Should We NOT Donate to Japan?

[Jeff Dunsavage]

I'm still trying to figure out what I think about this blog post suggesting that specifically donating to Japan relief (or any specific disaster area) is a bad idea. The basic argument, if I understand it correctly, is that earmarking funds specifically for one country's disaster ensures that tons of unspent money will be left languishing unspent and unavailable for emergencies elsewhere. I kind of follow the logic -- but in Japan's case, it's pretty hard to imagine funds languishing, given the scale of the disaster. I'd love to hear some experts' thoughts on this one....