Tsunami didn't solve problems in Darfur, Congo

Listened yesterday to a Charlie Rose interview with U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who recently and famously slammed the US and other wealthy nations for being stiny with their aid $$. Among the important points Egeland made was that the media tends to focus on one disaster at a time, so that incidents like the tsunami (which has attracted an unprecedented volume of relief donations, from both governments and private individuals) completely overshadow equally serious and ongoing--and seriously underfunded--humanitarian efforts, such as those in Sudan (which seems to have just ended its 21 year-old war) and eastern Congo.

Of course it's sexier to donate $$ to help victims of the disaster of the moment, but--at the risk of being shunned at the next cocktail party--you might choose to give instead through an organisation such as the World Food Programme, which offers donors the option of selecting the country to which they wish to direct their funds.