转篇路透的文章，（为什么）不要给日本捐款

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/14/dont-donate-money-to-japan/

Don’t donate money to Japan
MAR 14, 2011 14:12 EDT
        
PHILANTHROPY
Individuals are doing it, banks are doing it — faced with the horrific news and pictures from Japan, everybody wants to do something, and the obvious thing to do is to donate money to some relief fund or other.

Please don’t.

We went through this after the Haiti earthquake, and all of the arguments which applied there apply to Japan as well. Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. And as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green said last year, we are all better at responding to human suffering caused by dramatic, telegenic emergencies than to the much greater loss of life from ongoing hunger, disease and conflict. That often results in a mess of uncoordinated NGOs parachuting in to emergency areas with lots of good intentions, where a strategic official sector response would be much more effective. Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded.

In the specific case of Japan, there’s all the more reason not to donate money.Japan is a wealthy country which is responding to the disaster, among other things, by printing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of new money. Money is not the bottleneck here: if money is needed, Japan can raise it. On top of that, it’s still extremely unclear how or where organizations like globalgiving intend on spending the money that they’re currently raising for Japan — so far we’re just told that the money “will help survivors and victims get necessary services,” which is basically code for “we have no idea what we’re going to do with the money, but we’ll probably think of something.”

Globalgiving, it’s worth pointing out, was created to support “projects in the developing world,” where lack of money is much more of a problem than it is in Japan. I’m not at all convinced that the globalgiving model can or should be applied directly to Japan, without much if any thought about whether it’s the best way to address the issues there.

That said, it’s entirely possible that organizations like the Red Cross or Save the Children will find themselves with important and useful roles to play in Japan. It’s also certain that they have important and useful roles to play elsewhere. So do give money to them — and give generously! And give money to other NGOs, too, like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which don’t jump on natural disasters and use them as opportunistic marketing devices. Just make sure it’s unrestricted. The official MSF position is exactly right:

The ability of MSF teams to provide rapid and targeted medical care to those most in need in more than 60 countries around the world – whether in the media spotlight or not – depends on the generous general contributions of our donors worldwide. For this reason, MSF does not issue appeals for support for specific emergencies and this is why we do not include an area to specify a donation purpose on our on-line donation form. MSF would not have been able to act so swiftly in response to the emergency in Haiti, as an example, if not for the ongoing general support from our donors. So we always ask our supporters to consider making an unrestricted contribution.

I’ve just donated $400 in unrestricted funds to MSF. Some of it might go to Japan; all of it will go to areas where it’s sorely needed. I’d urge you to do the same, rather than try to target money at whichever disaster might be in the news today.

Update: Some bright spark has set up a “Socks for Japan” drive. I’m not making this up. I trust that none of my readers are silly enough to send socks to Japan, but this is a great indication of how wasteful a lot of well-intentioned giving can be.

文章不长，要点就是日本首先是个富国，（世界第三大经济体，亚洲最富），更重要的是日本央行跟美联储一样，见势不妙就开始印钱了，这两天日本央行为了救市已经向各大银行注资了23万亿日元。如果日本政府在救灾的时候缺钱，完全可以按美联储的套路，由日本央行购买国债，注资给日本政府。

所以说筹集救灾资金根本不是救灾的瓶颈所在，海外人士的捐款，最终结果就是日本政府到时候少发点国债，减轻日本政府借贷压力，改善日本政府的财务状况。

后面也是挺有意思的东西，主要是说那些筹集资金的ngo根本没有想好筹了钱做什么，捐给ngo毛用没有。

其实确实日本现在救灾最缺的还是人力物力，自卫队战力太差，食品药品燃料供应不足，这些方面外国想帮，除非像md那样上航母，否则都只能意思意思而已。国内大学生给日本捐款，要是自发的还好，要是有人发动，那发动的哥们明显脑袋灌水。你捐那点rmb，不赶上日本央行动个嘴皮子的九牛一毛呢。http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/14/dont-donate-money-to-japan/

Don’t donate money to Japan
MAR 14, 2011 14:12 EDT
        
PHILANTHROPY
Individuals are doing it, banks are doing it — faced with the horrific news and pictures from Japan, everybody wants to do something, and the obvious thing to do is to donate money to some relief fund or other.

