Wednesday, February 17, 2010

WTF Is The Red Cross Doing Hoarding All That Money?


Americans have given the U.S. Red Cross $255 Million to use to help the people of Haiti who are victims of that horrible earthquake.

To date, the Red Cross has only spent, or committed (whatever that means) to spend $80 Million.

What are they waiting for? That's less than 1/3 of the money given. The Red Cross is generally limited to providing emergency services, not long-term relief. They do not, as far as I know, build homes for people, or build schools. They use money to provide emergency food, shelter, maybe medical, to people in need.

So where does the rest of the money go? I don't like the U.S. Red Cross, for lots of reasons. But putting that aside, we know that the medical situation in Haiti is a life-or-death one for many people. Why hasn't the Red Cross given some of this money to Doctors Without Borders, who are on-site, were there before the earthquake and have traveling teams with portable emergency rooms ready and available to help the people. But they do need assistance to save lives. So instead of the Red Cross sitting on all this money, why don't they give it to somebody who is able and willing to do something to save lives in the emergency that exists right now.


I'm going to follow up on this story, and see whether the Red Cross ends up just fattening their own bank accounts with money given to them for Haiti. Or, worse yet, give the money out to Haitian millionaires to use to build new palaces, much like the Red Cross did after 9/11, giving money to the multi-millionaire families of stockbrokers who died. That's not what people intend when they give a "charitable" donation. They don't intend that the money be used to pay obscene salaries and bonuses to Red Cross insiders. And they don't intend that the money be given to rich people.
http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/international/Haiti/HaitiEarthquake_OneMonthReport.pdf

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