{"id":189,"date":"2005-09-02T14:19:36","date_gmt":"2005-09-02T18:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/09\/02\/bbc-reader-commentary\/"},"modified":"2005-09-02T14:19:36","modified_gmt":"2005-09-02T18:19:36","slug":"bbc-reader-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/2005\/09\/02\/bbc-reader-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC reader commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a1027'><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/talking_point\/4207856.stm\">Thoughts<\/a><br \/>\non the adequacy of the Katrina response, from around the world.&nbsp; I<br \/>\nwish I were there with a relief group&#8230; from the USA Freedom Corps<br \/>\nsite (needless to say, a federal program):<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 40px;\"><font size=\"1\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tAs recovery and relief efforts begin to assist victims, well-meaning<br \/>\n\t\t\tvolunteers are being urged <b>not<\/b> to report directly to the<br \/>\n\t\t\taffected areas unless directed by a volunteer agency.&nbsp; Please<br \/>\n\t\t\tbe patient and allow the professional first-responders and aid<br \/>\n\t\t\tworkers to do their job. In the coming weeks, months and years,<br \/>\n\t\t\tplease visit the<br \/>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usafreedomcorps.gov\/content\/for_volunteers\/find_opps\/index.asp\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tUSA Freedom Corps Volunteer Network<\/a> to find opportunities to<br \/>\n\t\t\tengage in ongoing relief efforts and prepare for future disasters.<\/font>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nI&#8217;m all for professionalism and training.&nbsp; Untrained volunteers<br \/>\ncan make an awful mess.&nbsp; But this is no way to build on current<br \/>\nsentiment.&nbsp; Start training willing volunteers now; note that we&#8217;re<br \/>\nlikely to have another killer storm like this within the next decade;<br \/>\ngive people remote tasks like PR outreach, name collection, even<br \/>\nfederal support for some of the grassroots communications efforts that<br \/>\nalready exist.&nbsp; Get a new server for the katrinahelp wiki, for<br \/>\ncrying out loud.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Without actually<br \/>\nlisting &#8220;volunteer agenc[ies]&#8221; who might direct these energies towards alleviating the disaster, this<br \/>\nis an awful warning to hand out.&nbsp; Rather like encouraging people to<br \/>\nsupport the responses to 9\/11 and the last Gulf invasion by &#8216;going<br \/>\nabout [their] normal business&#8217; and shopping.&nbsp; .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thoughts on the adequacy of the Katrina response, from around the world.&nbsp; I wish I were there with a relief group&#8230; from the USA Freedom Corps site (needless to say, a federal program): As recovery and relief efforts begin to assist victims, well-meaning volunteers are being urged not to report directly to the affected areas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-la-mod"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/longestnow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}