Myanmar Internet aid flows in, but no tsunami

With the Internet now a key medium for attracting donations, search engine Google gave the funding drive a massive boost by posting a direct appeal on its home page, one of the most viewed sites on the web with several hundred million hits a day.

The site clicks straight through to a donations page for Direct Relief International, a U.S. charity specialising in medical aid to victims of disasters and war, and UNICEF, the United Nations childrens agency.

A greyed-in "$100" in the page's donation boxes serves as a subtle nudge to those wanting to help victims of the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Google said it would match private donations up to a maximum of $1 million.

UNICEF is appealing for $25.5 million as part of an overall $187 million emergency aid package sought by the United Nations, and had already raised $7.8 million by Friday, Bangkok spokeswoman Shantha Bloemen said.

"Obviously, the Internet has made it much easier for people to respond quickly," she said. "They can click a few buttons online and contribute. The easier it is for people to give money, the more likely it is they will."

YOUR MONEY'S SAFE

The power of the Internet in appeals is also in its speed, cutting down crucial days in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, when flying in emergency relief such as food, water and medicines can save thousands of lives.

However, the amount of cash generated for the Myanmar disaster, which is feared to have killed 100,000 people, is a fraction of the tsunami, whose final death toll was 230,000 - more than half of them in Indonesia.

One week after the Dec. 26, 2004 undersea quake, the American Red Cross had raised $79 million, and Oxfam America more than $12 million, even though its website crashed under the unprecedented flood of donations.

Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock had started a celebrity aid push with $1 million of her own cash, and foreign governments had pledged $2 billion, with the United States alone promising $350 million.

Yet in the case of Myanmar, whose military government Washington labels an "outpost of tyranny," total foreign government and relief agency aid promises were just $77 million.

The U.S. had pledged $3.25 million.

Many aid workers fear the generals' infamy - especially after pictures of their bloody crackdown on monks and democracy protesters were beamed around the world last year - could be preventing would-be donors from making the pledge.

The junta has also made it clear it will be the main distributor of foreign aid, and even briefly impounded two shipments of U.N. biscuits at Yangon airport.

However, major aid agencies such as Save the Children, Medecins Sans Frontiers and the Red Cross, which already had operations in Myanmar before the May 2 cyclone, say they are able to control delivery of their own aid.

The anti-junta Burma Campaign UK urged people and governments not to be put off by reports of the army appropriating aid - and in some cases writing their names on it to claim the credit.

"If you give to British charities, your money is safe," the London-based group said.

"Don't punish ordinary people for what the generals are doing. If you don't donate, it will be a triple whammy for cyclone victims. First they suffer from the dictatorship, second the cyclone, and then no aid."

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Source : canada.com