Something everybody should do

Want to earn some karma points?

The Honourable Aileen Carroll, Minister of International Cooperation, announced today that the Government of Canada will match on a one-to-one basis donations from Canadians to the tsunami relief efforts...
The Government will match donations made by individual Canadians to Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) already involved in responding to the disaster. These include the Canadian Red Cross, CARE Canada, OXFAM, World Vision, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children. Donations will be matched retroactive to December 26, 2004, the date of the earthquake and tsunamis. The program will be reassessed following the UN donors' conference which will take place on January 11, 2005.

Now, this is not quite as generous as it may sound: the Canadian government had already allocated "up to C$40 million" to be distributed among relief organizations, and the matching donations will initially come from that budget. (Read the announcement here.) Still, it's a good idea and a noble gesture and we should all join in. The government has said that the fund is open-ended, meaning they will match any sum of money that citizens donate.

Here's a further little incentive: Having beaten the Americans at hockey (again), let's see whether we can't beat them at philanthropy too.

Non-Canadians readers can make a donation to the Red Cross disaster relief fund via Amazon.

[Update at 5.Jan] The Globe and Mail reports that some C$70 million had been donated by midnight this morning.