A quick search on Google News reveals that the recent earthquake in Haiti has caused, amongst many other horrific problems, thousands of orphans. As we explored last week, young people are terrifically and passionately motivated to help their fellows when they can, with social media beginning to act as a primary means of directing people to how they can help. While it was neigh-on impossible for young people to become involved in an offline way with the controversial 2009 Iran Election, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has within days spawned beneficial attempts to gather aid.

In the week after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, London’s young music community sprung into action, using social media to promote the donation funded events in a very short space of time. One of the bigger nights, SOMENight, which held a minimum £5 donation upon entry and a raffle once inside, had a huge lineup including some of the UK’s biggest urban acts in Wiley, Donaeo and Shy FX amongst others. It had over 1200 Facebook attendees within three days, evidencing the salient extent to which London’s youth were willing to put forward aid in an offline manner through using online tools. Event organizer Chantelle Fiddy of Ctrl.Alt.Shift, a London based charity who use popular culture to take global action, said that “Proceeds will go to the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Haiti appeal. Hundreds of thousands of people are already feared dead and many more are believed to be critically injured. Countless are homeless. The five partner groups are are targeting areas that are getting little help from other agencies. They will provide food, tents, hygiene kits, blankets, jerry cans for water, water purifiers and medical support.” The very nature of this event provides stout resistance to what is often perceived to be an apathetic generation in traditional media, as young people across the capital are this week giving their precious finances in donating the cause.

As we previously discussed, when offline philanthropic aid is even slightly possible, young people leap at the opportunity. Online activity is now beginning to reflect a precursor to this. The increasingly popular casual gaming company Zynga allowed its users to raise $1.5 million in 5 days for the UN’s World Food Programme within an easy interface that allows the Farmville players to donate while they’re having fun. We’ve already explored how casual gaming is having a significant impact on gaming, and with gaming revenue’s becoming large enough for there to be increasing calls for it to be taken seriously as an industry it is no surprise that games have started taking on this philanthropic sentiment that young people seem to show in abundance online.

Darfur is Dying is a flash game drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The game or, “narrative based simulation”, as the designers called it, is awkward to play, not giving the user a particularly pleasant experience, perhaps as it shouldn’t. Blunt messages fly up when you fail in your attempts to reach water:

“You have been captured by the militia. You will likely become one of the hundreds of thousands of people lost to this humanitarian crisis. Girls in Darfur face abuse, rape and kidnapping by the Janjaweed. As someone at a far-off computer, and not a child or adult in Sudan, would you like the chance to try again?”

While the game or “narrative based simulation” may not be fun in the traditional sense of the word, it does engage and draw attention to the disparity of a gamer and the crisis surrounding refugees in Darfur.

Suzanne Seggerman, of the organisation Games for Change muses that the word ‘games’ has the wrong connotations for these serious simulations states that “games are systems, and they offer a good way to explore complex systems … by role playing, shifting variables and seeing how outcomes are affected. Games have to be taken on their own terms. They’re not trying to replace the reality of Darfur or Rawana. But people cannot go and experience these places, and the simulated experiences games offer are amazing. I don’t look on games as competing with the real world and human interactions. I see them as a medium and as a path towards actions in the real world”.

As Seggerman suggests, young people are beginning view social media and gaming as compliments to offline activity and in the case of philanthropic aid and charity, as a medium to diffuse the message. This is reflected generally in young people’s view of digital as explored by Tech Tribe 2009. Within a few days over 5,000 people joined a Facebook group calling for Bankers Bonuses to be given to aid Haiti. This rising sentiment that the older generation have failed in attempts to create a better planet for their offspring is reflected in this inspiring blogpost, which calls for a metaphorical divorce:

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences.

You wanted big, fat, lazy “business.” We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce.

You turned politics into a dirty word. We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere.

You wanted financial fundamentalism. We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks.

You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.

You wanted an invisible hand — it became a digital hand. Today’s markets are those where the majority of trades are done literally robotically. We want a visible handshake: to trust and to be trusted.

You wanted growth — faster. We want to slow down — so we can become better.

You didn’t care which communities were capsized, or which lives were sunk. We want a rising tide that lifts all boats.

You wanted to biggie size life: McMansions, Hummers, and McFood. We want to humanize life.

You wanted exurbs, sprawl, and gated anti-communities. We want a society built on authentic community.

You wanted more money, credit and leverage — to consume ravenously. We want to be great at doing stuff that matters.

You sacrificed the meaningful for the material: you sold out the very things that made us great for trivial gewgaws, trinkets, and gadgets. We’re not for sale: we’re learning to once again do what is meaningful.

There are lots of Haiti benefit events taking place over the weekend and there are sure to be over the next few weeks also. Their successes are already being noted as Chantelle Fiddy thanked the Ctrl+Alt+Shift crowd, ”according to security they’ve not seen a crowd like that since the last rave at The End.” A review of the Ctrl+Alt+Shift party can be found here and a quick Facebook search should begin reveal further fundraising parties should you wish to take part: