Tsunami Relief Continues
We're roughly midway through Gigantic Coordinated Tsunami Fundraising Adventure Week (what's it called again?) and the Daily Cal has a report on the efforts so far. A couple things about that article stuck me as a little odd:

1) "As of now, the coalition has raised between $1,000 and $2,000, [James Chong, co-chair of the Asian Pacific Council] said." Granted, Chong clarifies that a lot of the fundraising is ongoing, and estimates are hard to come by, but this still seems rather underwhelming. If things procede at this rate, it doesn't seem like the organizers will reach their own goal of $10,000 dollars for the week.

2) "Tuesday evening’s candlelight vigil, for example, drew more than 200 students to upper Sproul Plaza, Chong said." That quotation comes in the context of Lauren Karasek, vice president of public relations for the Panhellenic Council describing the student population as "responding enthusiastically" and the audience being "huge". Again, this strikes me as underwhelming. More than 200 students is roughly one percent of the student body at Berkeley. Is the apathy here so pervasive that it is considered a success to turn out one percent of the students for an event commemorating a natural disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of people?

3) I get the distinct impression that the lag between the tsunami and these fundraising efforts is hurting participation. Holding events nearly a month and a half after the tsunami makes much of this seem like old news. We're already long past the period of 24 hour news coverage and multiple fundraising drives (I'm guessing that many students inclined to donate already did so through the Red Cross or Amazon.com). Now, weeks later, I've yet to come across anyone who responded with enthusiasm to news of a Charity dinner or 5k run, outside of the organizers of the events. Perhaps the amount of red-tape and logistical work necessary to stage a week-long series of events like this at a University campus, and the lag-time that entails, means this is not a place well suited to raise funds for an event like the tsunami.

4) “I know a little bit about it, but I have very little knowledge of the tsunami efforts in general,” said freshman Stephanie Lo. “It wasn’t well publicized.”

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