How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti ­and Built Six Homes

[n2doc]

by Justin Elliott, ProPublica, and Laura Sullivan, NPR

THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF CAMPECHE sprawls up a steep hillside in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. Goats rustle in trash that goes forever uncollected. Children kick a deflated volleyball in a dusty lot below a wall with a hand-painted logo of the American Red Cross.

In late 2011, the Red Cross launched a multimillion-dollar project to transform the desperately poor area, which was hit hard by the earthquake that struck Haiti the year before. The main focus of the project — called LAMIKA, an acronym in Creole for “A Better Life in My Neighborhood” — was building hundreds of permanent homes.

Today, not one home has been built in Campeche. Many residents live in shacks made of rusty sheet metal, without access to drinkable water, electricity or basic sanitation. When it rains, their homes flood and residents bail out mud and water.

The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.

The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.

The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.

more

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes

[Octafish]

1. Thank you, n2doc! Great reporting from Pro Publica and NPR.

Words escape me to describe the loathing I have for "humanitarians" who abuse their office. They should have to make restitution and apologize in-person to the people of Haiti.

[jwirr]

8. In MN our government is suing SAVERS for false claims. That is what should happen to the Red Cross

in this area. They should have taken the money and handed it over to Habitat for Humanity. They do build homes.

Many of us gave through them because they were one of the few recognizable groups with their number posted everywhere.

They owe us.

[Octafish]

14. Haiti is the poorest place in the hemisphere. And that's saying something...

Jean Bertrand Aristide is the first person I heard use the expression "1-percent of the people own 99-percent of the country."It was a short time after the generals, with the tacit approval of Poppy Bush, overthrew the first democratically elected leader in 70 years of the poorest nation in the hemisphere. He came to speak at the Cranbrook Peace Foundation outside Detroit. I wrote about it 13 years or so later on DU:

Aristide told me the Generals ran Dope, Inc. on Haiti. Personally.

Posted by Octafish in General Discussion (Through 2005)
Sat Mar 20th 2004, 06:49 PM

Sorry if the following is an old read. The thing held true then and holds true still…

I met Jean Bertrand-Aristide after he was deposed by the generals in the early 90s. He came to metro Detroit and spoke before the Cranbrook Peace Foundation.

The newspaper I then worked for didn’t see any reason for sending me to cover Aristide’s speech. The editors weren’t BFEE, but the events on a Caribbean island just weren’t “local” enough for their budget. So, I went on my own time.

The Cranbrook people were happy to see me. They wanted, of course, as much coverage as possible. So, they invited me and the other interested reporter types to have at him for an hour before his address.

I’m ashamed to report, at an important event in two nation’s larger media market, only a couple of CBC radio reporters out of Windsor and one local Detroit TV crew bothered to show. I was the lone print guy. Anyway…

Aristide answered every question asked in English or French. He also told us about life in Haiti, where there were four doctors to care for 4 million people. Another interesting stat: One percent of the population own 99-percent of the property.

I asked Aristide what the United States could do to help him restore democracy to Haiti? Aristide said all Poppy Doc Bush had to do was pick up the phone, call the generals and say, “Get out,” and they would quit their coup and the first democratically elected leader of Haiti in 75 years would be returned to power. Bush didn't and Aristide wasn't until Clinton sent the US Marines, many years and many Haitian lives later.

The reason for Bush Senior's inaction? Aristide said he didn’t know the answer, but he suspected Bush’s politics favored the landowners over the masses. (“Sounds familiar,” I then thought and still think today.)

Aristide said that the generals were deep into the wholesale cocaine importation business. Now who would be their partner in all that? Besides the wealthy landowners, for whom the Generals worked, I mean.

Original OP from 2004: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1257891&mesg_id=1259743

The Reagan, Bushes, etc. -- and the people they front for -- are doing to the United States of America what the landowners of Haiti -- and those in Columbia and the other nations of the world where the small minority control the majority of wealth, land and resources. These undemocratic tools only work to enhance their own privileged positions and holdings. The rest of humanity could be cattle or piss-ants, for all they care.

