A Fear To Give

Humanitarian Aid Charities collecting for Lebanon have run into difficulties collecting in the United States. It’s not that there’s a lack of desire to give, but it turns out there’s a fear to give…apparently, Americans are a little afraid of what their government might have to say if they donate…because after all the NSA is watching and what if you accidently donate to the wrong charity and your name ends up in a database somewhere listing you as a supporter of terrorists? Remember, if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

Some people want to get around that by donating goods, but this complicates matters because it’s expensive to the charities — goods have to be sorted by people which takes time and shipped which also takes time …and also costs the charity money…

Charities prefer that people send money rather than food, medicine or other goods, because in-kind donations force the charities to pay for shipping, delay the arrival of the aid, and saddle relief workers with the task of sorting and distributing items that may not be needed.

The problem, according to relief groups, is that many people who are inclined to write checks for emergency aid and reconstruction in Lebanon are afraid of ending up in some government database of suspected supporters of terrorism.

Arab American leaders say this is one of the unintended consequences of the U.S. government’s crackdown on charities run by Muslims. Though aimed at cutting off illicit funding for terrorist groups, the crackdown has complicated legitimate humanitarian relief efforts in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.

“Dozens of people have approached me. They want to help, they want to send money to buy medicine, and they’re afraid of the government reaction to their contribution,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Some do it anyway. They can’t sit idly. But they worry that one day they’ll hear a knock on the door.”

CAIR, which is one of the country’s largest Muslim organizations, reluctantly is encouraging donations of goods, on the grounds that they are better than nothing. Its Web site, http://www.cair-net.org , lists needed items, such as rice, sugar and cooking oil, along with detailed instructions on how to pack and send them.

“We’re forced to go the least effective route, which is sending actual relief supplies, because of the restrictions on, and the problems associated with, sending financial relief to the Middle East,” CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said. “If you send lentils, at least no one can accuse you of supporting terrorism.”

Some other groups, such as the Arab American Institute, are taking the opposite tack, recommending against in-kind donations.

“We’ve been encouraged not to do that by the Lebanese Embassy and others — not to send goods, because it’s inefficient and it takes money to sort it out and decide what to do with it. What’s needed is cash so people on the ground can buy what they need, when they need it,” said James J. Zogby, president of the institute, a Washington-based advocacy group.

[…]

“In the context of the NSA monitoring everything under the sun, people are afraid,” he said, referring to the National Security Agency’s monitoring of international phone calls and e-mails. He added that he has repeatedly urged U.S. officials to publish a list of legitimate charities, to no avail.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government has shut down three major U.S.-based charities for allegedly funneling support to terrorists, and it has designated more than 40 charities internationally as terrorist financiers. Last week, the Treasury Department barred U.S. citizens from contributing to two more groups: the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the Saudi Arabia-based International Islamic Relief Organization.

Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said that the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a “one-stop shopping” list of banned entities, known as the Specially Designated Nationals List, on its Web site, http://www.treasury.gov/ofac .

But she said the department has declined to produce a list of approved charities in the Middle East “for two reasons: No. 1, any charity that we deemed clean, we could not guarantee that it would always remain so. And No. 2, it would put the government in the position of playing favorites.”

[…]

” United Jewish Communities, an umbrella organization for 155 Jewish charities across the country, announced last week that it will raise at least $300 million in emergency aid for Israel. The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington alone intends to raise $10 million toward that goal.

By comparison, the flow of private U.S. donations for humanitarian aid in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories is a mere trickle, estimated by relief groups at a few million dollars. Donors who fear giving to Muslim charities can contribute to the International Committee of the Red Cross or groups such as CARE and Mercy Corps — large, international relief groups that are the major conduit of such aid.

Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the organization has decided to funnel its Lebanon relief contributions through Mercy Corps, an Oregon-based group that she pointedly noted “is not an Islamic charity.”

But some Muslim groups are intent on proving that they, too, can collect money and distribute it without problems.

Ziad J. Asali, a retired physician in Illinois who heads the American Task Force on Palestine, said his group is giving $20,000 each to Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem and St. Luke’s Hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus. After consulting with the State Department, he said, the task force decided to pay the bills for medical supplies that the hospitals order from their regular suppliers. [“Muslim Charities Say Fear Is Damming Flow of Money” (WashingtonPost.com)]

How free do you feel now? Free to feel as compassionate as you want to whomever you want? You can’t even write a check to help someone without worrying that you might wind up on the wrong side of an interrogation table one day under the current Administration’s game plan…

Tags: Humanitarian Aid, Lebanon, Arab, charity, spying on Americans, Treasury Department, United Jewish Communities, CAIR, Arab American Institute, NSA, International Islamic Relief Organization, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Task Force on Palestine, State Department

comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, Featured, The Middle East

Does H&R Block Discriminate Against The Disabled?

