Like so many other people, I’ve been thinking a lot about the earthquake that happened on Monday in Chengdu, and feeling somewhat helpless.
Well, I guess one way to help is to donate money to the rescue and aid efforts, and information about doing so can be found here.
It may seem crass to comment on the media coverage of a disaster, but the media coverage here has been fascinating. This NYTimes article pretty well sums up what’s been going on. It’s heartening to see the media rallying people together to support the rescue efforts, and nice to see the coverage being relatively open. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the coverage focusing almost exclusively on rescue and aid efforts (as the Chinese media is doing) rather than the carnage (as I fear the US media would probably do).