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Comment by app4soft | Hacker News Reader

Tim Berners-Lee tweeted today:

> 33 years ago today, I submitted a proposal for a system called the World Wide Web.[0]

> I'd normally publish thoughts on the state of the web. But these are not normal times. Instead, Rosemary Leith & I ask you to join us to #StandWithUkraine however you can.

> https://webfoundation.org/2022/03/standing-with-ukraine-a-me...

This tweet also quotes Rosemary Leith's yesterday's tweet:

> To mark the web's birthday this year, Tim Berners-Lee and I have donated to causes supporting women, children & journalists in Ukraine.[1]

> Join us, if you can, to contribute and #StandWithUkraine.

> https://webfoundation.org/2022/03/standing-with-ukraine-a-me...

[0] https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/150259484604495463...

[1] https://twitter.com/rosemaryleith/status/1502224095001382913

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Since they link to a Ukrainian Red Cross site... does anyone whether that's the best organization to donate to for humanitarian aid to people in Ukraine?

And if it is, site looks like they use Stripe, but is it possible to donate directly from stripe.com, not using an odd Web site?

The Red Cross is generally regarded as the best humanitarian aid organization out there, maybe tied with a couple others like Doctors Without Borders

I was told a long time ago that one difference between the two is that the Red Cross will only go into territories where it is legally allowed to do so, whereas Doctors Without Borders will get into conflict zones even when not welcome and risk their lives in the process. My view is we're fortunate to have both.

Note though that humanitarian aid (i.e. aid that's strictly focused on relief towards disaster zones) is generally harder and plausibly gets a lot less bang for the buck than efficiently targeted health- and development-aid. The latter also tends to get a lot less attention, which means even small-scale donors have opportunities to make a huge long-term difference if they direct their funds wisely.

The charity evaluators I'm aware of have pointed out that trying to evaluate the effectiveness of causes like disaster relief is extremely hard, despite how popular that cause is in general.

No, they aren't. They raised $500m for Haiti and either embezzled it or incompetently wasted it. [1]

Their website contains claims that can only be described as fraud (claiming to help more people in an area than actually reside there, among other things).

There administration fees were well over 1/3rd in Haiti.

It's theft, basically.

[1] https://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-re...

That's the American Red Cross

They both work under the banner of the ICRC, which was involved in both the Haiti disaster (I'm talking about the Red Cross' incompetence, not the earthquake) as well as Ukraine operations.

It's hard to see how a corrupt incompetent organization would be different because an affiliated entity is operating in another country (Ukraine also has its own corruption problems).

After this much graft and incompetence, why trust them with more millions?

> Since they link to a Ukrainian Red Cross site... does anyone whether that's the best organization to donate to for humanitarian aid to people in Ukraine?

Well, Ukrainian Red Cross & international Red Cross sometime acted controversial in Ukraine, but its only You who may decide how to help Ukrainians.

JFTR, I'm Ukrainiain living in Ukraine. Here is my statement for HN:[0]

Verified Ways to Help Ukraine: https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/02/27/verified-ways-to-help...

My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/app4soft

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30395897

https://nitter.net/timberners_lee/status/1502594846044954630

I wonder what its like to see the proliferation of Russian propaganda via a medium you created, it must be very disheartening. At least he gets to see it used for good like this too.

well, don't worry too much. He's using the day to attempt to redress the balance for Ukraine and LGBTQI+ people in Ukraine!

lol

Putin seems to be rather shutting down web services in Russia. It's probably easier to control a narrative through TV (a medium that already existed 33 years ago) than through messy social media.

So just in terms of the current crisis, I'd say this invention is arguably doing more good than bad on average (allowing refugees to connect to relatives, coordinating help, enabling OSINT, various projects to inform Russian citizens, like the website with advice for how to talk to Russian relatives who are in denial,...).

Ukraine propaganda is not "good," Russian propaganda is not "bad"

Not a single condemnation of the Nazi affiliation yet, from anyone in the Western media.

They don't want to state plainly, that in this mega-reductionist viewpoint we all are conformed into, it is the Nazi's vs Russia.

I don't support Nazis. Guess I'm pro-Putin.

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