When an earthquake hits, how best to give

Shortly after 11 p.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 8, an earthquake struck Morocco, southwest of Marrakesh, devastating villages at the base of the High Atlas mountains. More than 2,900 people were reported killed and more than 5,500 injured.

I had taught at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) in Rabat for a week in mid-July. While Rabat is roughly 200 miles north of Marrakesh, UM6P has a Marrakesh campus, and the students and staff with whom I worked were from various parts of Morocco. A handful of students I had taught at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) are also from Morocco, and each happened to be there when the earthquake struck.

Soon I was receiving texts from family, friends and colleagues to ask if everyone I knew there was accounted for. Several asked for advice on the best way to donate to help with the relief. Initially, I did not know the answer to their questions.

I texted the people at UM6P who I worked with to see if everyone was accounted for and was relieved they were. Almost immediately, students and staff at UM6P assembled packages of supplies to get to those affected by the earthquake.

I also checked in on my former graduate students from HKS who were in Morocco when the earthquake struck. They too were accounted for.

The question loomed, however, of how best to donate, given the shared desire to donate to efforts that had the best chance of directly helping those affected. In such situations, I always try to do enough research to make sure efforts are legitimate and help the people who most need help.

One of my go-to organizations of late has been World Central Kitchen (https://wck.org), the nonprofit run by chef José Andrés. Whether it’s in Puerto Rico, Texas or Ukraine, World Central Kitchen seems to have been able to rapidly set up operations to get food to those affected by disaster. Within days, World Central Kitchen was set up in Morocco.

I also asked my former HKS students who were back in Morocco for advice. Several of them along with other Boston-area students with Morocco ties set up a GoFundMe account (https://www.gofundme.com/f/boston-moroccan-students-unite-for-morocco) that would funnel funds collected to organizations they had carefully vetted for their effectiveness.

I usually rely on sites like CharityNavigator (www.CharityNavigator.org) to assess the reputation and effectiveness of any charity. World Central Kitchen has a top rating. My students’ GoFundMe effort is not a registered nonprofit, so they have no CharityNavigator rating. Nevertheless, I persist in believing they applied the same rigor to the work they did as graduate students to the vetting of charities that could best help their families and neighbors.

There is no obligation for anyone to give anything to any causes they don’t care to. It’s impossible for most people to donate to help support those affected by all of the many disasters and crises that hit the world.

But for those who want to help the victims of the Morocco earthquake, the right thing is to try to do so in whatever way they believe might most help those in need.

For me, it might be donating to World Central Kitchen or my former students’ GoFundMe effort. There are, however, plenty of other ways to help. I trust you to find yours.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of "The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy, emeritus, at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com. 

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin

(c) 2023 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Should I trust reviews on social media?

If you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve likely come across user reviews of one thing or another. A store. A dish. A book. A garden. A vacation spot. Most anything.

Presumably, the motivation behind such posts is to share enthusiasm, positive or negative, with other social media users who might be influenced to use or avoid the things reviewed. A reader we’re calling Constance wants to know if it’s wrong to post a review of something if you’ve never actually engaged with the thing being reviewed.

Constance is a member of a group on Facebook that shares positive news about her local community. The administrators stipulate that they will not tolerate negative comments or negative responses to others’ comments. All positive, all the time seems to be the mantra for the group. Mostly, Constance wrote that fellow group members follow the rules. It’s not the unbridled positivity with which Constance has any issue.

Lately, Constance wrote that she notices an awful lot of posts about restaurants or retail stores in town that start with a question, something along the lines of: “Does anyone have any experience with…” with the name of the establishment following. What follows, Constance wrote, is a rapid succession of one over-the-top review after another. Constance has begun to believe that the owners, or someone working on the owners’ behalf, is asking the initial question after having lined up posters to write overwhelmingly glowing reviews, many of which sound the same.

The tipping point for Constance was after someone asked how the food was at a new restaurant that she didn’t believe had opened yet. After several group members posted glowing reviews of the place and its food, one posted the comment that the place wasn’t scheduled to open until the following week.

Granted, restaurants sometimes have soft openings where people are invited to come in and try the food before it officially opens. Such events help the proprietors detect and smooth out any wrinkles in operation. It’s also not a bad way to spread the word.

But Constance is convinced that the restaurant owners or managers posted the original question and that others affiliated with them posted the glowing responses.

“Is it wrong to be cynical about such reviews?” asked Constance, admitting she has no definitive proof that what she suspects is going on is really going on.

Constance has every right to be cynical. So do readers of book reviews on Amazon.com, even though increasingly some reviewers are disclosing when they’ve been given a free book or product in exchange for their “honest” review.

It’s wise for Constance and any prospective customer not to use such reviews as the only reason to try a new restaurant, read a particular book, or purchase a new product. Better perhaps to look for independent reviewers or sites that review such things. Best to decide for themselves if they are interested in some place or thing enough to try it and then to form their own opinion.

While others’ comments online might pique Constance’s or others’ interest, the right thing is to base their opinions on their own experiences rather than assume they will find the same joy in something that others claim they had.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of "The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy, emeritus, at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com. 

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin

(c) 2023 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

 

Can I give away my unused prescription drugs?

Where do you draw the line at offering a favor to a friend?

A reader we’re calling Linda had been taking prescription medication for her high blood pressure for almost a year.

At first the medication seemed to work to keep her blood pressure at the level for which her physician hoped.

But for the past several weeks, her blood pressure had been inching up and, after a visit to her physician, he changed her prescription to a different medication to see if it would have better results.

Linda and a neighborhood friend we’re calling Winnie had compared notes while at a recent book club meeting about the various prescription medications they were taking. It turned out Winnie had been prescribed the same blood pressure medication that wasn’t working so well for Linda, but had been working just fine for Winnie for several years.

After Linda picked up the prescription for her new medication, she checked and found that the vial with the old prescription still had several dozen pills in it.

Figuring it would be a waste to simply toss out the old prescription, it crossed Linda’s mind that perhaps it would be OK to offer the remaining pills to Winnie. She knew Winnie’s doctor would only renew her prescription so many times before he insisted she come in for a checkup. Linda also knew Winnie hated to go to the doctor.

So why not share the remaining pills?

“Would that be OK to do?” Linda asked.

No. That would not be OK to do.

While her intentions might be to be helpful and avoid waste, sharing prescription drugs violates state and federal laws. If Winnie accepted any such offer — and she should not, repeat not — she would be breaking the law for possessing and taking a prescription intended for someone else.

(Full disclosure: I am not a lawyer, but you can look this up for yourself.)

In addition to the legal consequences, while Linda may believe she’d be doing Winnie a favor, but neither Linda’s expertise nor Winnie’s is to determine how much or what type of medication someone else might need. In an effort to do a friend a solid, Linda might be causing more harm to Winnie than good.

It’s good to avoid waste, but with rare exception, it’s not easy to donate prescription medication that has already been open or is expired.

Still, there are organizations that try to help avoid the waste. The social enterprise Supporting Initiatives to Redistribute Unused Medicine (SIRUM) has a helpful website (sirum.org) that guides organizations and people wanting to donate unopened or unexpired medication legally and safely to people who might not be able to afford to pay for the medications they are prescribed.

There’s likely a good reason Winnie’s doctor wants to see her in person to decide if the medication he has prescribed is still effective. If Linda wants to be a good friend to Winnie, she can offer to drive her to her physician and sit with her while she is waiting to be seen. But the right thing is to never offer your own prescribed drugs to anyone else.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of "The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice," is a senior lecturer in public policy, emeritus, at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com. 

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin

(c) 2023 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.