That was Haiti in 1991. As I saw what BFEE was doing with the S & Ls at the time, I figured they wanted to keep on ripping off the People. Most everything I've seen and what I've learned since support my conclusions, including their globalist player chums ripping off the works at the International Red Cross.

[jwirr]

17. And I do not doubt this for one second. Having read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" this has happened

all over the world. Our problem today is how do we break their power?

Once when I was small we fought to stop this kind of evil. WWII. Now the wars are being fought by and for the BFEE. Who is going to fight it today? This is the truth that no one wants to face because it hurt so damn much. I am crying. But it is the truth and we must fight it. I hope our leaders have someone watching their backs.

[think]

2. Red Cross really looks bad in this situation and I would be very hesitant to donate ever again

to the organization.

They refuse to open their books and the results of their efforts in Haiti are absolutely appalling considering the $500,000,000 in donations they had to work with.

[DetlefK]

3. A sentence from the article that really hit me:

"Lacking the expertise to mount its own projects, the Red Cross ended up giving much of the money to other groups to do the work."

WHY THE FUCK are they asking for donations for helping those people if they have no idea what they are supposed to do with the money??????

[Fred Sanders]

7. There was also the part in the article about not being able to fill vacancies...it is a tough job.

[DetlefK]

12. If you are not up to the job, then don't cut in line to offer to do the job.

If the Red Cross doesn't have the right people for the job and if it doesn't have the expertise for these large-scale urban development projects, then why is it offering to do this project???

[daleanime]

30. +1

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Maybe we should find out who they gave the money to,

because this might be exactly how privatized charities are supposed to work.

[Faux pas]

4. When I was young my Grampa told me

to never donate to the Red Cross. He served in WWII and he said whenever and where ever the Red Cross set up their vans to 'give out' coffee and donuts to the military, they charged the men for the coffee and donuts. Looks like they've expanded their hucksterism to rip off the rest of the world. Sickening.

[REP]

20. My grandfather was in WWI and said the same thing

Salvation Army did not charge and they were very nice.

[Faux pas]

21. I thought it was bad that it went back

to WWI! Since the Red cross goes back to 1881, can we surmise that they've been screwing over our military since the 19th century? Maybe it's time to disband them.

[packman]

31. Like to second that -

had several uncles that served in WWII and not one of them had anything nice to say about the Red Cross. The donuts and coffee story was told by all three that was in Europe and even in the states the RC would charge them in the camps.
The most outrageous story they told was the RC giving mortgage "loans" to the families of the servicemen/women so they could travel to funerals of their family.
I know they made a shitload of money out of blood given in their blood drives.

[Faux pas]

35. Didn't know about the 'loans'.

I thought the coffee and donut scam was shady enough. That takes it to a whole other level of con man greed. Yikes packman!

[procon]

33. Truth!

It happened to my dad in Florida. It was in the mid 60s time frame and he was away on a business trip when a hurricane wiped out the hotel he was staying at. He said he had nothing but his PJs and a bath towel, no shoes, wallet, nothing. Like everyone else who got out of the hotels, he gathered in a parking lot waiting for help and was relieved to see a Red Cross convoy show up. He stood in line to get a blanket, hot coffee and donuts, and they asked him to pay. When he couldn't, they took his name and address and later sent him a bill... I think it was like $3.10. He didn't pay them.

No one in our family has ever donated to the Red Cross because of this.

[Faux pas]

37. Good on your

dad for not paying procon.

[Stuart G]

5. There have been other stories about the Red Cross.

They also point to closed books and incompetence on many levels. And wasting of money. I never donate to them..never

but the Red Cross sure does advertise a lot on the internet.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Half a billion dollars for 10 million folks is 50 bucks a head....Haiti was a disaster before the

Hurricane, and it is a hot mess now....not to mention there is a chaotic land title system - who gets title to new homes, and how? - and there was that little cholera outbreak that killed thousands...and who wants to go and work in Haiti...the response may not be the best, but the outrage is unjustified.

