Tag Archives: red cross

The Oklahoma tornado, and other things I have to tune out.

Posted by Shea in Politics and tagged with , , , , ,

I’m a expat from the US, and the midwest to be more specific.  I woke in London to word that a massive series of tornadoes (or one super tornado) hit Oklahoma, killing 90+ and counting.  The images are terrible, there is no doubt about it.  20 of those 90 dead are children, even worse.  Whole neighbourhoods are wiped out, and recovery will be in months, not weeks.

So why can’t I feel anything for them?

I think it might be a defence mechanism.  I know what’s about to happen in the US – the religious hucksters, tinfoil brigade, and one-uppers are about to descend.

Religious hucksters (not all religious people, mind) like Westboro Baptist will blame the gays for God’s wrath, while Pat Robertson and the 700 Club will…well, they usually blame the gays.  I don’t know how they are going to explain God’s wrath considering Oklahoma banned gay marriage (it’s worth pointing out morons actually blamed Hurricane Sandy on the New York/New Jersey areas on gay marriage being allowed.  No, really.)  Maybe God changed his mind on two dudes getting hitched?

Tinfoil Brigade:  From Alex Jones, who I’m sure will somehow blame NOAA (the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to Glenn Beck, who will somehow blame Obama (maybe we should have built a fence to protect us from immigrant funnels of wind?), within days you’ll hear the phrases ‘FEMA deathcamps’, ‘New World Order’, and the like.  (Side note, if you are from outside the US and don’t know what these phrases mean, be glad.  The stupidity is so thick with the tinfoil brigade you could cut it with a knife).

The political one-uppers:  I have a confession, I am one of these people.  See, when the tri-state area was underwater for a few months with Hurricane Sandy, a whole lot of Republicans voted against any sort of aid for them.  And since then, there have been two major natural disasters since then – one in Texas, and one last night in Oklahoma.  Who wants to guess that the representatives who voted against aid for fellow Americans in the liberal north will now be asking for it in the ‘pull yourselves up by your bootstraps’ neck of their woods?  Now, I know talking about politics post tragedy usually brings in cries of ‘Too soon!’ and ‘Don’t you care about suffering?’

And yes, I do.  Which is why I am bringing it up.

I cared about the folks drowning after Sandy, and was enraged when 67 Republicans (and no Democrats it should be noted) voted to let them rot versus look like they were attempting to help President Obama.  I was apoplectic when they branded Chris Christie, Republican and New Jersey governor, a ‘traitor’ as he worked with democrat Obama to get his state sorted as quickly as possible.  And I care about the poor peoples’ lives currently affected, I do.  Just because Oklahoma voted in a few morons doesn’t mean everyone in Oklahoma is a moron.  Far from it.  But it’s specifically after disasters such as this that we do need to discuss the polarization of politics, and how if the various Oklahoma Republicans had had one shred of decency when considering other Americans’ plight, people wouldn’t be pointing out their specific hypocrisy now.  Because post-disaster, it’s politicians who vote on relief.  It’s politics who designate a number to suffering.  And it’s fool politicians like Rand Paul and other ‘bootstrappers’ who will use their political platform to pile on to their suffering to win votes in their home states.  It’s all politics.

For what it’s worth, I hope Oklahoma gets the full weight of the federal government’s benefit, and quickly.  They shouldn’t be forced to suffer for months like the tri state area did.  If you want to donate to the Red Cross, they are also on the ground setting up triage units.  A direct donation link is here.  But I can’t let myself become invested in the disaster, as it makes it even more difficult not to become enraged when the tinfoil brigade, hucksters, and political gamesmenship starts.

US Shootings and the myth of the ‘crazed gunman’.

Posted by Shea in Politics and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(Editor’s note:  If you want conspiracy, go here).

 

Since no actual changes will be made to gun control or regulation (thanks, NRA and the politicians currently taking your blood money!), I thought I’d address an issue with post-shooting armchair psychiatry.  It never fails, after a mass shooting in the US, someone says “If only this crazy person wouldn’t have snapped, everything would have been okay”.  To begin, we need to understand that there are several definitions of ‘crazy’ (insane).

US Legal definition:  Mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior.  Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility.

US societal definition:  Mental illness or derangement.  No longer used in Medical form, instead use ‘mental health issues’.

As you can see, one can have mental health issues without necessarily being ‘insane’ in the legal sense of the word.  Plenty of people with mental health issues (author included) can attend day-to-day interactions without blowing away a school.  Important distinction.

The next issue concerns our uncomfortability with the human condition.  We don’t want to think of ourselves as base creatures, capable of extreme violence or disregard for humanity, so whenever a tragedy strikes, we call the assailant ‘crazy’.  After all, only an insane person would harm a child, right?  Well, according the the US government’s Administration for Children and Families:

“In 2004 approximately 3.5 million children were involved in investigations of alleged abuse or neglect in the US, while an estimated 872,000 children were determined to have been abused or neglected, and an estimated 1,490 children died that year because of abuse or neglect. In 2007, 1,760 children died as the result of child abuse and neglect.[1] Child abuse impacts the most vulnerable populations, with children under age five years accounting for 76% of fatalities.[2] In 2008, 8.3 children per 1000 were victims of child abuse and neglect and 10.2 children per 1000 were in out of home placement.[3]“

Were all the people in the above issues insane?  No.  Some may have been, but the majority were just awful human beings.  In fact, some of the most extensive abuses came from people lucid enough to create intricate machinations of torture and death.  From Pol Pot, Stalin, and Hitler, to the US’s own KKK, these people killed millions upon millions of innocent humans, and did knowing full well it was wrong.

