Comments on: Women Hit Hard by Pakistan Flood

By: bluebears

bluebears — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:32:09 +0000

Thanks for the list SMC.

By: Cimorene

Cimorene — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:46:22 +0000

I just posted about this on my facebook wall. I was like, Be a good american! Fight terrorism! Donate money! Real patriots fight the taliban! This is the only way we’ll ever win against terrorism! And so on.

Perhaps it’s cheap, but all the people I know who have money to send (which I sadly don’t, as I’m literally stealing internet right now and have no money in my bank account…) are the type who REALLY like to be patriots. Like, Sarah Palin patriots. So I’m playing to their tastes to get them to donate money.

I wanted to include the following in my message, but decided it would alienate rather than help:

“Real patriots fight the Taliban, not American Muslims who want to build community centers in Manhattan. What would Jesus do? He’d donate! What would JFK do? He’s donate!”

And then I got all worked up and wanted to continue in this “great americans (like jesus and JFK!)” vein, and started typing, “What would Thomas Jefferson do? Well, to be honest he’d probably rape a slave first, but then he’d donate!”

And then I was like, Ok I have to stop. I can’t start undermining the whole concept of patriotism and America being Awesome if I’m using that as a ploy to get my republican family members to donate money.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:23:20 +0000

@mischiefmanager: Yeah, but you could say the same of many countries with humanitarian crises and poor infrastructure. Why single out Pakistan?

Hell, it’s not like the Feds or the state of Louisiana did a very good job of getting aid to the people who needed it, either.

By: Roschelle

Roschelle — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:36:45 +0000

(“Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups” – Nietzsche) It’s sad when you think of the underlying motives for the slow response. Mankind never ceases to amaze me in their total disregard for animals of the same species.

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:27:02 +0000

You have to wonder what the chances are of any aid actually reaching the people for whom it’s intended.