The earthquakes in Syria and Turkey.

[HoldingTheDoor]

The horror of it all is unimaginable. The death toll is currently 2,300 and seems to rise almost every time I check the BBC site. The stories and photos are so heartbreaking.

I know this is a pointless post as there's nothing I can do but donate to DEC but I can't look away either.

uwt.org/emergency-appeals/turkey-syria-earthquake/

This is who I donate to due to their 100% donation policy. No admin fees taken from your donation.

It’s horrific. Please don’t send stuff like coats though- it’s so kind and well meaning but as others have explained it adds to crazy workloads and often can’t get to where it needs to. If you can spend the time instead selling items gathered locally or doing another fundraiser do that. Cash helps most.

And if a few Syrians arrive here on small boats, lobby our government to let them stay and work and send some money home - don’t detain them and send them to Rwanda. Better still campaign for a more humane, better functioning asylum system.

I totally understand the desire to send "stuff" but it's like Ukraine all over again. Mountains of stuff, uncoordinated efforts, people all doing their own thing.

SEND MONEY. Whether it's the White Helmets, or the Red Cross, or Oxfam, or Islamic Relief. These large organisations have experience and the logistical support to get in there quickly and start helping.

You'd be far far better taking your coats and clothes to the local charity shop and letting them sell them to make cash.

Exactly.
Money is the only way we truly help.

I woke up today to 6000 confirmed deaths, 6000 buildings have collapsed - the final death toll will be much higher. There is an immense international and domestic effort going on. However, I also woke up to this image from Charlie Hebdo. I used to sympathise with them, I am all for ideas to be mocked. But to mock human suffering? When you see images of children stuck in concrete dying slowly of frost and thirst. Then you go and draw this, which apparently says, no need to send tanks (to Syria they mean I guess, given there is no war going on in Turkey). What kind of twisted mind can think about this..

6000 deaths now. Oh my days.... And possibly many more as there's loads missing. Praying for them here. 🙏

Journos just get on a plane with a phone and laptop.
Rescue teams have to coordinate with other teams being sent. No point in them all turning up at the same location with the same equipment. The rescuers themselves need back up in the form of water, food, first aid equipment etc.. all needs to be taken with them.

The images coming out are absolutely harrowing.

Donated to the White Helmets, heartbreaking updated reports this evening on the news. Very sad and tragic scenes.

Only governments and the very largest NGO's have the capacity to respond to this. Saving lives is the immediate priority but reconstruction is going to take a long time, hopefully with compliance to building codes to ensure new buildings are shockproof.

Heartbreaking scenes, Sky News saying death toll will be 20k plus as there just isn't the machinery of people to free trapped people and not enough assistance to those who have survived.

Why isn't the world doing more?

This is a known earthquake area, hardly unexpected.

I'm looking at this, and I'm dumbstruck by the sheer scale. But the sheer scale can dominate the individual suffering and tragedy. They all matter. Every single bloody one. I cannot imagine. I really can't. I was in the Christchurch quakes, and they are dwarfed by the loss, the suffering, the magnitude of this.

And I'm so worried they're not going to get the care, the resources, the ongoing attention because of the ongoing conflicts, tensions, and because they're not BLOODY WHITE.

And English Speaking. And predominantly, nominally, Christian.

Why isn't the world doing more?

There's a lot of countries offering help and sending rescue teams. Of course there could be more done and likely there will be but it's only just happened and I'd imagine it'd take a day or two to arrange and gather equipment, rescue teams and other resources and book flights

Here's some of the help being offered

news.sky.com/story/turkey-syria-earthquake-which-countries-have-offered-to-help-and-what-aid-are-they-providing-12805055

It does take a lot to gather the teams and the equipment, not least because they aim to be self sufficient, taking their necessary supplies so they don't burden the local communities. USAR are amazing.

What makes you say that? 🤔

The biggest public charitable reaction in the U.K. was to the 2004 tsunami, which overwhelmingly affected non-white people.

It takes time for the scale of the tragedy to unfold, for fundraising to be set up, and more crucially to work out how it should be spent and gather the necessary personnel/resources. As well as working out, crucially, how to deliver those resources across many miles of impassable land.

People trapped in buildings in sub zero temps do not have a day or two.

I don't know what other countries have offered but given the scale of the crisis, 70 people from the UK is very small, looking through the link, seems about par for the course though.

But this needs military scale assistance, Turkey has accepted Russian military.

@Cuppasoupmonster Fund rising??? this is why i said it needs military, helicopters, large cargo planes and personnel.

Obviously i accept Turkey has to permit this.

What makes me say that is having watched so many disasters unfold, and the degrees of empathy and compassion for each. Believe me, I understand a reasonable amount about the logistics of the aid. Complicated by the ongoing tensions there.

I also remember a member of the forces watching the 2011 quake and tsunami in Japan, and turning around to us, and saying, this is bad news for you fullahs. (God knows they needed the aid more!) It's just so hard, so many places, so much need, and it's human nature I guess, to empathise more easily with those with whom you identify.

I mean, look at how people are about refugees/migrants.

And I'm so worried they're not going to get the care, the resources, the ongoing attention because of the ongoing conflicts, tensions, and because they're not BLOODY WHITE. @mbosnz

This is not relevant here, but wanted to reply to this. Turks are considered white, as an ethnic category. I'm blonde, have green eyes, never thought of myself as.. Wait, what are we? Black? Asian? Pinkish yellowish undertones? Dark-moustache people? Semitic? Ethnically there is close to zero semitic populations in anatolia (though changing now due to Syrian migration) . I guess there're lots of skin colours. Anyway, sorry to go on, but in our region we don't have these categories, I only learned about them when i was made to tick boxes in UK, then I asked, and apparently we're white, according to gov.

I want to believe 99% people aren't thinking along made up categories when sending aid to a humanitarian disaster though. I really hope so...

Thank you for that @Logsandcogs I very much appreciate the information. Sorry, I'm a tad emotional - brings back a lot of stuff. My apologies to anyone I have offended.

This has been awful to watch. My colleague is from Syria and is normally very stoic. Fortunately her family are from the south but she struggled to hold back the tears when talking about it yesterday. The Syrians who are up there are mostly the ones who fled their homes. Her family were living in the hallway of their house to avoid bombings just a few years ago and they stayed. The ones who left had it even worse. Smaller unprotected houses, closer to prolonged bombings or left without money for food and desperate. I've donated to the Red Cross. I wasn't aware of White Helmets but hope my donation makes a difference.

Saw that picture of a dad sitting holding his dead daughters hand whilst she was still trapped under all that rubble......want to say its heartbreaking but somehow that doesn't do it justice

Thank you for this. You are right to remind me of this.