DEC Gaza Appeal

[andygates]

With the BBC refusing to show the DEC Gaza appeal ad (spineless feckers), here's the gen: it's a rubble pile and the civilians aren't exactly having a great time.  DEC don't fire off appeals willy-nilly, only when it's really grim for lots of people, and DEC are not political.  They can get the aid to the people on the ground, because they already are.  Here's the donation form.

Comments

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Why are they refusing to show it?

I want to know why Gaza gets a TV ad and the Congo warrants nothing. Everyone knows about Darfur because Angelina went there, but it's much worse in the Congo. Everyone knows about Gaza because it has been all over the news but the institutionalised rape and murder in the Congo are being largely ignored.

It's not that I have any great desire to save everyone in the Congo, nor any issue with people choosing to donate to the Gaza appeal, I just find it difficult to understand why some things become a cause celebre when far worse situations are somehow unremarkable (in that no one remarks upon them). Why do we, as a people, choose to put our efforts into one disaster rather than another? From where is the consideration of value coming?

[simoneck.livejournal.com]

Can they get aid to the people?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/25/gaza-hamas

While I feel for the people caught up in this conflict, I don't want to do anything that helps or aids Hamas in anyway. And Hamas control this territory, so it's quite hard to see what will happen to my cash and how it will be used.
If charities build houses, does this mean that Hamas will have more to spend on rockets and/or will it help keep them in power?
I don't know and so will rank other charities higher on my 'causes to give money to' list.


(note that this view point doesn't mean that I support or condone the recent Israeli actions).