earthquake relief

with the death toll at 25,000 and the relief efforts patchy at best (and the governments involved coming under strident criticism—good to know the US isn't the only one....), it's tough to know how to help out the survivors in Pakistan, India, and Kashmir. A recent post to the H-Asia discussion list (link above) gives an annotated list of relief agencies that need money and will actually purchase what people need, as opposed to giving them wet, oversized clothes when they really need shelter from the current cold and the oncoming winter.

as discussed earlier, some of these regions and cities are in constant crisis mode, but this particular situation is of course way over the top, and while we tend to think of India as a hot, humid country, that is a legacy of our colonial, orientalist past: India's climate ranges quite a bit, and the areas hit are some of the coldest in the country come winter.