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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)

#151

Post by scrollaway »

scandox wrote: post #137
richardknop wrote: post #135

There is an interesting book called Lords of Poverty from Graham Hancock. It's from 80s when he used to work as a correspondent for the Economist in Africa. He claims that foreign aid and charities that raise tons of money from Western people for different projects in Africa are a total waste of money. The amount of corruption and waste is so huge that majority of the money people from US or EU donate ends up going d…

He currently gets quite a roasting on Wikipedia for his "unscientific theories". It does appear his main interest after that book is The Orion Correlation Theory and let's say "exciting" Archaeology.

He is not the only one to make that point though. de Mesquita is less controversial and makes the same point in The Dictator's Handbook.

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

#152

Post by mattmanser »

orcdork wrote: post #141
richardknop wrote: post #135

There is an interesting book called Lords of Poverty from Graham Hancock. It's from 80s when he used to work as a correspondent for the Economist in Africa. He claims that foreign aid and charities that raise tons of money from Western people for different projects in Africa are a total waste of money. The amount of corruption and waste is so huge that majority of the money people from US or EU donate ends up going d…

I'm not sure that true. As in - not true at all, unless you really want to believe it to be true. No, 70% of foreign aid is not 'stolen off the top' http://www.politifact.com/global-news/statements/2017/jan/17... How Much Aid is Really Lost to Corruption? https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-much-aid-really-lost-corrupti... Where does aid money really go -- and what is it spent on? http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/09/opinion…

Those statistics don't include the amount of money spent fund-raising for more money, e.g. the big ones can spent almost a third of their fund raising on more fund raising:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03113/Charitie...

I'm not a fan of funding more chuggers on my high street.

And then how much is spent on the head office, and the executive pay and a whole load of other things that get hidden in a bunch of different buckets?

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

#153

Post by mcv »

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…

Is the problem with the Red Cross in general, just the American Red Cross, this particular project of the Red Cross, or with charity projects in Haiti? Because I think I've heard of other NGOs who spent a lot of money to accomplish nothing in Haiti.

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

#154

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#155

Post by baldfat »

AS a cancer dad about 5 years ago the American Cancer Society (The largest cancer fund in America) got a lot of heat from parents who's children had cancer. The ACS would have pictures of Children for their donations champagne and less then $0.005 for every dollar would go for Pediatric Cancer Research AND they cut funding for all other Pediatric funding (AKA Camps and assisting families). They finally changed a LITTLE bit in 2016.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-agin/friends-dont-let...

http://shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com/2013/08/12/camp...

Federal Funding of Pediatric Cancer Research funds. People age 0-18 get 4% of the funding and do not benefit from research for adults since 0-18 your normal good cells are also dividing and growing. Research for Pediatric Cancer benefits EVERYONE since they tend to be less side effects and effective for all. Children went over 20 years before their with only two new Chemotherapy drugs for them while they were advertised by different organizations to get funding. St Baldrick's funded research came out with a one that ends up being VERY effective.

https://www.stbaldricks.org/blog/post/breaking-news-the-fda-...

https://www.stbaldricks.org/filling-the-funding-gap/

We as a family support St Baldricks 100%

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

#156

Post by mcv »

kobeya wrote: post #55
dogruck wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it's sad, but not surprising. People are sheep.

Downvotes because the truth hurts, I guess.

Downvotes because it's a lazy cliche that over-generalizes and doesn't contribute anything meaningful to the discussion.

If it's meant to be a meaningful concern, expressing it in a more intelligent manner would gain it upvotes. The way you express your opinion matters.

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

#157

Post by mcv »

dogruck wrote: post #66
lostlogin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you conflating The American Red Cross and The International Commiteee of the Red Cross? I have in the past, and they are very different.

No I'm referring to the Red Cross discussed in this thread's article.

The problem here seems to be that the American Red Cross uses the same brand as the international Red Cross.

I'm no expert on the Red Cross, but it's entirely possible that most Red Cross organizations do excellent work, while the American Red Cross is a corrupt or incompetent mess. Or has recently become such a mess.

But I also get the impression that Haiti is a particularly hard country to help.

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

#158

Post by velox_io »

Whenever I see a charity ad that tugs on my heart strings, I check their directors salaries* and my conscience is pretty clear. I have no issue with capitalism, but for people who do want a high salary (many don't), then perhaps the charity sector isn't the best option.

I'd like a similar scheme as food labelling colour codes. So key facts such as % to cause, % to management team, top salary K. This would greatly aid in transparency, rather than trying to read their financial's which are often little more than a glossy brochure. Plus, more auditing on the bigger ones to investigate large inefficiencies/ backhanders wouldn't be a bad idea.

*That's not including their expenses, which I bet are astronomical.

PS: I get that some charities have higher operating costs (e.g. medical research). Especially when I myself suffer from quite a rare condition called CRPS (unfortunately one of the most painful conditions known..), yet I struggle to recommend a charity that is making a difference. I'd love something to go viral like the ice-bucket challenge, but I don't see a way that wouldn't result in serious injuries.

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

#159

Post by mcv »

hackinthebochs wrote: post #67
maxander wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few organizations that try to quantitatively evaluate charitable organizations and similar- notably (and off the top of my head), CharityWatch [1]. Donating based on their metrics (although not the irrefutable truth of the matter, likely enough) is likely to lead to better "returns" from a donation than going by brand/marketing power. Notably, despite its prominence, Red Cross scores only a "B+" rating on…

The B+ rating seems to be at odds with the amount of vitriol being spewed at Red Cross in this thread.

Perhaps Haiti was a particularly bad project for them. I've heard of other charities having problems in Haiti.

Still, Doctors without Borders USA gets an A.

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

#160

Post by mcv »

jopsen wrote: post #59
MistahKoala wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mystified as to why you seem to think this is in some way an American problem. We have lots of fake charities in the EU.

In the EU charities aren't as big... Or as well branded. At least not the sketchy ones. Most big charities I know in the EU have good records... Particularly the state-sponsored ones. - to be fair I could be uninformed :)

Some EU charities are huge. The Red Cross has branches everywhere in the EU. Greenpeace's main office is in Netherland. Those are two massive brands.
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