[jwirr]

10. Agreed there were problems but as to who will do the work. Hatians.

[City Lights]

11. I've heard too many negative stories about the Red Cross and will never

donate to them.

[malaise]

13. I never donate to the Red Cross

as in never

[dhill926]

15. yep....

plenty of good AND visible organizations. Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Seva among others.

[malaise]

25. Precisely

[Mr Dixon]

16. SMH

I heard bad things about the Red Cross years ago and other charities also, still it’s hard to pass up those people in front of Safeway around Christmas time out there in the cold, which I suppose is the point.

[GreatGazoo]

18. I worked for the Red Cross for a while so this story doesn't surprise me at all

I saw paid employees do their Christmas shopping by going through the donations.

The head of our office was a corporate guy who had been pushed over to us by his corporate masters because he was constantly drunk and had harrassed women sexually. Guess what he did at the Red Cross ?...'he was constantly drunk and had harrassed women'

When an earthquake hit Mexico, Calvin Kleins' offices called to see how soon we could get their sweatshop back online.

Elizabeth Dole was head of the national org and left all kinds of scandals in her wake.

Etc.

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.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/09/25/151753/-LAT-expos-quot-The-Red-Cross-money-pit-quot-The-TRUTH-at-last#

[niyad]

19. this is but one reason I do not give a dime to the red cross.

[gcomeau]

22. But remember...

...charitable donation is the best way to help people in need, not that super wasteful government bureaucracy. So says the GOP.

[Old Codger]

23. They have always been this way

During the several conflicts we have been involved in they have always charged for many of their services. In an emergency they will help a serviceman get flights home and pay for the ticket then bill you for a repayment...

They have never ever been held to any level of responsibility for how they have mishandled and misstated their services...

[1monster]

24. My son was talking about some campaign that was collecting money for help in Nepal

and he said, "I don't know much about that organization. I think it would be better to donate to Nepal through the Red Cross."

Yes, I set him straight about the Red Cross. I'll reinforce that with this little gem about Haiti.

The Red Cross was once a wonderful organization. It's to bad the Cordon Gekko worshiping crowd got their greedy, dirty, blood dripping hand on it.

[liberal N proud]

26. Hope they were really nice homes

[hughee99]

27. Is it 6 homes that house 22,000 people each?

I didn't think so.

[moondust]

28. I'll bet the CEO got her $562,364.

Plus some bonuses?



http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.VW8z8Uay5B8

[valerief]

29. Back in the 90s when I learned Elizabeth Dole was president of the Red Cross, I figured

it was a mainly scam operation. Otherwise, why would she be part of it?

[packman]

32. Be interesting to see how many other

big wig Republicans got onto that executive board.

[Thespian2]

34. One thing the Bloody Cross

did manage to do in WWII was assist tobacco companies in hooking as many service personnel on cigarettes as possible...

[KamaAina]

36. A friend of mine in New Orleans once told me

that the Red Cross sold bread in the aftermath of Hurricane Betsy in '65.

No more Red Cross for me since then.

[Aerows]

40. Don't ask me about Katrina

and the aftermath.

[KamaAina]

42. What about Katrina and the aftermath?

[Vinca]

38. Were the 6 homes built made of solid gold???

The Red Cross seems to be a high class scam.

[Aerows]

39. Been there, done that

during Katrina.

If we would have waited on the Red Cross, we'd have died. As it was, they came by 2 weeks later asking us if we needed water :/

Uh, if we did, that was too damn late. We didn't, but they probably would have charged us for it!

[Oneironaut]

41. People don't realize that orgs like the Red Cross are just money-hungry corporations.

I can guarantee almost all of this money went to the top leadership to augment their wealth. They don't want to help anyone - they want to pretend to care and make money. That's their business. Having a presence at disasters and begging for "donations" is big business for them.

The bottom line is, every time a disaster happens, the Red Cross loves it - more sad commercials, and more money / bonuses.