i'm thinking about getting out the contacts list and seeing what kind of support i can drum up to do a benefit for victims of the recent earthquake. we did one after Katrina/Rita and did some good, and got some folks together in the bargain!
do you have any plans locally? i know this- it's a very good thing to do. it isn't that much work either, and you can potentially get a lot of people together and focused on something good.
im going to buy some tolex from this amp parts website an wrap my amp. a percentage of my purchase money goes to help people in haiti. dont judge me. besides i dont believe in charity. first off not all money donated goes to them. 2nd if you really wanna help fly down there an start digging. an bring some food and water with you. 3rd im poor an i work for shit pay so i cant afford to throw money away like that. sorry if i seem like a jerk. if i made 100k a year id donate a good amount. but i dont. i make $8/hr. an my boss cheats me out of allot of my money. i just hate charities. like these stupid fuckers on tv standing over a dieing child like 20 cents a day could help this child live. like bitch what did you eat for lunch in your hotel before you filmed this? why dont you bring him a sandwich. matter fact why dont you bring him back to your hotel room so he can use your shower an sleep in your 5 star bed while your out filming the rest of his dieing family. give him the shirt your wearing, you got more in your suitcase. he dont even got one. an sell that $20k camera your filming him with an pay for his medical bills. wtf. sorry. its late. ----------
jonsparrow- I hear ya, but sometimes a celebrity can bring in more money for a charity by using their celebrity power than by just donating their own money. Your right, some charities don't actually spend much of their money on charity work. There are some watchdog organizations that do a decent job at finding out how much money actually goes to people in need.
I remember feeling like shit right after 9/11 because I was so broke I wasn't sure I was going to have any food the last couple days of the month and the cashier at the grocery store asked me for a donation. I couldn't give anything, and that was another poor person asking me. I couldn't even donate blood because of the medication I was on.
As for flying down and helping, unless you have a useful skill that's probably the worst thing someone can do. They have lots of people there already. (Now doctors and people with experience doing rescue work are a whole different story.) Small amounts of money can help. Things like vaccines and rice are pretty cheap.
But like you said, it's a whole lot easier to donate money when you have a little to spare. What gets me is people who have tons of money who don't give anything. My mother once was shocked when she was informed that she had donated more money to charity through the pay check deduction than anyone else in her building that year. She took something small, like $5 out over every paycheck as an automatic thing. She works in a building with lots of professionals. There plenty of people in her building that take home six figures.
hey jon, i'm sorry you're in a kneejerk mood. i'm not talking about skipping the martinis and a set of tenny about 8ish here. you think i'm on easy street? try 32 hour weeks at work and paying off long-standing debt whether i can afford to or not. we're all sitting here on the internet drinking coffee, with the thermostat set on comfortable. what we take for creature comforts, others would kill for in some situations. i generally don't go for the big charities myself. i know a lot of money donated goes to pay salaries and such for big admin positions and not as much goes to help people on the ground. but i know this too:
when i was a kid the entire middle of my hometown was washed away in a huge flood. if it had not been for donations by people like you and me, we would not have had so much as drinking water or food. this is the sort of situation where, as musicians, we may have a chance to do some good. and listen. even buying that tolex is a good thing.
what i'm talking about is organizing a benefit WHERE YOU LIVE. talk to musicians you know. talk to a venue owner or manager. get some bands to commit one set of music. set a date. ask businesses and acquaintances to donate items to raffle off and for door prizes. get use of a p.a. donated. do public service announcements in newspapers, on radio and tv if possible, and print some humble flyers off at home and post them where you can- laundry mats, liquor stores, etc etc. use the internet too. then charge a cover at the door and run a tip jar at the stage. have a hell of a great day working with your peers. at the end count the proceeds and go to the bank and get a certified check, and send it to UNICEF or RED CROSS.
does that cost you ANYthing except some time? no. does it do SOME SORT OF GOOD for people who are in totally dire straits? YES. no doubt.
no plane tickets, no shovels and blisters, etc etc, although if i could do that i would. i couldn't physically go to the gulf coast for the aftermath of Katrina/Rita either, but we did a benefit here and it was a success. we sent a nice check to the Save the Wetlands Foundation, run by Tab Benoit.
other folks have good ideas too, mine isn't the only way. any efforts people can do will be to the good. i can barely watch the news when Haiti comes on. but the reality is, if we all sit by and let someone else help, we are not very compassionate people. grass roots movements get things done. if you try what i and others suggest, you can be part of a huge good thing. that's called good karma.
jbone, Good Idea. If you or I were catching hell down there right now we would want someone to help us and to help our families in any way that they could. I can tell you about Haitians. I worked with them for years. They are BOSS! I am unemployed, living in a cruddy house in northern Minnesota, but I have clean water, lots of food, a warm bed to sleep in, a box of Harps, and a pint of hot sauce. I'm going to cut Mercy Corps a check
Doctors without borders and Jimmy Carter's organization are both pretty good about getting the money where it needs to go, and walking the walk as well as talking the talk.
no worries jon, i am no shill for corporate charity. i just know this in my heart, that a lot of people, doing what they can, be it buy tolex, put a music benefit together, drop some change in a can at the church or convenience store, it all does some good.
hey chicken thief, what kind of hot sauce? must be the good stuff if you can survive them northern winters!
