ValiantlyFlailing
130882
2022
142
"The Red Cross has confirmed that more than $5m (£3.8m) of aid money was lost to fraud and corruption during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa." http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41861552
Why you might hear "don't donate to the Red Cross." Helping solve the world's problems is hard as fuck, but donating to the right places can save lives. Donate locally. Do your research. Ask friends from afflicted areas. We have the internet, damnit, we don't just have to donate to whoever puts up the most ads.
FP Edit: Typos. Also, I'm glad you guys care. This isn't the only instance. Years back the United Way president was found guilty of embezzling I believe over 50m. I doubt his predecessor is being more closely watched. I discovered much of this while working as an Americorps volunteer. So, within the system. Sufficed to say, I am bitter. Do not send nudes, send money to Puerto Rico and MSF.
stabby506
Steam Sale is my favorite way to donate money.
jennifAthlete
Had a friend travel to Africa on nursing mission work - came home and committed to donating regularly - she wasn’t a fan of my opinion
AumentoEroe
Instructions not clear. I sent nudes to Puerto Rico.
ProxyPlayerHD
M* m is mili, M is Mega
AIRBORNEALLTHEWAY
Worked for the RC for 8 years and volunteered for 2, I've been saying this for years because I see where the funds go. No one listens.
OldmanSerious
"I doubt his predecessor is being more closely watched". Yeah, me too, since that's the one BEFORE the one caught embezzling.
MissMockingbird
That has very little to do with RC and everything to do with assholes defrauding them. RC is the victim here, dont shit on them too.
GoddammitMrNoodle
That doesn't mean that the Red Cross mishandled the money. A lot of relief organizations get screwed trying to help people in corrupt areas
one2behold
Out of how much money in total? And corruption happens. ESP in developing countries. How many lives saved?
sorosfieldops
Red Cross does a lot of good work all over the world, nobody is perfect.
sparky2212
I am sure that somewhere, someone will blame this on... wait for it, blame it on, whose fault could it be? Maybe, um .... Hillary Clinton?
CotterPyke
In the USA there is no law or regulation that specifies what percent donated must go to the cause itself. They can keep 99% if they want.
whatsisname
There sort of is, but its not a simple percentage number. The rules for 501c charities are extensive
CotterPyke
Kim Kardashian, for example, regularly pockets 90% of the money from the "charity events" she gives.
CotterPyke
another reason why these kardashians are low-lifes and i wont give them any attention at all...they're bottom feeders.
tigoda
How exactly does one donate locally to help a different continent
Caniac
Step 1: Be attractive
Caniac
Step 2: ???
ohmyapplepie
Step 3: Profit!
46853
Goodness gracious what a surprise. This kind of thing never happened before! /s
ButIBuildAThousandBridges
In there defense, I lived in West Africa and I couldn't take a piss without having to pay a bribe.
Treblaine
"How dare you say such a thing about West Africa, you're in trouble... unless you want to make this trouble to go away"
Treblaine
Losing only $5 million to fraud in Africa is outstanding progress. I was expecting $50 million to go missing, at least.
lenomdeplume
Red Cross spent over $200 million during that Ebola outbreak. Kmart has bigger “shrinkage” than that.
LukeIsAGoodDog
Kmart isn't actively dying of starvation and disease though.
animatronicChristmasChickens
The Red Cross is not saying it used money in a fraudulent way, they are saying local corruption costs
Bystandr
Analyze that quote and think a bit. The Red Cross would HAVE to pay the bribes other NGOs do to local politicians just to operate there.
Bystandr
There is a cost to that. Necessary to get things done sometimes in Africa I would think.
CeeBeeDee
I used to run a charity in Sierra Leone. Corruption occurs in every organisation. It’s ‘the way it works’ there. No one is immune.
snipekill1997
They spent $100 million and lost 1/20th of that to corruption, in some of the poorest parts of Africa. I'd say that's exceptionally low.
[deleted]
[deleted]
TheShadowsLengthen
You really think the people bribed are going to file it as "bribe money" ? There not that dumb.
swagnoodlehoe
Context is everything.
