Our ally Suhit has one of the most honest posts I've yet seen on the tsunami, the web and effective action-from-a-distance. If you felt, as I felt, deeply moved by last week's tragedy, inspired by the way people are coming together online to act and chastened by the very real limits on our ability to change things from half a world away, read it:

"I could sit and just read about it, write about it on my blog [...] or go and work on the field. The act of working on the field [was] very exciting to me. I wanted to be nearer to the devastation and help people out. As I was wondering how to go about it, my dear friend Reuben gave me this piece of advice: 'Do go ahead, but please do not be a hindrance.'

"This made me think. Then I understood what he meant. In a similar vein I found Peter Kaminskys’ article on a similar topic: 'In general, the best way to help is to give money to a relief organization that is providing aid in the disaster area. Being an effective international relief worker requires specialized skills, knowledge, and expertise, and every worker deployed requires support that may strain resources that have already been stretched by the disaster.'"