Donations To Japan Roll In From U.S But Less Than Haiti, Katrina

Japan could be footing more of their own clean up bill and other recovery efforts simply because many people in the United States believe that a developed, high-tech country like Japan can afford to pay for their own cleanup.

The American Red Cross announced on Wednesday that they had raised $47 million, while at the same point in time Haiti efforts had yielded $92.3 million. Another big organization World Vision also announced that their own fundraiser efforts have raised just $3 million at this time, compared to $15.8 million during the same first week period of Haiti.

As expected, fundraiser efforts during the first week of Katrina blow those numbers away with nearly $500 million being raised.

With the first week of a tragedy garnering the most press coverage, including the most images and video of devastation first week fund gathering is considered an important metric by many experts, thankfully Japan has a good deal of money to deal with their own problems, because they aren’t getting the help many other poorer countries receive.

While I feel bad for Japan relief efforts, it should be noted that the country has developed an amazing relief effort system over the last 30 years and they are fixing roads, delivering aid and focusing on the most important issues at a rate that makes FEMA look like a bunch of preschoolers.

Have you donated to Japan? Why or why not?