So why do we want to run to the ‘crazy’ card?  Because it gives us a false sense of security.  We don’t do awful things, damaged people do.  We are good, we are decent, we would never be like that.  Every time a serial killer is caught, the neighbors go on tv and say the same thing – “He seemed so normal, we never suspected.”.  That’s the point – he was ‘normal’, but he was also an awful person.  Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, worked for the city, was a scout leader, former head of his church, and methodically killed 10 women over a 17 year period.  He knew exactly what he was doing; he knew it was wrong; he did it anyways.  He was evil – he wasn’t insane.

It may explain why when a person of color commits an atrocity, they are evil, but when a white dude from our country does it, he’s nuts.  No one called for psych evals on the 9/11 bombers, they just talked about how evil the people involved were.  Yet here, we immediately play armchair Freuds and proclaim a pre-emptive insanity defence.  It’s the us-vs-them situation.  They are terrorists; we are just a lone nut.  They are evil; we are mentally unstable.  They could have stopped themselves, we had no control.  We separate ourselves from evil acts by assigning insanity to the aggressor to soothe ourselves as a society.  Problem is, it doesn’t stop the next killing.

It’s all academic in the end.  After all, in a week we’ll all take down our commemorative avatars, and go back to obsessing over whatever reality show is popular, and the NRA will continue its tireless quest to keep para-military equipment in the hands of everyone.  Nothing will actually change, and we’ll all pretend to be surprised when the next mass shooting occurs.  But at the very least, the next time around, maybe we can assume the assailant is bad before we assume they are ‘nuts’.

 

Post Tragedy, How To Avoid Online Scams

Posted by Shea in Assorted geekery, Politics and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(Editor’s note:  If you want conspiracy, go here).

 

As the names of the children and staff of Sandy Hook are formally released to the public, social media will be flooded with memes of remembrance and tributes. While some of the people creating these images have only the best intentions, many more are spreading these viral images for underhanded and sometimes illegal purposes. Here’s a list of ways that you can help and avoid becoming a victim.

1. The Facebook ‘Like and Share’: We’ve all seen the photos on Facebook – a little girl hooked up to machines in a hospital bed, asking you to like and share if you would like to see an end to cancer. Some even show a once healthy, now sadly deceased child, imploring you to help them break a world record for likes, so their sweet baby in heaven can see how much she touched lives, or imploring you to wear a certain color on a certain day in her memory, and to pass this message to everyone you know. Even more touching is when the creator of the page claims they will donate $1 for every hundred likes and shares, if you like their page first.

Problem is, most of these are completely fake memes, usually taken from pre-made photos of grieving parents without their knowledge. Every time you like and share one of these images, the algorithm in the social media platform you are using assigns that image a level of importance – the more people who like and share, the higher importance that image has. That explains why sometimes you see the same image three or four times on your news feed. When people ‘like’ the page that created the meme (usually a name like “All The Newtown Babies Are Now Angels”), that page also rises through the algorithm rankings. The creator of the page then sells the page wholesale to the highest bidder in online marketer forums. The name of the page is changed (usually to a cheap product page) and your facebook feed gets flooded with sales spam.

(Edited to add:  I just screencapped this from a ‘memorial’ facebook page – parents of very much alive children are finding their kid’s pictures on ‘Shooting victims’ photo collages.  Stay classy, scam artists!)

 

2. The ‘Commemorative Sales’ page: I’ve seen this across every social media board – a link to a page where a commemorative car magnet or mug is being sold, with “a portion of the profits” going to help the grieving families. Any time a sales page says “portion” of profits, they usually mean less than 1% of whatever they make off the scam, if that. You are better off donating directly to the community than buying whatever trinket is being offered to you online.

3. The Celeb quote or real-time update: This is a rather cruel trick, even compared to the above, where an anonymous meme will proclaim the dying words of a victim, or attribute a celebrity quote to further their own cause. The meme will say something like “Little Jessica’s last words were: ‘I hope people know my mommy and daddy were the best for me’ – LIKE and SHARE if you support traditional marriage!!!”, or ‘If only everyone in Sandy Hook had guns, this tragedy could have been avoided “ – Morgan Freeman’. These are almost always completely false, and preys on the emotional side of us to try and score political points for whatever the creator’s cause is.
If you are ever in doubt, go to a fact checking site like Snopes to see if the story you are spreading is real or a lie. They are unfortunately already very busy picking out fake images spreading from the Newtown, Connecticut shooting, which means there are going to be a lot more scam artists working in the next few days.

So how can you avoid scams, while also helping the victims of a tragedy? Here are some top tips:

1. If you want to donate to a community, go to their local webpage (almost every town has one) or local affiliate news station’s site. They will have detailed information on how to assist the community, from financial donations to blood drives. Your re-tweets or upvotes will not help anyone – they need cash for counsellors, funerals, and to repair buildings.

2.Many larger online entities will have donation pots available online for site-or –community specific donations. Amazon, Ebay, PayPal, and other larger retailers have a safe and secure way to donate money. If it’s not a webpage you’ve heard of before, don’t give them your credit card details! You are simply asking to be a victim of credit card fraud.

3.Contact your local Red Cross and ask to send your donation specifically to the victims of the tragedy. Larger charities have a great support network, and can get your donation straight to the source.

These are all completely safe ways to help in any post-catastrophe situation which ensures your donation will have the greatest bang for its buck when helping the victims and their families.

And finally, if you feel laws should change after a horrific incident, sharing a commemorative ribbon online and then forgetting about it in a week will not work. You have to pick up the phone and call your representatives from the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House to see change. A picture shared on Twitter or Myspace only makes you feel good for a second – a letter to your legislator could save future lives.

House Directory here
Senate Directory here
White House Directory here