Comics for Japan
The veteran D.J. Coffman has started a relief effort for comics to help the recovery process in Japan. Straight from the man’s words, how you can help is below:
Tsunamis and now a Nuclear emergency, Japan is facing one of the worst catastrophes in recorded history. Entire towns have been wiped out. There’s a food shortage and people have no place to go. What can we do from so far away?
Draw comics.
Dear webcomic creators, this Friday, March 17th 2011, we’re urging you to mention the following links either in your comic or on your comic’s blog. Whether you have 10 readers or 10,000 readers, we as webcomic creators are fortunate to have an audience that we can encourage to help donate in ways that will directly aid the people of Japan. Here are the two key places you should mention in your comic or on your comic’s blog:
Google Crisis Response – This link is for monetary donations. It is a google page made by the Red Cross in Japan. The lowest people can donate is 100 yen which is roughly $2 and change.Every little bit counts.
Second Harvest Japan – Second Harvest is an organization in Japan where people can ship supplies that will be on the ground DIRECTLY to the people who need them. Take a look at the list of supplies at the link. You might consider gathering up a big box of supplies and having a few friends pitch in for shipping to Japan. They need raw supplies more than money at this time.
Anyone who participates in this, please comment here and leave your link or send us an email with a link to your “Comics For Japan” strip. If you can’t make the deadline this week, we’re planning on doing a collected post of comics on every Friday. Please help!
You can also see how to help if you are a cartoonist by visiting his site here.
Discussion (19) ¬
I don’t mean to make light of their plight but isn’t Japan like a hugely rich and developed country, why’d they need donations? While I understand things are bad (really, really bad) I have trouble imagining that they’d lack resources or organizational abilities required to deal with it. This isn’t Somalia we’re talking about.
Is it more of a logistical issue? Getting to all the places that need to be gotten to?
Demerit.
I think, Phil, the good Captain wasn’t saying “Screw Japan”, but was actually taking a look at a moral quandary. Japan has gotten hit by a horrible disaster. However, there are locations around the globe that are ALSO recovering from disasters of their own (Example: Haiti). While Japan will get help and funds, Haiti, which has never had its own economy, is losing still-needed emergency funds to a more recent disaster.
Personally, I still think we should do whatever we can to help Japan, while not forgetting the other places that are still in need. I just thought I’d try to see his argument from his point of view, as it obviously wasn’t fueled by discrimination and Jean-Luc has never struck me as an “ignorant” guy, he must have had some reason for saying what he said. I mean, I don’t necessarily agree with him; like I said, I think BOTH places should continue to receive as much aid as possible, not just for the ones that is judged to be “in more need” to receive a majority.
And this is why Batman is the greatest detective in the entire world.
You’re right, in that Japan has a large aid budget, and an economy where people pitch in to help, but it’s all a sense of scale. Yes, they could afford to clear everythign up, but the cost of acting quickly is very high, and the more resource that can be mobilised immediately, the more lives will be saved.
Were you aware that America is ALSO a hugely rich and developed country? And then when Katrina hit and New Orleans was smashed there was quite a large bit of money donated to help? And shockingly some of that money came from overseas donations! Even from Japan! When sh*t hits the fan people want to help, and money is ALWAYS a good way to help fund recovery efforts, not so much for the country itself, but to help the people stricken by the disaster.
When I say “country” I mean the people of course, what else? I’d just assume countries like this could afford to take care of their own. And yes, the Katrina thing is even more baffling. That this huge federation of supposedly united states couldn’t pull enough resources to bail out one city in due time. I guess it wasn’t in the budget. Imagine if this sort of thing became more common and global.
US at least has the excuse of practically having been bought by China. Don’t know how things were in Japan but I’d assumed that the probably most technologically advanced country in the world with a work ethic that almost puts Germany to shame would be doing well.
In any case I wasn’t arguing that they shouldn’t be helped or that it was wrong to do so. I was genuinely puzzled at this notion of Japan not having enough money to effectively fund relief efforts. So don’t get your panties in a twist (Phill too).
Hey, man. If you don’t want to be taken to task for seeming like an uncaring person, you may want to choose your words more carefully. I don’t know you personally, so I can’t take for granted what you might mean to say.
It’s easy to assume that countries like Japan have all the resources they need to handle their disasters, but from what I gather… many of those resources were destroyed in the disaster itself. So if you see the photos, footage, and accounts of how bad shit is over there, I think it’s a safe bet that they’re not as well-stocked as you might think they are.
No undergarments have been contorted, all’s cool, but I hope you can understand how I read your original post as slightly incredulous.
Ok Phil, no harm done.
Civil discourse up in this bitch.
Japan’s donations were massive during that time, it’s true but at the same time they are required by the UN to provide funding for overseas aid. (It’s all a bit wierd, but my point is just that it’s not as simple as you’re making out.)
This isn’t saying we shouldn’t donate. We should – because dangnabit, compassion is what makes us human.
My next comic update is on Sunday. I’ll make sure to throw in a link.
Jean-Luc… Entire towns have been wiped off the map, and there is a major food shortage for the survivors on the ground. So sending supplies direct to SECOND HARVEST, the food would be eaten almost immediately. America is rich, but we still haven’t rebuilt New Orleans after Katrina… the main immediate concern here is getting aid to the organizations who are helping survivors RIGHT NOW. Thanks!
Hey, Deej. What’s good?
From what I understand, Japan’s economy has been barely holding steady or declining for the last 20 years.
Speaking of comic relief (heh) for Japan, there’s also this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1932174840/japan-needs-heroes
Here we go
I also drew a picture and linked to these links in APM – which is my Art Project March.