Star Trek fans are known to be generous and to always think of their common man (or alien). This week the people of Haiti are suffering after devastating earthquakes. The Live Journal fan group ontd_startrek has put up a UNICEF donation page for you to help out. TrekMovie hopes you can make a contribution.
Help the people of Haiti
Go to the UNICEF Star Trek Help For Haiti Page and pledge anything that you can.
Star Trek star Zachary Quinto has joined in and Tweeted about the effort. The actor is also involved in Hollywood Unites For Haiti.
100% of your donation will be used to help save children’s lives
Here is a video discussing UNICEF’s response
if you are looking for additional ways you can help, there is a list of different relief efforts at The Huffington Post.
An absolute tragedy. Hopefully, the number of dead isn’t nearly as high as some are predicting. Any number of dead is sad. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. There is a tragic pattern in major disasters such as the earthquake that happened on Tuesday. Previous large quakes in China and Pakistan and the tsunami that hit Thailand, India and Indonsia all killed tens of thousands of people. They are also countries with some of the highest poverty rates in the country. The people least deserving of such calamaties are the first to suffer. Whatever economic and social problems we face in North America, it is nothing compared to the sorrow that is being felt worldwide right now. I think we all need to contribute, in ways that are big or small, it doesn’t matter. Every small bit counts while making oneself feel good inside at trying to make a difference in helping others rebuild their way of life.
I meant “…some of the highest poverty rates in the world.”
I’ve already donated. Get your friends and family to, everybody! Better the world, better the universe!
I’d like to get in there and help
I will be contributing.
I have to turn my head when I walk into the room and video of the Haitian tragedy is on… It’s beyond upsetting.
shame we dotn have transporter technology otherwise they may have been a lot less death.
If we started to give as much money as say the cost of al the religous wars over the years to NASA , then maybee we might actually get somewere
What a horrible situation ! I hope everyone give a bit !
@ 6
AGREED !
1-
Every little bit does count.
However, how it is distributed counts too. I would encourage anyone who wishes to help to do a little research before giving and make sure it is actually going to get to Haiti. One of the unfortunate realities of disaster relief is that many of the aide groups claiming to do humanitarian work overseas are really fronts for profiteers. They will spend the money on themselves and come up with some lame excuse as to why the supplies haven’t arrived. It happens every time a tsunami, earthquake, or other natural disaster strikes.
It is sad that anyone would try to take advantage of a desperate situation for personal gain. But it is a reality of life. And it is important that the support goes to the right people.
#9 Great advice. Unfortuneately, there are “predators” looking to prey on the generosity of good-hearted people. That is why one must ensure that whatever charity they are giving to, that it is legitimate. We cannot allow the “bad guys” to profit off of a nation’s tragedy.
err I meant #8
We must help Haiti, because God will not. Because he probably does not exist.
What happened to Haiti is just another reason I am increasingly doubtful that there exists a caring and loving God.
I realize that there are all kinds of apologies — apologia — for the existence of evil despite the purported existence of a God, but all I can say is this:
1. God purportedly created human beings with free will and the intellect to appreciate him.
2. However, he apparently neglected to foresee that the use of free will would lead to consequences that would require him to sacrifice himself, through his son, to redeem some of them (i.e., to redeem those of them who believed in him, and not anyone else).
3. The Earth is also fairly imperfect, with its earthquakes and various other disasters.
4. Both “2” and “3” suggest that God is either NOT omnipotent or NOT omniscient, OR that he doesn’t really care enough about the consequences of his creation of beings of free will that he prevents the whole train of disaster known as Creation to occur to begin with.
5. God is either not truly omnipotent, or not truly omniscient, or not truly all-caring.
Q.E.D.
Thus, we must rely only on ourselves, as human beings, to save one another.
#11, Hatrick … If you are correct, then we have no hope. History proves that. I think Khan tragically summed it up best: ‘How little man himself has changed.’
Of course God knew the consequences of creating people with free will. So do we. We have children knowing full well that they will eventually turn to their own designs, perhaps even defy us or cause us pain, or suffer pain themselves. But we have them anyway–for the sake of love. We wouldn’t want them to be robots, absent of the free will to love us in return, in spite of where their free will can lead.
As for human behavior and natural disasters … Billy Graham once said that there is an element to evil in our existence that we as humans will never understand. It’s that element that is at the root of tragedies such as Haiti, Katrina, etc. Could God have stopped the earthquake? Absolutely. Why didn’t He? I don’t know. But I already see Him at work in the hearts of those who are stepping up to aid the victims of this disaster.
The question isn’t “how could god allow this?” or “does god care?” The real question is “What are you going to do about it?”
One of the most bombastic, vibrant people I know is back home in Haiti right now. She’s been facebooking about all the things she’s been experiencing, and letting her friends in he U.S. know she’s OK. And she always asks for 2 things: prayers and aid (she mainly is asking for food).
Situations like this exist, I believe, to give us an opportunity to show what humanity is really made of, to help one another, and to shine. It’s easy to write us off as rotten to the core. After all, look at all the pain we cause. But we also have the capability to care about one another, to make our world and our future better. (Isn’t that one of the messages in Star Trek?) So if there is a god, I believe he or she is letting things happen so that we can learn and grow up as a species.
Donate everybody!
#13
Agreed, we can try to discover the “whys” to try to avoid it from happening again but the most important is “what we’re gonna do about it”. Besides, if God exists and is as benign and omniscient and all-caring as we think He is, I say we don’t have the knowledge to understand the “whys” anyway.
