The American Red Cross has had its highly buffed reputation sullied by the disparity between its herculean efforts at fundraising after disasters such as the 9/11 attacks and the 1989 San Francisco Bay earthquake and the actual amount of aid it gave to victims of those disasters. In fact, that disparity - unknown to most trusting Americans - is scandalously huge and is long overdue for wide exposure at last.
Consider: fully SEVENTY PER CENT OF GIVING by Americans for Hurricane Katrina victims went to the American Red Cross. Celebrities, FEMA, the President, network TV, EVERYONE was pushing to give give give to the Red Cross as a way to help Katrina's victims. Yet very little of that money has actually reached the victims in any useful form. Indeed, the management of Red Cross operations in the Katrina areas has often been haphazard and counterproductive, to the point that the CEO of DeKalb County, Georgia ASKED THE RED CROSS TO LEAVE:
NY TIMESThe official, Vernon Jones, chief executive of DeKalb County, said that the Red Cross's tedious paper application process had resulted in long lines and that the group had made false promises of financial payments. Its failure to establish a process for distributing money disrupted other services provided at the relief center and forced the county to use its own resources to restore order, Mr. Jones said.
"It got so crazy that last Thursday, a riot nearly broke out because they had told people they would have checks for them and the checks weren't there," Mr. Jones said in a telephone interview.
The county rented barriers to help maintain orderly lines, dispatched police officers and provided food and water to the crowds waiting for financial assistance, he said.
"They were issuing debit cards knowing that they wouldn't work just to get people out of line," Mr. Jones said.
The foot-soldiers for the ARC are volunteers,but the upper-level MANAGEMENT of the ARC is very different. One could sum up the problem by describing them as "Bushed," meaning not only that they are heavily weighted with rich GOP hangers-on, but that they deal in vast amounts of money, accomplish far less than they claim, and mask their real intentions and operations in secrecy. Every time they've been investigated over the last 15 years, what started bubbling up were very dark and ugly secrets indeed. Yet the ARC has to be one of the fattest "sacred cows" on the planet - who has dared to criticize them?
Where do all those billions of dollars so generously given to the ARC REALLY go? How much more productively might they be spent in more direct aid that provides desperately needed services that NEITHER FEMA nor the ARC give? This is not just a question of scandal and corruption, but of life and death, for since the federal government has abandoned hurricane victims to fend for themselves, the 70% of American donations are most of what is left to take up the slack. Instead, most of that money goes to shadowy places other than where it is most needed and the taxpayers actually have to reimburse the Red Cross for much of what little it actually does for the victims.
There is a piece in the LA times which does an excellent job of exposing the inefficiency of America's top first-response agency. A full exposure of the sorry reality of the American Red Cross is way, way overdue. Generous Americans should realize that their gifts are not all reaching the intended victims. This story should be followed by investigations and further exposés and real changes in the way Americans provide care and aid for disaster victims.
LA TIMESWITH HURRICANE RITA now making news, it's time for Americans to take a more disciplined look at their tremendous generosity. As of last week, the American Red Cross reported that it had raised $826 million in private funds for Hurricane Katrina victims. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has the total figure at more than $1.2 billion for all relief groups reporting. So the Red Cross received about 70% of all giving.
This percentage was no doubt bloated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's mystifying release to the media of the names of 19 faith-based charities (plus the Red Cross, Humane Society and three lesser-known groups) to which the public should donate — rather than the much wider group of established relief agencies.
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This skewed giving to Red Cross would be justified if the organization had to pay the cost of the 300,000 people it has sheltered. But FEMA and the affected states are reimbursing the Red Cross under preexisting contracts for emergency shelter and other disaster services. The existence of these contracts is no secret to anyone but the American public. The Red Cross carefully says it functions only by the grace of the American people — but "people" includes government, national and local. What we've now come to expect from a major disaster is a Red Cross media blitz.
The national Red Cross reports it spent $111 million last year on fundraising alone. And it's hard to escape the organization's warning of Armageddon if you don't call in a credit card number or send a check or donate blood (which it resells to the tune of more than $1.5 billion annually, part of its $3 billion in income).
In Southern California, we have had the spectacle of "drive-by" drop-offs of bags of money at public places such as the Rose Bowl, massively promoted by local media. Hollywood studios and stars and corporate America compete to make huge donations.
The Red Cross brand is platinum. Its fundraising vastly outruns its programs because it does very little or nothing to rescue survivors, provide direct medical care or rebuild houses. After 9/11, the Red Cross collected more than $1 billion, a record in philanthropic fundraising after a disaster. But the Red Cross could do little more than trace missing people, help a handful of people in shelters and provide food to firefighters, police, paramedics and evacuation crews during that catastrophe.
When New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer asked for do entation of 9/11 expenditures, the Red Cross' response was that it is federally chartered and not answerable to state government regulators. The clamor rose, however, when the media began dissecting Red Cross activities in the 9/11 aftermath. This resulted in the resignation of the organization's president and chief executive, Dr. Bernadine Healy, and the appointment of ex-Sen. George Mitc (D-Maine) to oversee its 9/11 fund and help clean up its image. Funds were then pushed out the door — including millions to New York limo drivers who said they lost income after 9/11, and to upscale residents of lower Manhattan to help pay their utility bills.
The organization also ran into trouble after the 1989 San Francisco Bay Area earthquake when it was revealed that it planned to spend only a fraction of the millions of dollars it had collected in the area damaged by the earthquake. When the Bay Area's mayors found out, they insisted that these funds be spent on housing, homeless shelters and health clinics. The Red Cross had to waive, for one time only, its long-standing policy against funding non-Red Cross groups. (Spare change — and there will be a lot of it this time — stays in a Red Cross "national disaster account." This allows it to spend funds donated for one purpose on another.)
