The utter failure of the Red Cross and other aid orgs in Haiti

Vice and ProPublica did some recent investigations of US aid to Haiti after the quake, and unfortunately you can probably guess what they found. It was literally like the Iraq War in terms of incompetence, mismanagement, hubris, CYA, and outright lies. I am done with the US Red Cross.

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red-cross-500-million-in-haiti-relief
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNM4kEUEcp8

Generous Americans gave the US Red Cross $500MM for Haiti relief. They outraised all other charities, probably due to marketing and brand. They promised that they would build thousands of permanent homes (with water and sanitation) for Haitians, and even "new communities". So far, they have built SIX (yes 1-2-3-4-5-6) new homes, and are getting ready to pull out. At least Bush eventually got Saddam.

The problem is that the RC is good at distributing temporary disaster aid (like post-Katrina water and tents), but knows nothing about reconstruction. Yet they gladly took our money and promised that they would get it done. Well, land rights and building logistics in Haiti is a Third World disaster as you can imagine, so the RC contracted with third parties. Except doing that requires higher mgmt fees on donations up to 33%. For scale, good charities have mgmt margins of like 5%. So millions of dollars went poof, and those orgs paid bureaucrats to try to get houses built, but never broke ground. For the few shovel-ready projects, they were delayed by red tape from HQ, and many people resigned out of frustration.

All the while, RC PR maintains that they did an awesome job and saved Haiti. They said they gave 4.5MM Haitians shelter, which is pretty impossible considering that is the entire urban pop. of Haiti (and only Port-au-Prince was affected). I have no idea how they got their #s. We know that there are inept, unmotivated people at every workplace. And unfortunately charity orgs are no different, despite their inspirational missions. RC leaders in DC treated Haiti like a 9-5 job, and it wasn't their ass if they didn't deliver. What about hiring local Haitian experts to manage the projects instead? It's their country and they had more innate motivation. Unfortunately there were HR delays and even overt prejudice against Haitian applications and hires. Mr. Big Boss Know-It-All American had to call the shots. I really hope Nepal doesn't turn out like this.

There are opportunists and carpetbaggers after every disaster/war, but I naively didn't expect them to have a red cross on their arms. But the truth is that they are no better than an occupying army, or USAID, or Halliburton.

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Like, who can you trust? Charity Navigator supposedly rates nonprofits. They rate the ARC as 3 out of 4 stars, with a 10% overhead ratio (90% of donations go to "programs"). That is pretty good, if we can trust their accounting.

But unfortunately, people have been trying to exploit others' generosity/sympathy since the advent of money. What level of hell is reserved for those scum? I can almost tolerate the Nigerian oil scammers and Wolf of Wall Street types, as they are preying on people's greed. But how can you lie to profit from goodwill?

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1903#.VXBesecmz9k

Also, F John Paulson for donating $400MM to Harvard Engineering. That's like doing volunteer work for the House of Saud. Literally he could have done much more good if he just gave the money away on a street corner in Boston. But that really wasn't a donation, it was more like a purchase of legacy and boasting to his peers.

http://www.republishan.com/e/7151433366795166/For-the-love-of-God-rich-people-stop-giving-Harvard-money

An explanation for the Haiti quake

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0110/Robertson_Haiti_cursed_since_Satanic_pact.html

So according to Pat Robertson, Haitian rebels made a deal with the devil (yes, Satan) to free them from French rule, but as a consequence god has punished Haiti ever since (poverty, hurricanes, civil war), with this month's earthquake being the most recent manifestation of his wrath. And then Robertson said that he hopes this tragedy will help Haitians turn to god. Hello, Pat? Haiti is a predominantly Christian country (80% Catholic, 16% Protestant). Yes there's some black magic voodoo here and there, but I guess he wants them to all become evangelicals?

Granted that Pat is probably senile (he claimed to bench 300 lbs. or something, right?), his take on history can only be described as "whack". Haitan rebelled from France under Napoleon I, not III. Not sure if the devil had a hand in it, but Napoleon was less interested in France's colonies in the New World, and needed every able soldier for his invasion of Eastern Europe. That's also why he sold us Louisiana on the cheap, because he was desperate for war funds. Pat also said that the Dominican Republic is prosperous with resorts and such, compared to neighboring Haiti. Obviously he has never been there. They are clearly better off than Haiti (not hard to do since Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas and ranked #157 by IMF's per capita GDP estimate of $1,300), but the DR is ranked #84 with a pcGDP of a mere $8,600. That is good for Central American standards, but they are still pre-industrial. Ask David Ortiz or Vlad Guerrero how wealthy they were growing up.

Part of Haiti's troubles is due to geography and bad luck, but their man-made "curses" are deforestation (logging has destroyed 98% of original forests, ruining farmland and accelerating erosion, which led to famine), colonialism (diseases killed practically all of the native Haitians so the current population are blacks, the US actually occupied Haiti for 20 years, and the dictator Trujillo we installed in the DR massacred thousands of Haitians too), and civil war (Haiti has had 32 coups, and the US took turns supporting and then kidnapping President Aristide, and since we left the nation deteriorated into failed state status).

BTW, Pat didn't seem to care but Int'l Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontiers, and UNICEF (among many others) are all having special collections for Haiti relief.