It’s in situations like this that the human race can show their best. I still hope someday people would be touched and respectful about the lives of the others without needing some tragedy to move them. And act everyday and in every tiny situation like the marvelous creatures I’ve read all around the internet trying to do something about Haiti.
That would be the real advance in humanity as we know it.
I can always rely on fans of Trek to come up with good, reasonable responses on issues of theology and the defense of God (theodicy). I think your comments are helpful and I appreciate them.
I, too, believe that we must help one another. Whether there is a God or not, how we act in this case is much more important than what we say.
I urge everyone to donate to reputable organizations, such as the Red Cross, with an earmark for Haiti. I know I will.
Maybe God is just entirely different than whatever we think about Him, or have been taught about Him, or even believe about Him… the way an alien species will surely be entirely different than whatever we’ve imagined them to be like. Human knowledge is far more limited than it is knowing…
Apart from theology, what has happened in Haiti is truly catastrophic, and reminds us that life on earth can change and come to an end in the blink of an eye. Prayer and money will certainly help, but it will not end suffering, or such disasters. Perhaps we are all here for an entirely different reason than we think… In any case, I believe helping Haiti is “the human thing to do.”
17
“In any case, I believe helping Haiti is “the human thing to do.””
Well said!
Hey everyone. This is not the place to talk about religon. We all need to help as much as possible. So quit talking about God and get off your high horses and so on and do the right thing.
19. Capt Mike
We can talk about God and do the right thing. They might even go hand in hand.
I think everyone needs to stop blaming God for every bad thing that happens. Maybe we should stop arguing about what religion is right, or wrong, or if there or is not a God, and just help our fellow man.
I think that’s what God would want. Petty arguing doesn’t help anyone. And that’s why we’re here, right?
OK enough divisive religion debate this is about uniting to help people in need
You are absolutely correct Anthony ! Lets hope and pray people get the medical help they need rather than dying from relatively simple injuries . Maybe if everyone lost 50 pounds there would less weight pushing on the planets plates !
Correction : everone in the world ………… this is just a joke for another blogger !
Very few comments on this topic, while so many comments on any other topic. Very telling.
Watching the news this morning, it is obvious there are far greater problems going on in Haiti than any sort of conversation is going to help. The last thing these people need is conversation. For the most part, what the average Joe-Six-Pack can do is make a contribution to the Red Cross, or the Clinton website, or other such relief avenues. The problem is that the goods are not getting to the area most affected by the earthquake, and by the time help does get there, many more will have died. There are many missionaries, doctors, soldiers and other assistance trying to make their way into the cities. The Haitian government was already somewhat disorganized, and this disaster has made that situation even worse. There is no organization whatsoever. Helping these people will take the same kind of force it took to wreck those cities.
the huffington post is the best link you could come up with?
How about the international red cross or American red cross?
@ 11. Hat Rick – January 15, 2010
If you are referring to the Christian God, he does actually exist in one form or another. Mankind apologizes for their limited and fundamental interpretation of biblical literature; thus, you get a lot of believers supporting the apologetic movements. They are trying to make excuses for misinterpreting the bible, for they actually lack an understanding of who their God is.
What you are taught in Sunday school is a very-very fundamental interpretation of biblical scripture, so I can see how many people are asking, “How can God (or any God) allow this to happen?”
Within the last few years, people have also blamed mankind for creating weather patterns to kill people. I don’t know where all that came from, but it is rather ridiculous to believe mankind has supernatural powers. We can’t stop nature.
When it comes to God’s actions and inaction, with humanities affairs, it all goes back to an older promise between him and humanity. Within the good old King James bible, God said he would no longer directly interfere with humanity. It has to do with allowing freewill, and how our choices causes self-imposed positive and negative consequences.
Haiti is a fundamental society built on the rejection of modernism, which is both self-imposed and a happenstance of its location. Helping these people is a noble cause, and you can’t help but feel for these people. If God puts a hand on this issue, he will use it to teach everyone a lesson in humility. He didn’t create this issue, but he will use it as a means to teach people.
I said stop trying to turn this into an argument on religion
RE: links
the top of the article has a link to the Trekkies page at UNICEF. The Huffington Post link was one I found that was a good compilation of additional places to help, including the Red Cross.
or you can go roll your own.
@ 22. Anthony Pascale – January 15, 2010
“OK enough divisive religion debate this is about uniting to help people in need”
@ 29. Anthony Pascale – January 16, 2010
“The Huffington Post link was one I found that was a good compilation of additional places to help, including the Red Cross.”
—————————
Helping these people can take many forms. Some people resort to praying, sending money, sending clothes, sending a teddy bear, etc…
After seeing a report in the news were hundreds of thousands are feared dead, talking about religion is a natural process that helps people cope.
Maybe you should make a list of churches and other charities, so people have a diverse set of avenues to choose from.
Remember, we are not Trekkie or Trekkers, nor are we some machine that jumps at commands. We are only human.
Human beings are unpredictable, chaotic thinkers, and uniquely independent. When people think about one subject, there are multiple doors that spring open from that one starting point. Online forums, chat-rooms, and commentaries are run by individuals who should understand this logic. You cannot bottle up another human being, and then expect them to function as a piece of machinery. When you function in the real world, you don’t talk to another human in real life by saying, “Okay folks, we are limiting our conversation to…”. Real life (offline) human conversations flow seeming-less from one topic to another. Some of the topic we converse about in real-life move within the same topic, but through extensions of the original subject matter.
We are not machines. We do not think in categorical and orderly fashion.
I sent my $10 in via text message :) good luck haiti