Disaster profiteers

A few days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami destroyed cities and killed thousands across northern Japan, I got a note through LinkedIn from an acquaintance in Canada that seemed innocuous enough.

"Hi Alex,

I and a friend in China would like to supply the Japanese government with goods for their relief effort. I wondered if you have any Japanese government contacts who can either contract with him directly or steer him in the right direction."

At the time, I was touched at the number of emails I was receiving from friends around the world who knew my connection to Japan and wanted to help the hundreds of thousands of people whose homes had been destroyed and were now huddled in shelters without adequate food, heat or medicine.

The Canadian's response to my email saying I would do what I could to help was straightforward. He looped in his friend, whom we'll call Kevin, in China, and outlined what they might be able to provide: blankets, food, all "on short notice". That should have been my first clue - of course it's on short notice. These are donations to a disaster zone.

Then Kevin wrote.

"Hi Alex,

i can provide both canned and bulk packed food stuffs. as for the logistics i need to get a better idea of the conditions of the ports as well as the airstrips in the affected zones, if necessary i can go myself to asses this. as for the issue of the jammed roads i can assist with the arrangements and logistics for temporary landing zones for aid helicopters and coordination of air drops, as well as work out a means of opening the roads and coastal shipping channels so that we may move supplies through and around japan. As [the Canadian] mentioned i am available on short notice to meet with Japanese authorities, i can be in japan by early evening if necessary so that we can begin to coordinate our part for the relief effort."

I was a little taken aback by Kevin's note - he needs to "get a better idea of the conditions of the ports"? didn't he have a television? - but this still didn't set any alarm bells ringing. As I had done with other requests, I sent out a note to a network of friends in Japan and the US asking for contacts in Japan who could help facilitate what sounded like a generous donation of much-needed supplies, from China no less. I even introduced him to a Japanese businessman friend who had found a way to donate the products his company made and get them up to the quake zone.

Kevin then emailed my friend:

"Hi Daisuke,
>>
>> firstly i would like to commend you on your tremendous efforts thus far,
>> it is rare to meet people such as yourself and i only wish it could have
>> been under better circumstances. If you will be willing to work with me,
>> and help put me in contact with the right people to organize large scale
>> shipments of supplies to Japan i can also assist you with the logistical
>> aspects of distributing the goods to all the victims. first i must come to
>> japan to asses the status of the air strips, roads, and ports: i will need
>> your help to gain permission from the local authorities to travel to these
>> areas. at the same time i can arrange for fast shipments of goods such as
>> blankets, clothes, shoes, batteries, flashlights, and raw dried foodstuffs
>> such as rice, red beans, and dried corn. I will need your assistance with
>> finding out the budget for these supplies as well as arranging the
>> contracts etc. depending on the status of the ports and air strips i will
>> determine the quickest way possible to get goods into the country. if you
>> will be able to help me arrange a meeting with some of the coordinators of
>> the relief effort i can be on the next flight to japan. once in japan i
>> will be able to better coordinate the air drop sites as well as the
>> alternative routes for getting supplies to victims in all areas. please
>> feel free to contact me any time day or night ..."

It was only with this email that Kevin's real game became obvious to me. Kevin and the Canadian saw the earthquake as a perfect business opportunity for their sourcing company. Though they clearly had no experience in selling goods into a disaster zone (if they did, they never would have asked me for help) they were perfectly happy to monopolize the time of local officials, the military and others who were working around the clock to help - all in order to make a quick buck. This, while people who actually knew what they were doing were rushing to get donations to the affected areas.

When I wrote Kevin to ask if this was his intention, he insisted that he was not trying to make any money at all, but that this was "billions of dollars worth of supplies" that needed to be paid for, and the Japanese government had the money. He even thought this a good moment to plug his own business. "now," he wrote, "i am able to get the cheapest prices and the quickest ship dates ...".

Yes, after a decade and a half of writing about business, even having spent time working with hedge fund managers, I was still surprised at the complete absence of a moral calculus here. I told Kevin and the Canadian that I was only helping people who were making donations, not trying to profit from disaster.

