I would hope you don’t have to be as much of a news junkie as I am to know that, right now, tens of millions of people have just watched their lives—fields, homes, entire villages—wash away in Pakistan. (NASA has some astonishing
before-and-after images.) For reasons political and logistical, aid is not arriving very fast where it’s most needed. So let me take this opportunity to suggest that my readers direct a contribution to Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières, which was on the scene pretty much from the start. I make a (very small) monthly contribution to MSF, which they like because it’s income they can count on—if you can, I’d suggest going that route.

Satellite image of flooding in Nowshera, taken 5 August. Photo by DigitalGlobe-Imagery.