Spaceframe
Are we assuming that the other 19/20 was was spent legitimately, or that just 1/20 can be proven fraud?
SatansCheesecake
You have to consider the bribes etc, as part of the total cost tbh.
Hyippy
A family friend worked with NGOs and the UNHCR for over 30 years. He said It's impossible to not lose some to corruption in those situations
d0o0o0d
5% is surprisingly low for Africa, yeah. Would have expected closer to 10-15%.
johnson21
Which country?
Sandyundertones
There are huge variations within the Continent. In Zambia, that would be high. In Liberia, it is pretty good.
Crossark
Donating to local charities is arguably more likely to result in mismanagement of your donation because they don't understand how to (1/?)
IIWIIM8
Local charities don't receive "large amounts of money".
Crossark
deal with large amounts of money as well. Consider this: $5M was lost due to local corruption by an organization that pulled in (2/?)
Crossark
enough money to spend $2,435.5M on their operations in 2016. If a local organization that makes $15M a year lost $5M (and keep in mind (3/?)
Crossark
that LOCAL corruption is to blame here) your donation would be worth even less. Even if you multiply that yield by 10, you're still (4/?)
Crossark
far better off donating to the Red Cross. There's a reason they're such an established organization that can do as much as they do. (5/5)
DontNeedAWeatherManToKnowWhichWayTheWindBlows
Corruption in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia is a way of life. It's that way things get done.
reddocs
Heritage of colonialism some might say
Sandyundertones
Sadly, yes. Honestly, just losing $5 million to graft is actually pretty good considering the environment.
fartbuttfart
Truth. Source: I have a lot of family there.
Toqom
Well in the US our corruption happens at the top of government and it's legal.
charlie2979
Shit dude. I'd go to the fbi with the proof of corruption you obviously have.
Mentok
Our corruption is legalized and regulated, we call it "campaign donations"
Unsafefurball
People getting angry at you for this laugh my fucking ass off
thescyllaandcharybdis
Bro, so edgy
PipeandSlippers
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/000/688/043/5ec.jpg
cajuninjun
And people will still donate, even after seeing shit like this because some celebrity tells them to text a number to donate $10 to help
sorosfieldops
If even 1$ of those 10 goes to stop Ebola it would be worth it.
cajuninjun
yeah, no dude. It's better for our money to go to people who actually help an org that makes things worse like Red Cross
someguy7734206
The title makes it seem that Red Cross is guilty of fraud, rather than having lost that money to African fraudsters. Stop doing this shit.
CountSnarkula
I really wonder why so much gets spent on Africa. It mostly goes to some crappy little dictator and their cronies.
whatsisname
There are over a billion people in Africa. Many of them in poverty, and there are many factors resisting economic development.
JButterPeanut
Colonialism, neo-colonialism and coercive economic polices among them
christiangoth
Not all African nations are the same. Some are democracies and have less corruption than their neighbors.
Fuzzywuff
less, XD
christiangoth
Yeah, less. Literally no country is free of corruption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index
Fuzzywuff
I live in the philippines, here I even have to pay to receive packages. it's worse than mexico x)
anzendaiichi
Enacting a complete ban on resources exported by these countries would do more for the suffering people than charities. -Dictator's Handbook
anzendaiichi
The logic being that then the regimes would require taxes to pay for things, and to get people to work and pay taxes you need good policies.
d0o0o0d
North Koreans work really goddam hard, just sayin'.
anzendaiichi
Except North Korea makes money off of exporting illicit substances and other items, don't they? They don't rely on taxes. Meme is invalid.
charlie2979
And also charities like this don't really help people long term.