An acquaintance of mine mentioned yesterday that she is offended by H&R Block’s current tax-season ad campaign.

You’ve seen it. There’s an H&R Block representative giving deduction advice to a client and finally the client asks if she does that for everyone and the rep says, “Only for people who work for a living.”

My acquaintance is on disability. She’s not the only person I know who is. Perhaps she’s one of the few I know who doesn’t take advantage of it, but that’s beside the point. The fact is that she was offended by the commercial. She would like to work for a living and she felt that the commercial suggests a kind of discrimination against her ilk as if she’s not worthy of their business because she doesn’t get a 9-5 kind of paycheck or that she wouldn’t get the same kind of service because she doesn’t have a plentiful income.
I caught the commercial after she mentioned it. I hadn’t recalled seeing it bfore — probably because I do my own taxes. I think she’s right about the commercial; it is insulting and belittling.

Tags: H&R Block, Discrimination

Get Off Your Ass & Vote Tomorrow!

I’m fairly certain that in most places in the United States tomorrow there will be a voting booth open. Oh, sure, there’s nothing big to vote on like the Presidency, but there’s still important decisions to make.

Heck, here in Maine, we’re voting on the right to discriminate against perceived homosexuals. Oh, I’ll be voting “no” against repealing the law that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination, but the important thing is that people get out and make an educated vote for whatever their cause. Just because you think whatever’s on the ballot doesn’t affect you, just because you think it’s not as important as last year’s election, doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to vote.

Think of those countries we’re bringing democracy to and how they’ve risked their lives to go to the polls and cast their vote and make their voice count. The likelihood of a polling place here in the states, in your community, getting bombed tomorrow is probably less than the likelihood of a whole day passing in the entire Middle East without a bomb or attack of some sort. Be a role model. Don’t take for granted the very thing our soldiers are dying to give other people!

You know, people died in this country so we could have the right to vote too. Maybe we shouldn’t disrespect their sacrifice for our personal freedoms.

Tags: vote, politics, Gay Rights, Discrimination, Freedoms

Where are all the cute fat short clothes?

Goodwill Eploded In My Living Room!

O.K. Not really.

However, every piece of clean clothes is now located in my living room — except the 1/3 of the closet that I returned to the closet. There are two rather large plastic tubs of winter clothes and two rather large plastic tubs, 3 medium under-the-bed-type plastic boxes, and two small tubs of clothes that are too small. I seriously almost started crying when I packed up my cute skinny clothes. So sad that I can’t wear them anymore because I can’t seem to stop eating. Also, I appear to have four small drawers empty. The socks might fill two of those, but this seriously is a first.

Now that I’ve sorted through every last piece of clothing (except trying to match the socks), I have come to the conclusion that I have too many clothes in too many sizes (I will never have to buy pants in sizes 10 & 12 — seriously) and not enough in my current size.

And so we come to my current complaint of the day: cute plus-sized petite clothes — who sells them? Do they even make them?

Petite does not mean teeny tiny slip of a person, it means a short person and guess what, we short people can gain weight like everyone else. And even if we gain weight, we still want to look good. Why is it most plus-sized clothes look like something your grandmother would wear only around the house? Don’t fashion people realize that some of us are in our 20’s and 30’s and we need nice looking clothes to go to work, the grocery, dinner, and all sort of places in too?

It’s hard enough finding plus-sized clothes that doesn’t have a glaring tacking floral print that even the Hawaiians wouldn’t wear, but add in petite and you’re doomed.

I’m doomed.

I did manage to find 2 pairs of plain black and plain khaki slacks at Catherine’s online but even they only have 15 items to choose from. Even mall-famousLane Bryant didn’t have much to offer those of us who are height-deprived. Avenue, Lerner’s version of Lane Bryant, is limited too and Petite Sophisticate was a big disappointment — their plus sizes mostly stopped at 14 and 16.

Surely with the obesity epidemic in America, I am not the only overweight short woman in America. Surely, I’m not the only one who hasn’t given up entirely on looking nice when I roll myself out of the front door and off to work?

If I can’t find any decent clothes I’m going to have to call in fat and have the dentist wire my jaw shut until those size 10 & 12 clothes fit again.

Tags: obesity, Discrimination