Please don’t.

We went through this after the Haiti earthquake, and all of the arguments which applied there apply to Japan as well. Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. And as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green said last year, we are all better at responding to human suffering caused by dramatic, telegenic emergencies than to the much greater loss of life from ongoing hunger, disease and conflict. That often results in a mess of uncoordinated NGOs parachuting in to emergency areas with lots of good intentions, where a strategic official sector response would be much more effective. Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded.

In the specific case of Japan, there’s all the more reason not to donate money.Japan is a wealthy country which is responding to the disaster, among other things, by printing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of new money. Money is not the bottleneck here: if money is needed, Japan can raise it. On top of that, it’s still extremely unclear how or where organizations like globalgiving intend on spending the money that they’re currently raising for Japan — so far we’re just told that the money “will help survivors and victims get necessary services,” which is basically code for “we have no idea what we’re going to do with the money, but we’ll probably think of something.”

Globalgiving, it’s worth pointing out, was created to support “projects in the developing world,” where lack of money is much more of a problem than it is in Japan. I’m not at all convinced that the globalgiving model can or should be applied directly to Japan, without much if any thought about whether it’s the best way to address the issues there.

That said, it’s entirely possible that organizations like the Red Cross or Save the Children will find themselves with important and useful roles to play in Japan. It’s also certain that they have important and useful roles to play elsewhere. So do give money to them — and give generously! And give money to other NGOs, too, like Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which don’t jump on natural disasters and use them as opportunistic marketing devices. Just make sure it’s unrestricted. The official MSF position is exactly right:

The ability of MSF teams to provide rapid and targeted medical care to those most in need in more than 60 countries around the world – whether in the media spotlight or not – depends on the generous general contributions of our donors worldwide. For this reason, MSF does not issue appeals for support for specific emergencies and this is why we do not include an area to specify a donation purpose on our on-line donation form. MSF would not have been able to act so swiftly in response to the emergency in Haiti, as an example, if not for the ongoing general support from our donors. So we always ask our supporters to consider making an unrestricted contribution.

I’ve just donated $400 in unrestricted funds to MSF. Some of it might go to Japan; all of it will go to areas where it’s sorely needed. I’d urge you to do the same, rather than try to target money at whichever disaster might be in the news today.

Update: Some bright spark has set up a “Socks for Japan” drive. I’m not making this up. I trust that none of my readers are silly enough to send socks to Japan, but this is a great indication of how wasteful a lot of well-intentioned giving can be.

文章不长，要点就是日本首先是个富国，（世界第三大经济体，亚洲最富），更重要的是日本央行跟美联储一样，见势不妙就开始印钱了，这两天日本央行为了救市已经向各大银行注资了23万亿日元。如果日本政府在救灾的时候缺钱，完全可以按美联储的套路，由日本央行购买国债，注资给日本政府。

所以说筹集救灾资金根本不是救灾的瓶颈所在，海外人士的捐款，最终结果就是日本政府到时候少发点国债，减轻日本政府借贷压力，改善日本政府的财务状况。

后面也是挺有意思的东西，主要是说那些筹集资金的ngo根本没有想好筹了钱做什么，捐给ngo毛用没有。

其实确实日本现在救灾最缺的还是人力物力，自卫队战力太差，食品药品燃料供应不足，这些方面外国想帮，除非像md那样上航母，否则都只能意思意思而已。国内大学生给日本捐款，要是自发的还好，要是有人发动，那发动的哥们明显脑袋灌水。你捐那点rmb，不赶上日本央行动个嘴皮子的九牛一毛呢。