Mdhe
Explain how.
charlie2979
That is not to say take everything away. But change how aid is delivered. Bikes are the most useful thing charities could give. 2
charlie2979
Yeah it's what that other dude said. It's impossible to get a job if you have to queue all day for food for example. 1
whatsisname
In the case of stuff like food, the 'tough love' perspective says that donations prevent the establishing of local economies, making them
whatsisname
forever dependent on the donations. That's the hypothesis, anyway.
whatsisname
Charities like low cost food donations yes, charities like preventing people from dying of disease, not the same.
charlie2979
Hence longterm. Governments become relient on aid agencies instead of developing strategies themselves. In the long term its unhelpful.
whatsisname
For farming yes, for disease no. A significant part of Africa's economic troubles is due to disease and leaving them to fend for themselves
snipekill1997
Says someone who never took an economics class. You seriously think cutting off people from the outside work will help?!
anzendaiichi
Except I have. And assuming they used their own people for work, you'd be right - but they use foreign companies to extract their resources.
snipekill1997
The resource curse is a thing and a complete export ban is a simple answer. But simple answers to complex problems are rarely correct. (1)
snipekill1997
And export taxes not bans (perhaps you could make it proportional to percent of payroll in the country going to citizens). (4)
snipekill1997
form of finished goods that could be produced domestically (food, textiles, etc.) and more in the form of factors of production and cash.(3)
snipekill1997
You need things like reducing farming subsidies in developed economies so food prices are not artificially lowered. Reduced aid in the (2)
WindOntheroad
Screw the Red Cross. Doctors Without Borders is a way better place to put your donations.
Definitelynotareptile
Oh come on you got to realise this isn't a red cross problem, it's an African corruption problem. I'm not saying D.W.B. isn't good but (1/2)
Definitelynotareptile
Don't shit on the red cross! There's plenty of truly corrupt "charities" out there, but the red cross truly does good work.
Lavengro
The Red Cross didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory in WW2 either. Turned a massive blind eye. Fuckers.
FullCrimsonic
Unless you're the U.S. military. Bombs don't bode over too well when those get donated to them in a hospital
PentagramDreams
Agreed. I like that I can pick things to buy for them as well.
CasuallyPool
And you can donate during Games Done Quick! Over 2 mil raised last year!
2lppl2
Just a reminder, the next one is in just a few months (Jan)
jossetp
How much of that money is really going towards DWB?
CasuallyPool
lol I think the speed runners can donate to specific charities for the bid wars, but I know that GDQ donated 1.7 mil entirely to DWB in 2017
birdseednerd
I think they do the Prevent Cancer Foundation in January, then do Doctors Without Borders for Summer Games Done Quick :)
CasuallyPool
Vaanhalen
Yes. Just be careful if youre volunteering. Thats the charity whose hospital Obama blew up accidently, killing many docs. "Surgical strike!"
FakePlasticTreehugger
I work for the Red Cross and I agree with you.
modalnode
Totally agree. MSF aka Medecines Sans Frontieres for those outside the US/UK.
RodanMurkharr
Boycott Doctors w/o Borders. They shipped thousands of illegal immigrants into EU from Libya.
WindOntheroad
Probably saved thousands of PEOPLE's lives. Those fucking Doctors!
RodanMurkharr
The migrants could've remained in official refugee camps. But as they are not refugees, they wouldn't be eligible for an asylum.
manu2121
ILLEGAL immigrants
lucivjov
Get the fuck back in Murica, dirty trumpian
ToastedVanilla
I've heard of some suspicious activities from them too. Like bringing in illegal immigrants to Europe by the boat loads....
imgurisfornerds
They do rescue: they try to make sure that no one drowns while on the Mediterranean but in no way make safe passage for migrants to Europe
RevolverShalashaskaOcelot
Source
Lavengro
Don’t hold your breath.
segfaultytowers
Look again he posted an RT link, hahahahaha
ToastedVanilla
https://www.rt.com/news/388031-msf-crew-investigation-migrant-rescue/
WindOntheroad
RT??? Huehuehuehue .......
nickelarse
That doesn't mention the Red Cross
segfaultytowers
RT, aka what Putin wants to be going on so he says it is, any other source
MG42CHEF
Moving goalpost, flag thrown, replay counterpoint with evidence proving otherwise.