The Red Cross expects to raise more than $2 billion before Hurricane Katrina-related giving subsides. If it takes care of 300,000 people, that's $7,000 per victim. I doubt each victim under Red Cross care will see more than a doughnut, an interview with a social worker and a short-term voucher for a cheap motel, with a few miscellaneous items such as clothes and cooking pots thrown in.
The real losers in all of this of course are the victims, who are abandoned by BOTH their government and the major charity trusted by a majority of Americans to help them.
Last edited by Nbadan; 09-28-2005 at 03:30 AM.
Yeah, all the money goes straight to the people. It doesn't cost anything to provide water, food, clothes, ice, toiletries, medical care, transportation, housing assistance, lost persons locating, and the logictics to move all of that all around the country in 24 hours. Oh and advertising your cause is also free. I demand the immediate pull out of the Redcross from the United States.
From the occupied United States?
Oh, and when Spurfect spent a lot of time volunteering for the Red Cross at the Astrodome in Houston after Katrina they ended up hiring her full time. I'm only assuming that means they give her a paycheck...considering she quit her other job to go there. I'm assuming she's not the only one they pay to work for the organization.
No the entire country! It must be a route!
So you think that it's appropriate for FEMA to reimburse the RC and other charitable organizations with taxpayer money. Makes sense coming from a spend and spend Republican.
Wonder on whom the RC is spending your donations on?
Real ReportsAnyone else notice they seem to have gotten away with murder in New Orleans, and then changed the subject? They have stolen even more money from the American people and given it to FEMA who is giving it to Halliburton, Bectel, Red Cross and faith based organizations. In the meantime, only small groups of volunteers are actually helping and they are being harrassed by FEMA. They are even blaming the crappy economy on the hurricanes. And now this...
"Yesterday I drove to the Algiers Red Cross distribution point which is located in the southern section of the Algiers neighborhood near the middle-class white section of town. As soon as I walked in, I noticed a frowning young man in a khaki shirt and black hat with a sidearm and corporate logo prominently displayed.
Blackwater Security is now providing security to the Red Cross! That's right, you heard correctly. Armed mecenaries are providing security to a (supposedly) humanitarian relief organization. I spoke with three Red Cross volunteers about what was going on with their distribution and pointed out that Blackwater is a group of armed mercenaries - corporate contractors who have a very bad reputation. I offerred the question - who are they accountable to?"
A well meaning volunteer from Vermont said that the Blackwater guys were very nice and they offered protection. I asked, "Who do you need protection from?" The conversation ended.
So if you donated money to the Red Cross, you are supporting extra-legal armed mercenaries who were observed shooting people out of French Quarter windows following Katrina. Hurricane relief at gunpoint. Aren't you proud?"
Dan,
you must be the most absolutely depressing person to know in real life.
Shouldn't the RC be hiring someone displaced and unemployed from NO? I'm sure Spurfect is a valuable volunteer, as are most of the RC foot-soliders, but she already had a job.
Is he still director & president?This resulted in the resignation of the organization's president and chief executive, Dr. Bernadine Healy, and the appointment of ex-Sen. George Mitc (D-Maine) to oversee its 9/11 fund and help clean up its image. Funds were then pushed out the door — including millions to New York limo drivers who said they lost income after 9/11, and to upscale residents of lower Manhattan to help pay their utility bills.
so then if she is qualified for a position that they are looking to fill, they shouldn't hire her because she has a job?Shouldn't the RC be hiring someone displaced and unemployed from NO? I'm sure Spurfect is a valuable volunteer, as are most of the RC foot-soliders, but she already had a job.
She was involved in investigating fraud with the debit cards. I'm fairly certain they would need a certain degree of independence for that particular function.
Maybe you are reading too much into that sentence. Mitc did not become Director or President of the RC.
University of MichiganThe American Red Cross appointed him in December 2001 as independent overseer of the Liberty Disaster Relief Fund, which was established to coordinate relief efforts in response to the Sept. 11 tragedies.
So your telling me that of the 100,000 newly unemployed victims of Katrina and Rita, none of them were qualified to go after debit card cheaters?
Considering the astonishing amount of fraud that she found as it was...it's probably not be a good idea if the person they hired qualified for one of them. She has access to fund the cards.
I understand what you're thinking...for any other job I would definitely be all for them hiring the victims. But for that particular position, it'd kind of be like auditing your own books.
Gee Dan, would you rather go to a trans-gender group or maybe the United Nations. Now we know those groups would spend the taxpayers money in a good way.
Uh no! That makes no sense. In order to react quickly to a disaster the RC has to have all the of the people they need already hired, trained, and ready to do the job. They can't depend on finding people in the disaster area to fill their ranks. What if those people who were put out want to leave and stop working? Who will fill their role when they move on? The stresses on these people are high enough, why make them deal with other's problems on top of their own?
Why are you calling RC volunteers foot-soldiers? That has a very derogatory tone to it.
Oh, and I'm not a spend spend republican either.
Are there any Republicans on this forum?
Why didn't you apply for that job Dan? It seems you have been displaced for so long!
I'm a registered (moderate) Republican....but there are several issues I lean to the left.
I am an accountant, though...that cartoon is pretty funny.
I am not telling you anything. I asked you a question. It is also impolite to answer a question with another question.So your telling me that of the 100,000 newly unemployed victims of Katrina and Rita, none of them were qualified to go after debit card cheaters?
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