the second tower, how many sections are present.


Minuscule in front of a towering personality :)


Postcard snap. - Atleast I hope you would say so ;)


And this is where I wish I cud send you for reading and not commenting - Alcatrz island prison - as seen from Fisherman's Wharf.

Friendship

Found this while blog hopping:

Friends of women:
A wife was not at home for a whole night. So she tells her husband, the very next morning, that she stayed at her girlfriend's apartment over night. So the husband calls 10 of her best girlfriends and none of them confirm that.


Friends of men:
A husband was not at home for a whole night. So he tells his wife the very next morning, that he stayed at his friend's apartment over night. So the wife calls 10 of his best friends and 5 of them confirm that he stayed at their apartments that night and another 5 are claiming that he is still with them.

Guys - always there to save each other's ass :)

Distractions.

Just read an article about the popularity of the word 'Blog'. Looks like it is the most sought after word this year. Check this news. (http://tinyurl.com/6zgnn ). That's the url I used, but if you copy pasted it, you would get the original yahoo news url. The site I used to do the conversion was TinyUrl.com and it gives a tiny url in lieu of a long url. Very useful when mailing or messaging long links. And speaking of blogs, microsoft is releasing its own blog space for users with hotmail or msn accts. Check it out here. Looks like the blog scene is getting really hot with almost all major names vying to offer the service. Wondering what the revenue model will be and what will be the differentiator. The brighter side - it encourages so many of us to write regularly, however useful or useless it may be to others.

In case you are one of those who loves to surprise oneself, try stumbleupon. Install the tool bar and volle - time flies, you will go to new and exciting websites and discover cool ones. Keep clicking on the stumble button on the tool bar and it will take you to a new site every time. Comes up with some real neat ones which otherwise would have been lost in this online jungle. A la Alice in WebOland. Enjoy.