Good idea jbone ;after9/11 our band did a benefit here at the jersey shore and raised about $2500 .Alot of folks came and were more than glad to donate what little they had left after they got raked over the coals for they,re bar tabs.It might not have been several thousands,but any little bit counts.I know folks are hurting all over,but by the looks of it those poor folks have really been dealt a bad hand.I just hope that the $$$ thats donated gets to the ones that need it via the right organization.
we went to an open mic/songwriter thing at a fairly new place in downtown Little Rock tonight and the tip jar was going for Haiti Aid. plus tomorrow night is a full blown benefit also. which we plan to attend and play a set if we can.
this doesn't change what i want to do, there are other places and other folks who would show for a day of music and stuff for a decent cause like this.
some organizations are more concientiuos than others and have lower overhead.
Here's a quote that got me, from a relatively well-off citizen of Haiti who was driving from the resort he runs into Port au Prince:
"It was very, very, very, very terrible. There were so many dead in the street . . . so many needed help. It was like a bombed-out area. Kids were crying, there were people with broken legs. The traffic jams . . . there were dead bodies all over. It was really, really scary. People were trying to put the wounded in your car. It was total chaos."
His name is Fernand Sajous. Sorta puts our/my own gripes in perspective. You think YOU had a bad day! Here's the link:
I agree with Jonsparrow. 1981 was the last time I gave money to charity (directly):- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penlee_lifeboat_disaster £3 million was collected, then they realised they didn't know what to do with the money (there hadn't been a plan - it was spontaneous). Margaret Thatcher waded in and gave it all to the widows; they all got married again 6 months later. Then they realised there was no money for a new lifeboat! The widows didn't contribute. Margaret Thatcher didn't contribute. In the end she had to go begging to an American benefactor FOR MORE MONEY! Then in the Eighties I met a woman who worked for a small private charity. Her boss was raking off £100,000 a year for himself. My gf's step-daughter worked for various medical firms and the NHS as a biochemist and her father died of cancer. She looked into cancer treatment a lot. There are thousands of separate cancer charities, and nearly all of the money goes on charity managers' rake-offs and overheads and almost none of the money is spent on cancer research. If all these charities merged to minimise their overheads, it would be a big day for cancer research, but they won't, because all the managers will kick and scream fit to burst. The best thing you can do for Haiti is hold a benefit gig to pay George W Bush to stay away from the place. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on Jan 19, 2010 2:29 AM
Here's a simple idea: why don't all these people give 20% of their money to Haiti? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_evangelists http://www.prettygoodnews.com/form_990/hagee_spreadsheet.pdf ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
say what you want about some charities. there's a grain of truth in most of it. but still....there ARE reputable organizations that can and do and will always put feet and supplies on the ground after a disaster like this.
i would love it if the super rich would put their dough on the table, but unfortunately that isn't how things work. but with bono and george clooney and other notable high profile people throwing their considerable weight behind getting aid to these victims, you have to admit, not everyone is a greedy bastard out to line his own pockets.
frankly, my conscience will not let me be unless i do something.
Well, I give money to charity indirectly. I pay taxes, and the governments are the organisations that should be reputable. If they can find 500 billion for war in Afghanistan, then they can find 500 million for Haiti, otherwise we should vote them out. ---------- Kinda hot in these rhinos!
I truly did give at the office. We are usually pretty good at Ponying up for such things and Our Office Mgr is really good at picking out reputable org's to get the $$$ there. Other then that the most I can do is stay clear of the place. According to my ex-wives that's a benefit.
Here is a site that rates US charities by admin costs, ceo pay, comments.. etc.
doctors without borders in in their top list http://www.charitynavigator.org/ these are guys who could be making big dollars to stay home in the US and milk the US health care system for big, big, pay yet go work for free under the worst of conditions.
Like Adam said, this is way beyond what most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. There are front loaders putting bodies into mass graves there.
This is a country where the annual per capita income is $400 on average, less than $2 per day. They do not have the resources in the best of times to feed and care for their people.
things are coming together here. i have a venue and a date set. next is find bands and solo/duos to donate a set each, get a p.a., some items donated by businesses and individuals to auction off and give out as door prizes. http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene details so far are there.
this is an ongoing thing. a week or two will not make this go away. people are in trouble there and the aid organizations need money to send and set up field hospitals, shelters, bring in water and food, and save lives.
you'd be surprised how many folks are willing to help with a local benefit if someone takes the lead.
of course i will do updates, it's just getting started.
listen, THIS IS NOT HARD WORK! you can do this or something similar where you live esp if it's a fair sized city. the end result is that people who are in dire need get some aid. but along the way you get to know and work with people in your community, make new friends, share with old friends. and all it is, is asking people for help! it does take the ability to keep up with who's going to do what, and making up a schedule once you find a venue and set a date. but how hard is that, it takes a legal pad, a pen, and a few brain cells.
college campuses, coffee houses, book stores, mall common areas, juke joints, restaurants, storefronts, all are possible -places to do a benefit. anything from one act to 30 can participate. (last tuesday we saw at least 25 acts and participated in a benefit locally).
