My wife just got back from Haiti and unfortunately....

[garybeck]

she says there is no evidence of all the millions of dollars (billions?) that was donated to go down there and help. the people are hungry. not getting the treatment they need. medical supplies are scarce. the people are digging apart their own homes by hand, with shovels and wheelbarrows. a lot of the problems she saw existed before the earthquake, but everything is worse now. And she kept asking herself, "where did all that money go?" She said she's going to write a letter to Obama, not that it's his fault, but he went on TV and said he promised that the money that gets donated will end up in the right hands. Clearly that didn't happen.

[Robb]

1. Yes, clearly the money didn't make it there.

[babylonsister]

5. Actually, Wasserman-Schultz has her doubts, too...

http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/April/09/GH-040910-Haiti.aspx

After Haiti Visit, Congresswoman Says She Saw No Sign Of Red Cross

[SidDithers]

11. +1...nt

Sid

[progressoid]

14. BWAAA!

I LOLed!1!

[readmoreoften]

16. I'll take anecdotal evidence over idiots who know nothing babbling on a website.

[happy_liberal]

2. I expected as much

:grr:

I guess they will get rebuilt just as fast as after Katrina like W suggested.

[Warpy]

3. My favorite gadfly there cites Clinton as one of the problems

saying he's trusting all the wrong people in that country and that relief money was diverted before the quake and is likely being diverted again.

It looks like he's right.

[CatWoman]

4. there was a story on Warren Ballentine's show the other day

in which he was discussing the huge discrepancy re: the amount donated to the Red Cross, opposed to the amount actually given to Haiti.

Sounds to me like the Red Cross is worse than the Mafia.

[Captain Hilts]

8. The Red Cross is an overpaid, corrupt organization. nt

[CoffeeCat]

13. That happened with Katrina too!

Remember after so many donated millions to The Red Cross to help with Katrina?

So many were wondering where those millions went, until the Red Cross admitted
that donations to The Red Cross do not go for specific purposes, but to a general
fund.

So wrong...

If we can't even rely on The Red Cross, what CAN we rely on?

[defendandprotect]

6. I know hospital supplies didn't get thru -- and doctors were waiting!!

Only last week some containers finally got in via Dominican Republic--but they had been

held there for weeks.

Sometimes paperwork wrong -- but they certainly knew these were medical supplies for hospitals

and doctors waiting/patients waiting!

Held up anyway!

[xxqqqzme]

7. The money is probably being spent

on 'commissions to rebuild'. Likely those commissions will spend tons of money on elabotate plans and mock-ups. Then the rebuilding contracts will go to multi-national corporations to build government buildings and hotels. Housing, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges....will be left to be rebuilt 'by the people'. It is what disaster capitalism does best - take those donations and spread it out among their own boards of directors.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Anything dependent on the Red Cross....nt

[valerief]

10. If you give money to crooks, well, the crooks do crooked things with that money. nt

[kickysnana]

12. K&R

[progressoid]

15. I can't believe it.

Just three months after a quake that killed a 1/4 of a million people, left another million homeless, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings in one of the poorest nations in our hemisphere and they haven't yet rebuilt their shitty infrastructure.

Stunning.

[garybeck]

18. no one expected the infrastructure to be rebuilt by now. but we do expect

the money to reach those who need it the most.

when people sent in their checks, they expected it to go to the most immediate needs - to help the injured people, medical supplies, food, etc...

[EFerrari]

17. Haiti hospital forced to close; lack of money the issue

John A. Torres

Florida Today
Updated: 9:24 a.m. Friday, April 9, 2010
Posted: 9:11 a.m. Friday, April 9, 2010


Moments after the ground stopped shaking and many buildings crumbled to the ground in Port-au-Prince, the first badly injured Haitian was carried into the private CDTI Hospital seeking help.

For the next 11 weeks, the owners of the hospital kept the facility open, while Haitian and foreign doctors — many from Brevard County — treated more then 10,500 people and performed close to 4,000 surgeries.

Patients didn't have to pay.

Help for the hospital came in the form of donated medications and supplies and volunteer time from medical professionals and orderlies. But promises from military organizations and -- more importantly -- money never materialized. Part of that was an oversight by hospital administrators who missed key deadlines, and part was because money promised by charities never came through.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/world/haiti-hospital-forced-to-close-lack-of-money-542253.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. Where did all the Katrina money go? I always wondered....