Politics/humanitarianism in the tsunami relief effort

Interesting couple of articles ...

one from today's edition of Christian Science Monitor talking about
JVP, the Sri Lankan marxist group in the forefront of relief efforts in
that country (http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0114/p01s03-wosc.html)

and then, an older yet interesting post in Amit Varma's India Uncut
blog, on separating politics from social work
(http://indiauncut-tsunami.blogspot.com/2005/01/despatches-26-separating-politics-from.html)

On one level, it seems cynical to leverage a tragedy to maximize the
"eye-balls" those organizations might want for themselves. And perhaps
even more cynical to connect the dots thus.

But, on the other hand, I tend to agree with Amit Varma. If, at the end
of the day, these organizations are helping to plug the holes that
inevitably exist in govt-led relief efforts in 3rd world countries,
bully for them. And if they do get those "eye-balls" as a result of
their hard work, so be it - they fully deserve it.

Flame-shield-on (my first post here), but I have a feeling the
flame-shield is totally unnecessary in a community like this one :)