I returned late last night from the pathetic shithole known as "Haiti". Specifically, I was down there to assess and survey the only pipeline and offshore bulk loading facility that can convey petroleum (fuel, heating oil etc) from offshore tankers into the country. What does this have to do with "modern blues and/or harmonica"? Little, except that probably 9.5 million of the 10 million are living in at least half of the four food groups of emotion that can make up "the blues". Even before the quake, there wasn't much to say kindly about that country.
They share the island with the Dominicans, who have been affected very little. Why? The first and simplest answer is rebar. Construction standards. When we weren't on a boat, we were staying in the Dominican. Night and day of a difference. Flying in on the helo I was startled by the lack of reinforcing steel in any of the concrete. I mean none. It's like dirt clod construction. And, from what the structural engineers are telling me, the cement content in the concrete is next to nothing. So, they have essentially compressed sand with no steel that contains just enough cement to barely hold up against the rain. If it is even "concrete".
You can oversimplify the circumstances and history all you want. But, the two countries began down different paths along time ago.
We (the US) occupied the country as a response to unrest at the beginning of the 1900's. We brought prosperity and management of resources. In fact, the structures that sustained the least amount of damage (in most cases the only structures virtually unaffected) in Port Au Prince were the ones constructed by the US.
Yes, these people need help. In some ways it is natural selection at work. That may seem like a very harsh statement. And, it is. I'm not saying that help shouldn't come. But, for many generations the Haitian population has been growing at a wildly unchecked rate (more than 85% of the population is Roman Catholic) that is truly unsustainable. They outgrew their ability to self-help themselves a long long time ago. The United States has been sending huge amounts of money into the country for decades. Billions of dollars into a country that we recieve absolutely nothing in return from. Nothing. Why? The easy answer is compassion. Now that we are funding the relief (and don't let anyone convince you that the so-called "international community" is spending any more than token sums), the dependence addiction will grow to the next step. Once the initial pulse of "feel good" donations pass, there will still be a huge hole that will swallow every dollar that is thrown into it.
Don't get me wrong. This is not heartless cynicism on my part. On the countrary. I see a sad country of human beings that got fucked as a whole by an event of nature, following a long-term mismanagement and specific individual raping events since about 1915. It is startling to see the contrast between the rich tobacco growing hills, rum industry and beachside resorts and real estate of the Dominicans, then cross the border and see that the deforested hills don't have a tree half the height as the country next door. The Haitian beachfront property is risky living, not desirable location location location. They have a demarcation swath between the two countries that makes the Korean DMZ look like the US border with Mexico.
What is my point? I'm not sure. My mind reels. Give your money to the outfit of your choice. They surely need it. But, get your mind to understand that your effort won't really do much beyond short term alleviation of middle class guilt, as these poor wretches need it for the longhaul.
The moral question becomes the blur of right and wrong, intentions and moral decency. We can give them money from our taxes and what we print for another 50 years, or we can help build the nation to manage itself over the long run. Are they capable of managingg themselves without another dictator setting himself up? Yes. But, only if we ignore the knee-jerk rants of those who decry US "nation building" as some sort of negative interference. These people can't do it for themselves at this point in their history.
Right now, we have the immediacy of the disaster to address. Don't let my rants diminish your generosity. They are experiencing immediate suffering at emergency levels, not the ongoing indignities of their staus-quo.
We are giving them fish. What they really need in Haiti is for someone to take charge and teach them how to fish.
I'll be headed back soon. Probably with a bit more planning to load out more than a rucksack and a passport. Stay tuned and dig deep in your pockets.
---------- ~Buzadero Underwater Janitor, Patriot
Last Edited by on Jan 24, 2010 9:08 AM
i'm somewhat familiar with the history there, down to advisors telling builders not to worry about sound structures since there were no building codes. it's a very ugly chapter in the history of any nation that purports to care for its third world neighbors. i could really go off the page here but i do have a focus, and that's helping in some small way to save lives, not as an abstract concept but by actually raising and sending money to where it's most needed. it's for the people. not the middle class per se since i doubt there's much of one there, but for whomsoever can get benefit and survive.
i have a few acts already signed up to come do a set. over the next month i'll be asking for sponsorship from peers, businesses, and whoever, to provide cash, goods, and/or services for the event. i already have a donation on the way from Greg Nagy. check him out if you haven't already. he didn't have to do a thing yet he stepped up and volunteered.
Good deal JBone Its never about the millions of people that we all can't save. The best doctors, lawyers, all the kings horses and all the kings men can't fix what's out there right now, which is really just a smaller part of the same thing that's going to kill all of us eventually. Life itself is a terminal condition. So it's not about fixing the whole gig. It's about helping who you can because you can. Lost causes, larceny, incompetence, and the general ruin of human waste and stupidity, all of these are handy reasons to give up. Thing is, there's always at least one better reason not to.
