How to Help Japan Earthquake Victims from UK

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ロンドンオリンピックまであと500日。トラファルガー広場に設置された大時計のカウントダウンが始まり（BBCニュース1）、チケットの販売が今日朝より開始された（BBCニュース2）。でも東北地震・津波の被害を思うと、日本人としてはお祭り気分にはほど遠い。原子力発電所問題がまだ未解決なので、こちらでもまだまだニュースで取り上げられているが、各国が表明した公的支援以外、メディアは一般人が貢献できる寄付や支援については、ほとんど取り上げていない。ハイチ大地震や東南アジアを襲った津波の際は、もっとニュースで支援を呼びかけたり、テレビCMや新聞広告を見たような気がしたのだが。その点、アメリカは日本の同盟国だということもあるのか、ネットで調べていても情報も多いし、セレブリティを含む人々の関心も高いと感じる。

その中で、何とか支援の輪を広げようと、慈善団体への寄付はもちろん、チャリティ・イベントやコンサートの企画、募金活動の組織、フェイスブックやミクシィでの情報交換など、頑張っている多くの在英日本人たちがいる。上のビデオは、日本人留学生が折り鶴を折って、LSE（ロンドン・スクール・オブ・エコノミクス）の前で募金活動をしている様子。日本人だけじゃなくて、イギリス人や他の国の人たちも、自分たちでも企画をしてくれると、もっと嬉しいんだけれど。

↓　以下は今日集めた支援情報です。その他の支援については昨日のブログもご参照ください。

• チャリティ・イベント＠Life basement bar（3月15〜16日午前2時）
• 葉加瀬太郎氏のチャリティ・コンサート（3月18日）: Don’t Give Up! A Charity Concert for Japan @ Cadogan Hall
• Cakes for Japan @ Maiden, Shoreditch High Street（3月18日）
• チャリティ・イベント協力者募集（3月19日）
• Japan Earthquake Tsunami Donation Appeal＠ピカデリー・サーカス（3月21日）
• Your online guide to helping Japan by The Globe and Mail（カナダのニュースですが、ネットでできる協力方法がリストアップされています）
• Linkin Park（リンキン・パーク）: Disaster Relief T-Shirts（メンバーのマイク・シノダが日系人だそうです）

Today a giant clock placed in Trafalgar Square started counting down 500 days until the start of the London Olympics (BBC news 1), and 6.6 million Olympic tickets became available this morning (BBC news 2). But when I think about the victims of Japan Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami, I am not in a mood at all to celebrate all these Olympic stuffs. The media coverage is still big here in UK, as problems at nuclear power stations haven’t been solved yet. However, strangely the media rarely talks about help that ordinary people can do, rather than official aid from each country. I think I saw more TV commercials and newspaper ads, as well as information for charity on news programs for Haiti earthquake and Boxing Day Tsunami. On the other hand, I feel like Americans, including celebs, are more supportive and helpful, and more information for aids in the US – probably because USA and Japan are important allies.

There are many Japanese living in UK, trying to help the victims, not only donating to charities, but also organizing charity events and concerts, fundraising on a street, exchanging support information on local web community boards and SNS such as facebook and Mixi (Japan’s largest SNS community). The video above was taken from BBC London news, covering Japanese students making Origami cranes and fundraising in front of LSE. I wish the circle of support will spread, not only within Japanese community in UK, but also to British public and people from other countries – yes, Japan is the third largest economy in the world and you may think help is unnecessary, but the damage is enormous with astronomical cost or recovery, and the government has huge debt and the country is still in long-lasting recession. Of course Japanese government and people must help with each other too, but I am afraid it is not enough. Many people in the affected areas are elderly as young generation left for bigger cities and can’t afford to pay 30-year morgage, and fishermen and farmers on the coast are not millionaires as well…

↓ Here is additional information for help. Please also check yesterday’s entry for more information.