A week later, I received an email from the Canadian with the subject line "You are right". As an elected local official, he said, he proposed a fund-raising event to offer donations to Japan. Would I be interested to help?

Would you have helped him?

Sichuan migrants need money

CHENGDU, China, May 26, 2008 (AFP) - After rushing back to their families following China's devastating quake, many migrant workers are returning to their jobs in the industrial heartland to funnel desperately needed cash home.
Still grieving and in shock after the tragedy that killed more than 60,000 people in largely mountainous and rural Sichuan province, the young men and women from farming areas feel they have no choice but to head back to work.
Sitting on a curb outside the main railway station of Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, 34-year-old Li was contemplating the fate of her family in quake-hit Mianyang as she waited for a train to take her back to her job hundreds of kilometres (miles) away.
"The family home is too dangerous to live in so everyone is outside, and they'll have to build a new house though I can't imagine how long that will take or how much it will cost," said Li, who only gave her surname.
Li works as a sewing machine operator in a textile factory in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, China's premier manufacturing region.
She and her husband, who works in a Hong Kong-owned electrical goods factory in Guangzhou, had rushed home 10 days earlier after not being able to get through to their families by phone for two days.
They would have to work and save even harder now, Li said, as she counted herself lucky not to have lost her only child, a 12-year-old daughter.
Many parents were not so fortunate when schools collapsed after the quake hit at 2:28 pm, during nap time.
Like many Sichuanese working in Guangdong, Li took annual leave to return home.
If workers wanted longer than their statutory two weeks' leave, they could take leave without pay, said Liu Kaiming, an expert on labour movement at the Shenzhen Institute of Contemporary Observation.
He added that many factories had helped Sichuanese get home, and were holding their jobs for their return.
Two weeks after the 8.0-magnitude quake, China's government is spending vast sums of money providing for the millions of people made homeless in the disaster.
But many are also depending on money being sent back by the millions of young Sichuan men and women such as Li who comprise one of the biggest groups of migrant workers in China's industrial revolution.
The money they send home is always a vital source of income for villages and towns across Sichuan, but even more so now after the disaster, said Alexandra Harney, author of "The China Price," a study of China's manufacturing boom.
"Most who have come home after the earthquake would be encouraged to go back to their factory jobs to ensure the flow of remittances continues as the need for that money has been exacerbated by the tragedy," she said. Sichuan is one of China's most populous provinces, with nearly 90 million people, and one of the poorest as it is mostly mountainous and largely agrarian.
As a result, millions of Sichuanese have headed out in search of work, with five million in Guangdong alone -- accounting for almost 20 percent of the workforce there, Wang Liwei, of Guangdong's labour department, told official media last week.
Harney said the earthquake damage would have exacerbated the poverty of many people in the stricken region, and could potentially lead to an even greater exodus of Sichuanese looking for high-paying jobs.
"What drove them to Guangdong in the first place was a desperate need to make money and that need is now even more desperate," she said.
"If I'd lost my home and my family, I would know that I could find a place to live in a dormitory and earn a steady wage in a factory in Guangdong."

How to help Sichuan

There has been an incredible international response to the earthquake in Sichuan, and that is heart-warming given the scale of the disaster. Fortunately, all of my friends from and in Sichuan, including Tang Manzhen, Deng Wenping's widow, are okay. But there are many more who really need our help.Here are a few of the places I am hearing about for donations. Of course, there are many, many more:

Half the Sky Children's Earthquake Fund
If you would like to donate to Half the Sky's Children's Earthquake Fund
you can do so through Global Giving:
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html

Or directly to Half the Sky. You can donate by calling Half the Sky
(+1-510-525-3377) or on our website:
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund

Also check out the National Committee on US-China Relations' excellent list of organizations here. This relief effort will no doubt be going on for years, so they will need all the help we can provide.

The China Price on NPR

I was in China last week during the devastating earthquake, and it was an extremely sad, moving week to be there. It was extraordinary watching the Chinese television coverage, particularly as more reporters went deeper into the quake zone than I had expected. Wen Jiabao, in particular, made some very moving appearances in Sichuan, which were of course broadcast nationally. While I was there, I did an interview with Renee Montagne of Morning Edition on NPR. Listen to the interview here.