Flight PS752 Memorial Project
[For my 38th birthday today, I’m sharing two stories; the other one: “The Story So Far and Road Ahead”.] [Tweet]
TL;DR version
For my birthday today I donated 100k CAD to the the Flight PS752 Memorial project (deck).
I’m inviting you all to match my donation to the extent you can afford to. No amount is too small. I have set a goal of 100k CAD to match my contribution.
What, How, & Why
On January 8, 2020, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) shot down the Ukrainian passenger flight PS752 minutes after departing Tehran towards Kyiv, killing all 176 people onboard (plus an unborn child). The Iranian regime lied about the incident for three days until was exposed by Canadian and other world leaders.
It happens that 138 people on that flight were traveling to Canada. 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed. Many dozens more were Iranian graduate students in Canada returning from holidays back home. Some got married while there.
I first learned about the memorial project in May through Barbad Golshiri’s twitter. For the past month it felt like many people I cross paths with are somehow connected to this project. So when I was traveling to Toronto earlier this month, I contacted a couple of people to meet but I received no answer.
So I was really delighted (ouch! 😞) when Panah Farhadbahman reached out to me on September 7 about the project. I promised to get back to him soon. When I finally gathered myself over depression to review their slide deck on September 18, I was hooked immediately and pledged to donate 100k CAD.
My contribution will help the project out of its outstanding obligations, which has come from the team’s personal credit as well as the goodwill of artists and vendors involved.
The project has not been able to start their main fundraising event yet in part because the pandemic. They have decided to not register and try getting tax-exempt status in the US because of the lengthy process.
I have advised them to seek partnering with an existing US-registered non-profit organization to enable issuing tax-receipts to US donors, which would also enable companies like Google to make matching donations. I am going to look into making this happen. Any help towards that goal is also appreciated.
So, that gets us to where we are:
We need contributions from those who wouldn’t mind if they might never deduct it on their taxes.
Your contributions at this stage will help the design and digital-experience aspects of the project to move forward again, while we wait for tax-exempt status before running the main fundraising drive and grant applications, to acquire land and move on to the construction phase.
As for my contribution: I tried making the transfer online for several days this past week until it was clear that, in 2020 I have to fax a form to my bank to make it happen. The full 100k CAD (75k USD) will reach the project’s bank account this week regardless of how much matching donations you make.
For the past ten years I have been donating small amounts to causes close to my heart. At the rate of about 1% of my gross income. For my last few years at Google, I managed to raise tens of thousands of dollars annually from other Googlers for various causes.
But as I started to amass more wealth than I ever thought I needed to comfortably live Ever After™ there was a lingering question re when and how I am going to start making more significant donations to my many causes. I am grateful for having been offered the chance to finally settle that question.
Because as humans our memory has not been getting any better. Because unless we ALL do something about it, we have F***ing failed.
Because we need more, much more, places of remembrance, and peace, and reflection. Because currently we are just not doing anything anywhere close to enough of any of that.
Last but not least: I URGE THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO RAPIDLY PURSUE THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT IN INTERNATIONAL COURTS OF JUSTICE FOR THEIR VARIOUS CRIMES, including to investigate the downing of PS752 to find the truth of what happened. Because this wasn’t the first time that something like this happened, nor will be the last.
As Meryl Streep quoted Carrie Fisher: “Take your broken heart, make it into art.”
Thank you for reading. 🙏
