Let them eat iPods

The recent earthquake in Haiti is without question a disaster of major proportions. People throughout the world have donated whatever they could to help out. But there is one group that just makes me react like fingernails on a blackboard. They call their effort "Crisis Camp". Listen to this: "For a second straight week, hundreds of CrisisCamp volunteers" well, I guess that means they're into for the long term, not. What is this army of volunteers doing? They're programming, you know, coding, like all the cool connected twittering facebook weanies think is so, well, cool and important.

I just can't grasp how disconnected from reality this bunch is. Just what are they coding? How about the Haiti Hospital Capacity Finder. You know to ensure that the hospitals are used efficiently. Uh, people, there aren't any hospitals that's the problem. What few there were are now rubble. Or how about the Disaster Accountability Project, sort of a help desk for victims to call up and get help. Call on what? The phone they never had and certainly don't have access to now. To leave their address so help can be dispatched, except that that address is now a pile of debris and nobody's there anymore.

Like most disasters there are alway people quick to see opportunities. Like this clown who is crowing about the great things his group can do. See how happy he is, nothing is more pleasing to him than a stage to walk onto and proclaim the good things that he can do.

For spoiled American brats who think twitter will save the world, let me propose a clue. Get your nose out of your computer and realize that there are places with no food, no water, and no electricity. How do they charge their iPods? How about thinking about these basic issues before forming up a project to take twitter feeds and form pipes through linkedin groups gathering facebook friends and producing absolutely nothing that helps anyone except for the egos that it strokes. And by the way, don't just send money either. We've been doing that for years and it all gets stolen by the government officials.