I heard someone was annoyed that tsunami relief collection boxes were being taken down too soon. And I thought of a product opportunity!
We should make a big electronic wall-sized display of the Top 100 “current disasters.” It can be ranked by number dead, with arrows up and down for increasing or decreasing trends (like the Billboard chart). Then, people can swipe their ATM cards and punch a button (like a vending machine) to donate to that relief effort. We could have a couple of video screens, one with looping multi-camera views of the disaster itself, another with endless talking heads about just how bad it really is, and a third with exposes on on how fraud and corruption are taking away from each effort. Then, we could have web links for browsing and comparing THIS disaster to other ones that might be similar by location, number affected, type (hurricane, avian flu, earthquake, etc), relief effort ($), etc.
Oh wait, I just described the Internet and cable TV!!
Seriously, there is so much to worry about in the world. Could we focus on our local situation, with the poverty, heroin, homelessness, and crime that locals seem to deny? Why are all the bad things so far away? The problem with instant relief efforts is that it keeps people reactive. Sigh.
March 8, 2005