Streetwise: Giving cash will always beat slow boat to Haiti

But just as with 2004's tsunami, the aftermath of the disaster has taught us about the generosity of "strangers". Donations are flooding into Haiti from all corners of the world. And with the donations, we realise that technology really is making the world a smaller place.

Thanks to satellites, anyone with BBC or CNN can follow updates on the impact, the status of victims and how Haiti is rebuilding.

Thanks to mobile-phone technology, those in the US can donate by text.

A more fancy way of making donation is on offer to the millions who shop at iTunes' online store. Account holders can click through to the donation page and choose to give between US$5-$200 (Bt165-Bt6,600). Once the clicking is done, your donation goes to the American Red Cross.

Thanks to advanced banking technology and growing international trade, some organisations are taking donations in four different currencies - pounds, dollars, euros and Swiss francs - rather than being limited to a single one.

But whatever the currency, money is probably the best form of donation, as transporting other forms of disaster relief over vast distances is time consuming and costly.

Thai Airways International estimated that their air shipment of 100 tonnes of rice to Haiti cost over US$600,000, while the Commerce Ministry reckons it will take 40 days to send their relief shipments by sea.

Luck played a large part in the ministry keeping to its schedule for the shipment of 20,000 tonnes of rice to Haiti. With the launch date fixed for February 1, the ministry had only five days to screen the rice, which was bagged up and ready to go.

But not until January 26 did the Foreign Affairs Ministry give the green light and endorse the message that Thais wanted Haiti's people to know.

Luckily, the rice sacks only numbered 400, each weighing 50kg. If they had been smaller, weighing 5kg, the Commerce Ministry would never have been able to finish the screening task in five days.