podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 I was going to do a fun new-to-me podcast but that will have to wait for another Friday, as we have more urgent things to talk about. Those things being the unimaginable horror of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that around 20,000 people have died and countless others have been injured, made homeless, or are otherwise traumatized. And of course, neither country was in great shape politically before to be able to handle a disaster like this.

On It Could Happen Here, Shereen talks about the earthquakes, the international response, and in particular the complications that the Assad regime, the sanctions, and the civil war pose for disaster relief. Have a listen. Trigger warning for obviously it's terrible to begin with, and then she relays a very personal, heartbreaking story that involves the death of a child, so brace yourself.

The Devastating Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

And then, if you're able, donate to a trusted relief fund.

Comments

[frandroid]

I want to direct people to give to Heyva Sor, the Kurdish Red Crescent.
https://www.heyvasor.com/en/alikari/

Donations there are the most likely to reach Kurdish victims in Turkey (and accessorily in Rojava too, though they have not been very affected by the Earthquake, except in Afrin where HS can't reach since it's now controlled by Turkish-backed thugs)

I think UNHCR would be a good place to give for reaching Syrian people (and also to get a tax receipt, which HS can't give in Canada and the US). The Canadian government is matching donations to the Red Cross, but who knows what the hell the Red Cross does with money these days. It surely did not reach Haitians when they had their earthquake...

[minoanmiss]

Thank you.

[sabotabby]

Thanks for this! I donated to UNHCR and UNRWA (there are Palestinian refugee camps affected) but I didn’t know the best way to get money to the Kurds.

[lynnenne]

I know this just sounds like a bullshit thing that people say, but I really did donate at the office. Thanks for posting this.

[sabotabby]

Thanks for donating. It always feels like not enough of a thing to do but when the crisis is so far away, it's the only thing we can do.

[greylock]

I feel like the earthquakes happened a world away (I mean figuratively, not literally).

I guess maybe since I don't have a TV, but they don't seem real. The number keeps going up (was 23,000 last I heard), and the stories on the BBC are harrowing, but it doesn't seem like a real thing.

Almost like my brain needs pictures to process it.

I did see an image of a child getting pulled put of a building, so that was nice, and apparently there are hundreds of children (some as young as seven-months-old) they can't link with parents.

[sabotabby]

That's the thing with mass death far away, every time. I think this podcast is particularly good because she personalizes it.

[frandroid]

That was really good. Thanks for posting it.

I'm just so angry that Turkey had a similar disaster in 1999, changed laws to make new buildings earthquake safe, introduced some heavy earthquake tax (!!) and it turns out it was mostly all for naught, because corruption. I'm worried about the three-month state of emergency being declared in Kurdish provinces as Erdogan is going for re-election in May. I hope he gets destroyed. The alternatives are all anti-Kurdish, but a change of air could change the dynamic. That's besides the HDP whose maximum electoral ceiling is 15%, if I'm optimistic, but that's enough to potentially be kingmaker, which is not nothing.

[sabotabby]

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that there's not such thing as a purely natural disaster.

I hope this takes Erdogan down.