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Good Luck Guys! Hope to see you back here soon…

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My friend Kamikaze Joe is a big collector of old computer equipment and having a Queen song played out using old computer equipment will likely end with his beard soaked with tears of joy.

Beyond my basic understanding of poverty, I’d never been directly touched by real poverty until I learned about my wife’s family still living in the Philippines.

Outside

Kitchen

Living Room

They do okay for their area actually, but to me their conditions are awful. Especially when you see the little things the kids do just for fun. One “game” they play is to lay a rubber band on the ground and then smack their hands on the ground behind it to make it hop. The challenge is to see how high or far you can make it move. I really wanted to help out in some way. We have all this stuff they could use but we needed some way to get it to them. Luckily, my wife knew a way – a Balikbayan Box.

A Balikbayan Box is a loaded up box that is commonly sent back home to family in the Philippines from family living overseas (like my wife and her mother). There are special shipping services specifically for Balikbayan boxes to be sure they are shipped cheaply and safely because the Philippines is a bit corrupt and some packages and mail via regular channels won’t get to its destination. These services are easily found via local Asian groceries.

The Balikbayan can be filled with anything from clothes to potato chips. My wife and her mother put together a box once or twice a year to ship off and we collect things for the box all through the year. We’ll put all sorts of stuff into the box. Food and candy, clothing, kitchen utensils and food storage (big bug problem) and especially toys for the kids and books or comics to help them with their English learning studies. We’ve also included tools and pictures and even once a large salt lick for their cow. It’s not just about the stuff though. It’s about the connection between the family members. The pictures and letters we send with it are cherished more than the Ziploc baggies or the plastic bowling set.

Besides, how can you resist sending stuff to kids who are this cute and still happy despite what we would consider a deplorable situation:

For some more information about Balikbayan Boxes check out The Daily PCIJ post, an NPR report and a Washington Post article.

Remember… a little something for you may be a big something for someone else. You can set aside your own box to act as a Balikbayan for local drop off to Goodwill. Think of it as your recycling bin. Instead of pitching that McDonald’s happy meal toy in the trash throw it in that box. When the box fills up with stuff go drop it off and start a new one. It’s really not too hard to do and it can make an even larger impact than donating cash.

Let me just say a few things here about this situation as it provides some good examples of how what happens on the internet can affect people in real life (IRL).

Craigslist is not at fault. The site clearly states that the postings are from the general public and to always be wary of the validity of listed items.  Craigslist does provide links to report posts that seem fake or inappropriate and the reported posts usually come down in about a day. I also wouldn’t blame the person who posted it beyond misrepresentation – and bad judgement. All fault for this really falls on the people who used it as an excuse to steal.

A printout from a website does not give anybody the right to do anything no matter what the printout says or where it came from online. It cannot convey any more right than me writing on a Post-It “Mine” and affixing it to stuff I like and saying that makes me the owner. I don’t know how to make it any more clear.

Lastly, and most importantly is that just because it’s on the internet that doesn’t make it true.  I know this is hard for some people to fully grasp, but the internet has just as many (if not more) liars and scam artists as IRL.  If something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true no matter how much you wish it.  If you drove by a house that looked lived in and it had a sign out front that said ‘Free – take what you want’, would you actually do it? I would like to think you would think twice – maybe verify it – before acting on it. Apply the same logic to things online.

There is a site called Snopes that can help you pin down many scams and internet urban legends.  Just go to the site and do a search for some of the contents of the questionable material and you’ll likely find if it is true or false. Here’s an example that explains and details that you cannot get anything free by forwarding an email – no $5 from Microsoft, no cell phones, no Playstations – but every few months someone forwards them to me in hopes that they’ll get something for free. This stuff clogs up email inboxes with useless junk and it also can make the person forwarding the email look bad (seeing these float around work just make me cringe).

That cute girl you think you are chatting with?  Probably a 42 year old guy. The $10 you can generate for a worthwhile charity by forwarding an email? Just spam.  Joe Shmo posts a blog about Company A putting chemicals in Location B’s high school lunches?  You might want to double check that fact.

Just remember, you can’t believe everything you see on the internet.

That’s Morgan Freeman!

Go check out his blog for more information and pictures.

It’s not about zombies though… I wonder if he’s feeling okay.

Go read.

Be sure to stop by and say hi – and tell them I sent you!

His image has finally been captured!

Well.. he captured it himself so I don’t know how much it counts.

At least he is using Flickr … finally.