• Charity Event＠Life basement bar, Clerkenwell (March 15 til 2am on March 16)
• Well-known Japanese violinist and composer, Taro Hakase‘s Don’t Give Up! A Charity Concert for Japan @ Cadogan Hall (March 18)
• Cakes for Japan @ Maiden, Shoreditch High Street (March 18)
• Japan Earthquake Tsunami Donation Appeal＠Piccadilly Circus (March 21)
• Your online guide to helping Japan by The Globe and Mail (from Canada – you can learn how to help from your computer)
• Linkin Park: Disaster Relief T-Shirts

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What We Can Do in UK…

3月11日に起こった東北地方太平洋沖地震から3日経った。しかし、まだまだ困難は立ちはだかる。いまだ行方不明者は約1万5000人、避難者も約45万人に上る。ダメージを受けた原子力発電所は放射線汚染を起こす危機をはらみ、予断を許さない状況だ。こんな時、私に何ができるだろう？と考えた。できる範囲で寄付もした。また微力ながら、このブログでもイギリスから寄付や支援ができるリンクや情報を掲載しました。新しい情報が入り次第、アップデートします。皆さんのご協力をお願いします！

＜寄付＞

• イギリス赤十字社「Japan Tsunami Appeal」＊2度に渡ってここに寄付したのですが、「In the event that we receive more donations to the Japan Tsunami Appeal than the Japanese Red Cross and International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement can reasonably and efficiently spend, any surplus funds will be used to help us prepare for and respond to humanitarian disasters both here in the UK and overseas（もし充分援助をしたら、集まった寄付金は他の事に使うかもしれない）」との但し書きを、ミクシィでどなたかが指摘していたのを見て、お勧めしない事にしました。その上、マージンを28％もとるそうです。
• Save the Chidren「Japan Emergency Appeal」
• Just Giving: Japan Earthquake – how you can help
• eBay for Charity: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Appeal
• Donate with PayPal: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief
• レディ・ガガ主催「Japan Earthquake Relief Wristband」

＊あと残り数時間ですが、Grouponでも寄付を受け付けています。集まった寄付金に加え、寄付金と同額（£70,000上限) をGroupon UK社が寄付してくれるそうです。

＜SNS＞

• facebook「For Japan」
• ミクシィ「東北地震◆イギリスからできる事 トピック」

It’s been 3 days since the deadly Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. However, the hardship is still far from over – there are still about 15,000 people missing and estimated 450,000 evacuees living inconvenience. Damaged nuclear power stations have caused great fears of meltdown, which could lead to nuclear nightmare. I thought about what can I do here in UK. I donated some money, and also I want to put web links of charities for donation and information of support networks in UK. I will update whenever I get new information. Your help is really appreciated!

<Donation>

• British Red Cross: Japan Tsunami Appeal * I donated twice to British Red Cross but decided not to recommend this as I found “small print” in description as “In the event that we receive more donations to the Japan Tsunami Appeal than the Japanese Red Cross and International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement can reasonably and efficiently spend, any surplus funds will be used to help us prepare for and respond to humanitarian disasters both here in the UK and overseas”, meaning that all the money raised for the appeal may not be used solely for Tsunami victims. In addition, I heard that they charge 28% commission from the total of donation.
  
• Save the Chidren: Japan Emergency Appeal
• Just Giving: Japan Earthquake – how you can help
• eBay for Charity: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Appeal
• Donate with PayPal: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief
• Lady Gaga’s「Japan Earthquake Relief Wristband」

＜SNS＞

• facebook「For Japan」

* Groupon also accepts donation until the end of today, although only few hours left. Any donation will be matched in full (up to the collated total value of £70,000) by Groupon UK.

Be Aware of an Evil Invitation of Spacelocker.com!!!

最近、「○○（友人のe-mailのユーザー名）has invited you to Spacelocker」というメールを２通受け取った。開いてみると、こうあった。

Hi there,

You are invited to join ●●●●●@yahoo.co.jp（友人のメルアド） at Spacelocker, a cool place where you can meet friends fast and keep your online stuff in one place. Check it out.

Click the link below to Accept the Invitation:

http://www.spacelocker.com/signUp.php?fromid=NzE1MA==&ifrom=eXVraV9ob2FzaGlqcEB5YWhvby5jby5qcA==&ito=anBuc21pbGVAeWFob28uY28uanA=

Hi there,

You are invited to join yuki_hoashijp@yahoo.co.jp at Spacelocker, a cool place where you can meet friends fast and keep your online stuff in one place. Check it out.

