Here is a map and a report of the current situation in Indonesia. According to the report, between 4,500 - 5,400 people have perished (a more recent estimate put it at over 6,000) and the homeless population could be as much as 200,000 (a more recent report estimates as many as 600,000 people have been displaced). 9 out of 12 water treatment plants are down. This kind of devastation is just unfathomable to me.
This article, titled Smoke and Mirrors: Deficiencies in Disaster Funding (written in February, 2005, in the wake of the 2004 tsunami) talks of a need to change the way the world deals with disaster relief. They propose a new system: 1. UN relief agencies should be funded by member countries rather than having to appeal for donations after a disaster has struck. 2. Pledges for financial relief should be tracked to make sure they don’t fade once disasters recede from the headlines (and that they are not merely reallocations of existing relief funds pledged to other regions, or loans disguised as donations, or attached with unreasonable strings). 3. Vulnerability to disaster should be taken into account in economic development strategies (I assume they are referring to developing nations, but Katrina has taught us that the distance between the first world and the third is not as great as we might think, in the arena of disaster preparedness). They claim that in southern countries, where the economic cost of disaster are lower than in the north, but human costs are higher, the emphasis is not placed on examining the risk of disaster and protecting against its effects on infrastructure.
Until these plans are put in place, appeals for donations are necessary. Here are some links to well-known organizations’ donation forms:
Via ResourceShelf
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