2000ad tsunami auction?

[maryanddavid]

anyone think that donating something that you have of value 2000ad related or comic related, to auction for the tsunami disaster is a good idea, and how it could be gone about?
i have a dr and quinch guide to life, signed by alan moore and alan davis i could give.sure i could muster a page of art too.
artists and writers could donate sample scripts and art as well.
any ideas post here.
david

[Floyd-the-k]

sounds like a good idea. I've got some posters and postcards I wouldn't mind donating.

[WoD]

'Some' Posters and postcards...!!!

I don't have much to donate, but it's a good idea and I will bid...

[Conexus]

likewise (what Wod said)

[shazhughes]

how about auctioning off something for any old person made homeless by the recent bad weather up north.
Charity begins at home and just find the whoile asian tsunami thing somewhat overboard the mass outpouring of grief when Diana died.
Asian Tsunami bit of a bitch, but theres plenty of other stuff that countries have neglected for years but one big wave and a huge proportion of the country gets a conscience.

[The Amstor Computer]

One big wave = over 150,000 people dead in a single day, millions made homeless and entire generations wiped out.

Your point about people not paying attention to all of the other suffering going on is a good one, but there's no need to play down the sheer scale of the tsunami to make it. Here's hoping that people wake up and pay more attention to other problems, but in the meantime the huge number of people affected by the tsunami need all the assistance they can get & I'm bloody happy that they're getting it.

[thrillpowerseeker]

yep entirely true Shaz..I feel total empathy with the Cumberland folk ..just as I did with the Farming community who lost Billions with the Foot and mouth outbreak..I've been donating to 3 or 4 Cumbrian relief efforts locally and though I feel sympathy with the south east asians I feel more empathy with our Cumberland cousins

[Dudley]

...Or some parts of (mostly sub-Saharan) Africa, where a death toll equivalent to the tsunami happens every 28 days through disease and malnutrition.  

Most of the responsibility of which goes straight back to our way of living - we wouldn't be so rich if they weren't so poor.

And because of the media-friendliness of the tsunami imagery, people are giving less money to African charities this year.

All of which suggests to me that the old Christian/Muslim idea of giving a fixed amount of your income to carefully-chosen charities every year is better in the long run than impulse-donating.

But since most people don't work that way, I say "Good luck" to efforts like this that get money out of people who'd otherwise give nowt.

[Queen Firey-Bou]

yup, charidy begins at home, which is why i gave some food to my kids today.

beyond that, a healthy dose of cynicism towards the media & the bias which its feeds us is fine. but i think we've all got enough intelligence to see beyond that & make our own decisions without feeling pressured by the need to be seen to be doing the right thing. i was upset to see about the kids on uist in the hurricane, but cash aint going to help. i was upset about beaches full of corpses, & i figure that cash will help, since i can't go & pick up a shovel.

as long as anyone is doing anything about anything, then thats good.

charity at home? i live on planet earth & its quite small actually.

[DavidXBrunt]

Interesting points. I recently lost a severe amount of Brownie points with someone I've been trying to impress by saying that I'd not given anything beyond a handful of change to the Tsunami appeal and am not intending to. I'm working on the theory that as Britain alone has given ?250m it's not unfair to expect that America, Europe, Australia, e.t.c. will make it up to a Billion.

In the meantime there are people who only have a limited amount of money to give to charity prioritising the Tsunami appeal because it's emotive and gets lots of press. So there are bound to be charitys losing out as a result. So all my spare money at the moment is going to local charities, particularly the homeless. She eventually saw my point and we agreed to differ.

That's just so much meaningless prattle in the meantime. If something gets organised I'll contribute an item or two for the auction.

[Jared Katooie]

I think the "needs most, gets first" rule is one to follow when it comes to charity. I cant honestly imagine many people being worse off than the victims of the tsunami disaster at the moment.

If people feel the tsunami victims are being unfairly focussed on there are other charities, such as those that fight third world hunger that have been around for years and are always in desperate need of money.

http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites>An easy way to help people who really need it. This could be your homepage.

[NecroClown]

While my heart goes out to the victims of the tsunami it's not like their aid is in short supply at the moment with governments bending over backwards with the cheque book. They aren't the only ones suffering so I'm happily donating to local charities who have been over shadowed recently.

I'm not a fan of charity auctions either, if people wanted to donate they should just donate instead of waiting for a feel good incentive.

[Oddboy]

Giving a fixed donation to a specific charity is probably better then impulse donations, because you don't really notice a small direct debit a month amongst all the rent/rates bills - and so you still then end up impulse donating whenever you come accross charity auctions or sponsored walks or whatever.

[IndigoPrime]

::  it's not like their aid is in short supply at the moment
:: with governments bending over backwards with the
:: cheque book

Except, of course, with the exception of Japan, the governments only did so because they were embarrassed into it by the sheer generosity of their citizens. Of course, whatever the government gives is essentially "our" money, too, although Jack Straw did surprisingly note this in a quote.

Quite frankly, I don't have a problem with the tsunami charity issue. Entire countries have been devastated in no time at all, and, sadly, it's simpler to deal with non-political devastation than the same caused by man. However, some proper debt relief might be helpful, rather than governments stalling on the issue.