Posted by feww on June 5, 2015
Where is the money?
After the devastating 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti, Western hemisphere’s poorest country, the Red Cross received about $500 million in donations.
“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,” according to a report by ProPublica and NPR.
“Today, not one home has been built in Campeche [a neighborhood that sprawls up a steep hillside in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince.] 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 claims it has provided homes to at least 130,000 people. But the investigation found that the group has built only six homes in all of Haiti.
Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern unveiled ambitious plans to “develop brand-new communities,” after the earthquake devastated the country. “None has ever been built,” says the report.
Red Cross saw the Haiti earthquake disaster as “a spectacular fundraising opportunity,” says a former official who helped with the fundraising. “Michelle Obama, the NFL and a long list of celebrities appealed for donations to the group”
Now, the Red Cross refuses to release details of how it has spent the hundreds of millions of dollars donated for Haiti. But the investigation reveals that far less money reached the quake victims than the Red Cross has claimed.
More…
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Posted in News Alert | Tagged: charity scam, corruption, earthquake disaster, Haiti earthquake, LAMIKA, PORT-AU-PRINCE, red cross, relational logic | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 27, 2014
Sandy: Another Hurricane from ‘Heaven’ for Red Cross
Most aid organizations, which at any rate only pass on only about FIVE percent of all donations received, run huge cash deficits because of their overheads, especially 6-figure wages to their executives, and have to pay off their debts before worrying about mundane things like looking after the injured, starved and homeless victims of disasters.
In 2002, the Better Business Bureau temporarily stripped the American Red Cross of its status as one of the nation’s best-run charities while it investigated complaints that the Red Cross mismanaged the $850 million it raised for victims of the September 11 attacks.
Red Cross is now fighting a public records request for information on how it raised and spent money after major disasters caused by superstorm Sandy.
Just how badly does the American Red Cross want to keep secret how it raised and spent over $300 million after Hurricane Sandy?
The charity has hired a fancy law firm to fight a public request we filed with New York state, arguing that information about its Sandy activities is a “trade secret.”
The Red Cross’ “trade secret” argument has persuaded the state to redact some material, though it’s not clear yet how much since the documents haven’t yet been released.
As we’ve reported, the Red Cross releases few details about how it spends money after big disasters. That makes it difficult to figure out whether donor dollars are well spent.
The Red Cross did give some information about Sandy spending to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who had been investigating the charity. But the Red Cross declined our request to disclose the details.
Read more…
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Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters | Tagged: aid mafia, charity mafia, Donations, fraud, Hurricane SANDY, New York Attorney General, ProPublica, public charity, red cross, Trade Secret | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 5, 2013
Fifth of UK households borrowed money or used savings to cover food costs
One in five UK households, or the equivalent of five million households, borrowed money or used savings to cover food costs in April, according to a survey.
- The figures defy official statistics released last week that showed personal bankruptcies had dropped to a 5-year low.
- The households who used savings, or borrowed money to pay for food, were mostly low income families. Among this group:
- 82% worried about food prices
- 55% said they were likely to cut back on food spending in the next few months
- 57% said they found it difficult to cope on their current income
- 32% borrowed money from friends and family in April, said the report.
The executive director of “Which?”, the organization that carried out the survey, said: “Our tracker shows that many households are stretched to their financial breaking point, with rising food prices one of the top worries for squeezed consumers.
“It’s simply shocking that so many people need to use savings or credit to pay for essentials like food.”
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Image of the Week
Crates of pesticides and fertilizer at a strawberry farm are destroyed as a raging brush fire pushes towards the coast, in Camarillo (Ventura County, SoCal) May 2, 2013. The so-called Springs Fire was just under 60 percent contained, as of posting. Credit: Reuters/Gene Blevins
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Israel strikes Syria again
Israeli jets bombed Syria on Sunday, rocking Damascus for several hours and sending columns of flame into the night sky.
- Syrian state television reported that the bombing that occurred around a military research facility at Jamraya had caused ‘many civilian casualties and widespread damage’ and quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: ‘The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory.'”
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Death toll from Bangladesh factory collapse reaches 610
The death toll from Dhaka factory collapse climbed to 610 on Sunday after the authorities pulled dozens of bodies from the wreckage of Rana Plaza, the eight-story building that housed five garment factories.
- The toll is expected to rise further, an official told reporters.
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Chinese no longer trust the Red Cross!
Many people in China no longer trust the Red Cross Society and refused to donate through the organization because the charity’s image has been seriously damaged by a series of scandals, said a report.
In contrast to making generous donations through the Red Cross after the earthquake in Wenchuan 5 years ago, many people choose to donate to other charities, or contributed nothing, after the recent Lushan quake.
[Search blog content for the role of Red Cross in disappearance of donations after 911 and Haiti quake.]
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DISASTER CALENDAR – May 5, 2013 —
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,042 Days Left
Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.
- SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,042 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human History
- The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …
GLOBAL WARNINGS
Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background
Posted in Global Disaster watch, global disasters, global disasters 2013, global financial crisis, Global food prices | Tagged: Bangladesh building collapse, Camarillo, death toll, financial survey, Israel, Lushan quake, poverty, Rana Plaza, red cross, Springs fire, syria, UK poverty, Which? | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 18, 2008
Why was the quake nurse reduced to tears and had to beg the soldiers to rescue children?
If rescuing the children wasn’t their priority, and clearly it wasn’t, what were the soldiers ordered to do?
Anguished Chinese Nurse Serving in the Earthquake Disaster Area:
Please Rescue The Children!
Photo below was taken by Jason Lee of Reuters news agency (China). The caption reads:
“A nurse holding a general’s written order begs soldiers to rescue surviving children still buried in the ruins of another nearby school in the old city district near a mountain at the earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, May 15, 2008. The soldiers are not under the command of the general, whose written order reads: ‘Please arrange for rescue operations at this school as quickly as possible.'”
What were the orders soldiers own general gave them?
When did the authorities decide they couldn’t cope with too many quake survivors?
Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee (china) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
A close up of the nurse’s face. Her heartfelt agony speaks a thousand words!
[Reuters caption: A nurse cries as she begs soldiers to rescue surviving children still buried in the ruins of another nearby school in the old city district near a mountain at the earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, May 15, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
The Olympics can wait; the survivors can’t!
“Although the time for the best chance of rescue, the first 72 hours after an earthquake, has passed [exactly as planned by CPC], saving lives remains the top priority of our work [believe what I say, not what I do, you ‘ignorant peasants’],” the [doublespeaking] Chinese president, Hu Jintao, told the survivors. (Source)
To the CORRUPT Chinese Government: The World is Watching YOU!
“Parents’ grief turns to anger at shoddily built deathtrap schools”
“Three days after the quake struck, troops and fire engines queued idly along the roadsides waiting for orders.”
“‘I saw a doctor walking along the lines of bloody bodies, checking pulses and looking at wounds. If he shook his head the nurses were instructed not to take the person to the operating theatre but move them to another room to die. It was like a scene from a war film,’ she said.” (Source)
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Posted in beijing olympics, China, disease, food, politics, rescue operations, Tiananmen | Tagged: ACTION, Amnesty International, children, China, chinaquake, chinese nurse, Climate Change, communists, CPC, CPC Central Committee, cutoff areas, disaster, disaster relief, disasters, environment, food, food prices, foreign policy, free world, health, Hu Jintao, human rights, Humanitarian Crisis, jason lee, mainshock, NATO, new zealand, nurse, Olympics, pandemics, paratroopers, plague, red cross, rescue, rescue team, Reuters, Sichuan, storm, Tiananmen Square Massacre, Tourism, Travel, water rationing, water shortage, Wen Jiabao, Zhou Yongkang | 12 Comments »
Fire Earth 