Personal Finance Guides: Yolanda (Haiyan) victims need no whistle-blower

I really like Wrigley's tagline - "In times like these, you need a juicy". This simply reminds us to be cool and calm in adversities than being stupid enough to be prejudicial and skeptical. Being cool and calm is not being passive and lazy but being strategic and action-oriented. It's the message of this post.

The devastation of typhoon Yolanda was a black swan. That was the strongest storm ever recorded and some considered it to be an outlier.

But the fact that it happened simply pushes us to think and act differently than what we did in the past. This is already an alarming call for us to act and change, far different than the way we lived before.

Yolanda Lessons and Action Plans

Cars and houses were flushed out like ants in the molehill. This might happen again, God forbid. Strengthen buildings and infrastructure projects to anticipate stronger gusts in the future (take note of "stronger"). Perhaps the single mistake was we were unable to anticipate the worst case scenario. Preventive action plans could have done.
Create a robust Emergency Response and Preparedness Team to act immediately in Search and Rescue Operations (SRO) and relief goods distribution. The bulk of work here is on PLANNING. We should never take this for granted. Let's not make 'death of hunger' a reason for more casualties and looting as a legal act.
The KISS Principle. Most people complain about how the media disseminated the news report. They kept on hearing about "storm surge" but no one seemed to care. "If the people were told of a 'mini-tsunami' instead, many could have evacuated and survived!", one friend told me. Valid but there is always two sides of a coin. Media and government must be proactive enough to convey the news in an easy-to-understand layman's term to the nth time. Keep It Simple Stupid!

Truly, helping is the living word in crisis. It is not about being a whistle-blower. Imperfections and inefficiencies are expected but should not be treated like a billion-dollar-lotto-prize - some overreact that they didn't even verify if the information was really true. And they're making it worse through viral publications. Not good.

Granting the information is true, it wouldn't help either. Hungry victims don't need whistle-blowers but food and water.

I'm not blaming. Not complaining either. And I'm not giving any advice. You know yourself better than I. It is also evident that maggots and parasites flock these times to piggyback the situation.

This is not something new. This happens every time, only that the majority of us only discovered this 'sad truth' just this time. This happens anywhere in the world too but on a lighter scale.

Enough said. Action time. I placed links below for those of you who want to give cash donations. It is not through government. I guess you know why it's better to give to Non-government Organizations (NGO) and private firms. I trust this list. Choose at your convenience. Shoot a comment if we need to blacklist something.

Note: These are direct links to the donate page to save you time searching for the donate button; not in particular order.

OTHER PHILIPPINE FUNDRAISERS

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER