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In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

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Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#91

Post by will_hughes »

yeukhon wrote: post #83
masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

Good question. There is Salvation Army, which accordingly to the comparison to Red Cross, has done extremely better job, delivering its mission well. But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too. I think there is a social effect, but more likely because the people working at Red Cross has better reach to the big organizations and media outlet, despite the backlashes. The…

> But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too.

I don't know the actual reason. But it could be because of the religious connection. While I've seen that the Salvation Army has done a lot of good, they also connect it with their belief system. This makes me uneasy.

Fundamentally I'd be happy to donate to a charity that I knew would:

- Responsibly manage the funds

- Ensure that those in need actually get the funds or directly funds activities for those in need (i.e shelter, food, etc)

- Not turn around and then spend significant fractons (or, in some cases, multiples) of the donated amount in trying to get more donations from me/other donors.

- Not connect the donations / activities with a religious belief system

Unfortunately those seem few and far between.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#92

Post by DrScump »

tlb wrote: post #13

A plug for New Story ( https://newstorycharity.org/ ), which has built 900+ homes in Haiti for $6000 in donations each. And they think a lot about building those homes into functional communities.

Is there a reason that they are not listed on Charity Navigator? Are they listed on any other independent charity rating site?

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#93

Post by jonknee »

slackoverflower wrote: post #8

I always wondered how the global offices looked for these big charity organizations. With $500M, I imagine they have offices in those urban corporate office skyscrapers and Silicon Valley tech company styled HQs.

You could always just look it up...

https://goo.gl/maps/FqnvU95D2eK2

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#94

Post by astura »

finnh wrote: post #48
opportune wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could happen, it just couldn't come out of the blue. Someone would probably need to pay for a nation-wide awareness campaign (the irony) about the evils of corrupt charities such as The Red Cross or Susan G Komen.

What's up with Komen? I realize I could google it, forgive me, but it sounds like you're in a position to give me a quick precis =)

They get a lot of criticism for (among other things) "pink washing" breast cancer, more of their funds are spent on "raising awareness" than actual scientific research, and having corporate sponsors that sell potentially cancerogenic products.

There's a documentary about it called Pink Ribbons, Inc.

I also heard someone once criticize them for supporting anti-choice politicians but I don't know how true that is.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#95

Post by joe_the_user »

Haiti is a complex and contradiction-ridden place.

As the poorest nation, per capita, in western hemisphere, Haiti is often the "face of poverty", with photographs of its most unfortunates featured on fund-raising newsletters of every sort but with the failures of efforts at reform being featured on every debunking of

I have a personal friend, white, who served as something of a liaison, moving goods, between the random (white) Americans who showed up on Haiti after the earth quake and the people (black, Haitian) who needed assistance. She helped some substantial number of people but naturally only a drop in the bucket.

Haiti has a complex structure of repression which has held power for quite some time. The multitude of corrupt processes in the nation naturally don't help either. But as is visible, charities are remarkably unconcerned with these subtleties, being bureaucracies like all bureaucracies, they plow ahead with pouring X dollars into Y problem with consultations with Z experts.

Literally, you can find groups of people in America, Houston in particular, doing 100x as the Red Cross with considerably less - because they are people actually walking into the situation and trying to figure out what's needed.

Bureaucracy once has its strength relative to such efforts but this strength seems entirely lost now. I'd chalk it down to the general decay of this society.

What I know of Haiti comes from above, meeting just a few Haitians and the following texts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Jacobins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comedians_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(b... http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=9966

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#96

Post by ianamartin »

yeukhon wrote: post #83
masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

Good question. There is Salvation Army, which accordingly to the comparison to Red Cross, has done extremely better job, delivering its mission well. But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too. I think there is a social effect, but more likely because the people working at Red Cross has better reach to the big organizations and media outlet, despite the backlashes. The…

SA is tied to Catholics, and this is a big deal breaker for a lot of people.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#97

Post by 3131s »

mkstowegnv wrote: post #68
Overtonwindow wrote: post #41

Ask the Clintons

Since you provide no links, one must assume that you are motivated by a vague awareness of controversies tied to the Clinton Foundation. However, these controversies do not involve Haiti or missing money, and for balance I suggest readers look at last fall´s and recent comparisons of the controversies surrounding Clinton and Trump associated charitable activities https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=comparing+clinton+t…

Actually, the theories connecting missing Haiti donation money and the Clintons don't so much refer to the Clinton Foundation, but to Hillary's tenure at the US Department of State during which the Haiti earthquake occurred.

I won't claim to know much about the situation, but major news organizations have reported on what appears to be similar mismanagement of the ~13 billion in funds donated to Haiti [1]. And Bill Clinton found himself co-chairing the commission that handled these funds.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/what-does-haiti-...

The conspiracy theories around the Clintons and Haiti are persistent from a number of angles. Emails from the Podesta leak added fuel to the fire, among them this one featuring a close Clinton associate mentioning "Tony Rodham ... hustling gold mining deals in Haiti."

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/6900

Anything involving the Clintons merits extra scrutiny, IMO.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#98

Post by bretthagler »

DrScump wrote: post #92
tlb wrote: post #13

A plug for New Story ( https://newstorycharity.org/ ), which has built 900+ homes in Haiti for $6000 in donations each. And they think a lot about building those homes into functional communities.

Is there a reason that they are not listed on Charity Navigator? Are they listed on any other independent charity rating site?

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profil...

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#99

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

ianamartin wrote: post #96
yeukhon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. There is Salvation Army, which accordingly to the comparison to Red Cross, has done extremely better job, delivering its mission well. But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too. I think there is a social effect, but more likely because the people working at Red Cross has better reach to the big organizations and media outlet, despite the backlashes. The…

SA is tied to Catholics, and this is a big deal breaker for a lot of people.

That’s not true, the Salvation Army is, as I understand, its own Christian denomination.

Re: In Search Of The Red Cross' $500M In Haiti Relief (2015)

#100

Post by Rebelgecko »

yeukhon wrote: post #83
masters3d wrote: post #79

"The point is that the concern we should have is not just about the $500,000,000 donated for Haiti for which the good hearted donors received just six $400 shacks. The concern is about billions of donated dollars intended to help people all over the world. The Haiti data demonstrates that for each billion donated to the Red Cross we get a total of 12 each $400 shacks which we wouldn't put our lawn mower in. The great…

Good question. There is Salvation Army, which accordingly to the comparison to Red Cross, has done extremely better job, delivering its mission well. But why didn't orgs like FB or Google (I forgot which) advertized SA? SA is well-known too. I think there is a social effect, but more likely because the people working at Red Cross has better reach to the big organizations and media outlet, despite the backlashes. The…

The Salvation Army's religious beliefs (which they occasionally try to make law) are a dealbreaker for me and presumably others. Even though it's easy to laugh about things like not accepting donations of Harry Potter toys, it's concerning when they try to force their beliefs onto others (for example, threatening to pull out of areas that require employers to offer benefits to the partners of gay employees)
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