Click the link below to Accept the Invitation:

http://www.spacelocker.com/signUp.php?fromid=NzE1MA==&ifrom=eXVraV9ob2FzaGlqcEB5YWhvby5jby5qcA==&ito=anBuc21pbGVAeWFob28uY28uanA=

「Spacelocker」なんて聞いたことはなかったけれど、Facebookやmixiと同じようなSNSかと思って、友達も加入したのならと、興味半分に加入したのが失敗だった。まずMy Page（写真左）のデザインがひどい。Sign Upページの趣味の悪さから最初に気づくべきだった。ここまではまあいい。お子様向けのSNSに間違って入ってしまっただけ、すぐに登録をキャンセルすればいいはずだった。すぐに解除リクエストを送ったが、その際、どんなサイトなのかネットで調べてみて（記事１、記事２）、真っ青になった。問題は、二つあるうちの左側の登録画面から加入してしまったこと。yahoo、gmail、AOL、 hotmailを使っている場合は、こちらか登録するものだと思ったのだ。「and spacelocker will invite your friends」というメッセージも、Facebookのように、自分が招待したければ、いつでも招待メールを送れる機能があると勘違いした。そしてメールアカウントと同じパスワードを設定してしまったので、登録完了した途端、Spacelockerが私のメールアカウントに侵入、アドレスブックに登録してある全てのメールアドレスを取得。もう連絡を取っていない旧友から親戚から旧職場の上司まで、すべての登録アドレスに勝手に招待メールを送ってしまったのだ！気づいたところで後の祭り。友人からの招待状も、彼女たちが登録した際に、自答的に私にメールが送られたんだろう。なんであんな悪趣味なサイトに彼女たちが招待メールを送って来た理由が、ようやくわかった。詐欺じゃないかと思うのだが、Spacelockerいわく、登録する際に、同意の上で加入したものと見なされるらしい。メールを受け取った人たちには本当に申し訳なく思う。スパムだと思って削除してくれるのを祈るばかりだ。ちなみに、Spacelockerは、マルタに本部を置き、Communication Officeはロンドンにあるそうだ。Spacelocker加入の際には、くれぐれもご注意を。

Recently I received 2 invitations with a subject “○○(username of my friends’ e-mail) has invited you to Spacelocker”. The invitations are like this.

Hi there,

You are invited to join ●●●●●@yahoo.co.jp (my friend’s e-mail address) at Spacelocker, a cool place where you can meet friends fast and keep your online stuff in one place. Check it out.

Click the link below to Accept the Invitation:

http://www.spacelocker.com/signUp.php?fromid=NzE1MA==&ifrom=eXVraV9ob2FzaGlqcEB5YWhvby5jby5qcA==&ito=anBuc21pbGVAeWFob28uY28uanA=

I’ve never heard of ‘Spacelocker‘ and it was a huge mistake to register with them – I just thought it was one of the SNS like Facebook and MySpace, and it should be OK if my friends registered. I regretted right way as soon as I saw their badly designed ‘my page’ (photo above). I should have assumed it when I saw equally cheesy sign-up page. Well, it was a small mistake that I signed up a SNS for teenagers and just canceled it. But as I searched internet about Spacelocker and I was completely freaked out (chceck article1 and article2). The problem was I signed up with the form on the left – I thought I had to use this form if you use yahoo, gmail, AOL, and hotmail. And I understood the message in the form “and spacelocker will invite your friends” as I could invite a friend among the people in my address book of my mail account after registration, if I wanted to, like a Facebook. But I was all wrong. I set up my password the same as my mail account, and as soon as I finished registration, Spacelocker accessed to my account and got all the registered mail address, and sent an invitation to all of them, from my friends and families to my former boss and some others I don’t want to contact to, without my consent!!! It was too late to regret. Now I understand why I received the invitations from my friends whom I thought would never invite me to that kind of site. It is like a cyber fraud but according to Spacelocker, we are a bunch of idiots who ‘agreed’ their terms and conditions when we registered, or illiterates who don’t understand English (site2). I feel really sorry for all of who received the invitation, and hope they just put it in a trash as a spam. For your reference, Spacelocker is “a European-based company headquartered on the Smart Island country of Malta, with a communications office in London”. Please be careful if you receive an Spacelocker invitation from your friend…