Dear Friends,
First I want to say thanks so much to all of you who have send your prayers and wishes to me and my family, since they still live in Thailand. Fortunately, they weren't affected at all by the Tsunami, so we count our blessings.
I wanted to remind people that there are still several ways to help those affected by the Tsunami, and here is a short lit of what you can do:
Donate to A Trusted Charity:
Groups like the Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/ and UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/ can still use the money. Even though many governments have PLEDGED large amounts of money, often ONLY TEN PERCENT of that money is actually given by those governments. And congress is considering allowing donations made until the end of January to be written off on your 2004 taxes (check with your accountant FIRST to see if this will apply to your taxes, because the tax laws are a big mystery to us!!!)
Vacation In Those Countries: To my horror, I saw a travel agent on the TV news saying that anyone who was planning on going to the countries affected by the Tsunami should cancel their vacations. NONSENSE! :x
The governments (and the people) of those countries need your vacation dollars now more than ever as they try to rebuild the areas devastated by the Tsunami.
Please, Please, Please, if you have made reservations to travel to the area, DO NOT CANCEL those reservations. Yes, if you were planning on going to a town or area that was directly affected by the Tsunami, then you will want to stay somewhere else. But often just staying at a different town in the same province or island means you will NOT be in any jeopardy at all.
However, canceling your trip, and denying the revenue that your vacation dollars would mean for the local population, is like punishing those affected by the Tsunami twice over.
Buy Products From Those Countries: When you go shopping for clothing, look where it was made. There is a lot of clothing made in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, and the other affected countries, and your purchase of clothing or other goods from the area will only help those countries in their redevelopment efforts.
Send A Letter to Your Congress Person: As mentioned above, buying products from those items will help those countries. But the USA has all sorts of taxes on imports from those countries which hurt the small producers and employees the most. Write your senator and representative and ask them to repeal those tariffs for a year or two to help out! And while you are at it, remind them that your country has a responsibility to actually DELIVER the money and supplies that were PROMISED to the United Nations for relief efforts.
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