Marketing blogger (and fellow IABC member) Angelo Fernando has converted his blog, Hoi Polloi, into a resource for focusing and helping relief efforts from Arizona, where Angelo lives, to Sri Lanka following last week’s tsunami disaster in south Asia:
I began this blog, Hoi Polloi, as a MarCom and PR exercise nearly 8 months ago. I write for 2 magazines here in the U.S. and have been writing for LMD for the past 10 years, so it was a useful way to connect with my readers.
The tsunami of December 26th changed all that. It suddenly became not so important to cover topics such as Wi-Fi, and viral marketing, when tens of thousands of people in some eleven countries are dead, injured, orphaned and have lost everything they had, with no hope for the future. Their needs are fresh water, medicines, and a comforting hand of a loved one –not the latest mega-pixel camera, or that 40-gig iPod.
Such a tremendous commitment.
Hi there,
We are coordinating the efforts of Artists worldwide.
Please spread the word.
Thx.
In the light of such a tragedy, it’s comforting to know real sacrifice still exists. We here in the U.S. feel the anguish, albeit in a non-threatening form, with our eyes on the bloggers who, like Angelo, have put aside material things to offer that human connection — even as a way for the rest of us to pitch in and help. Because of Angelo, and so many others, there is hope amid disaster.
Wow, this is an amazing story. I know how Angelo feels -I cannot get motivated to discuss business in a time like this much either (I’m just going through the motions really). It certainly radically alters one’s perspective. I also very much appreciate your own efforts to cover the unfolding story in your blog and to keep attention on the relief effort.
Agree fully, Yvonne. And not only you in the US – here Europe-side too. Hope indeed.
Evelyn, so pleased to see you more up and about now. Your posts about your experiences make outstanding reading. I can only imagine what it must have been like, with little success in that imagining.
One thing that has simply amazed me is the role so many blogs have been playing over the last 10 days. Not only selfless commitments such as Angelo’s, I’m also thinking primarily about blogs written by people on the ground in the affected countries.
It certainly is one thing to comfortably sit here in Amsterdam (or wherever) writing, it’s another to be there writing.
And you do know the difference, Evelyn.
Thanks, all. It strikes me, from those writing to me (non reporters reporting via email) that they may be blogging without realizing it. I (we) are sometimes just facilitators of a kind of information flow that none of us imagined when we started this.