RSS Feed MenuMy latest CNN column reviews the history of aid after the 2004 tsunami and warns: Don’t send Haiti too much money. As the International Federation of Red Cross Societies said in their after-action assessment:
Without knowing who was doing what and where, some communities were overwhelmed with aid while others were neglected.
At the root of coordination problems was one key factor: too much money. Nearly everyone could hire a helicopter or boat, make their own needs assessments and distributions, and ‘fly the flag’. …
Read the whole thing here.
blowtorch_bob // Jan 19, 2010 at 1:48 pm
You got that right. I wouldn’t give a dime to Haiti relief, not until I was sure it was going to the people who really needed it. I wouldn’t trust the thugs in the “Hiatian gov’t” one inch.
Last time there was a quake in that part of the world with large loss of life -the Dec. 1972 quake in Managua, Nicaragua- the Somoza family which ran the country like its own private country club, stole most of the international relief supplies and sold it on the black market.
The Nicaraguan people had the last laugh thought when they ran the Somoza gang out of town a few years later.
kevin47 // Jan 19, 2010 at 1:59 pm
But there are a number of charitable organizations who are already doing great work building the infrastructure of Haiti, from schools to businesses. Donate to them instead of dumping toothpaste on the country.
blowtorch_bob // Jan 19, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Since the U.S. has interfered in Haiti’s politics so many times maybe they should dispense with the formalities and annex the place and make it the 53rd state behind Iraq.
communists-basher // Jan 20, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Obama was aiming at 58 states …