The Red Cross in Haiti

Well yes. Maybe they also know perhaps better than you and me the situation on the ground... perhaps?

It is absolutely essential that all charities employ and use local people and businesses when re-building after a disaster- and it can be very difficult in countries where corruption has been the reality for a very long time- Papa Doc's dictatorship still has great hold.

Friends of mine have recently built a school for a village in Benin. They had to put trust in local people, local builders, and also local furniture makers, seamstresses for uniforms, etc. A charity that does not put trust in local communities and brings everything from abroad does little good in the long run. Sadly, sometimes there is abuse of trust by long established fraudsters.

We will all choose who we support or not- but I felt it was important to mention the above. Hopefully the IRCC will now take steps to straighten out the situation. Paying debts accrued does seem to make sense too- no charity wants to be paying a large % of income to pay interest on debt- if they want to be able to deal with emergencies.

trisher
The Cuban system of taking locals and training them in medicine and health care free of charge would be a start. Establlishing proper farming with crops for local consumption would also help

Thank you. I don't see that that is any different from me saying that Haitians should be in a position to manage things themselves.

There was no need to phrase your post quite so belligerently.

shame if this thread derails into an argument. It is very difficult for charities to balance the need to empower locals to achieve their own salavation- with proper supervision and management- as said above, expecially in countries where corruption and backshish has been firmly rooted for a very long time by the people in power- as clearly illustrated in this debacle.

This isn't about the RedCross but I'm reading Hilary Clinton's autobiography 'Hard Choices' and she eloquently talks about the dilemma of giving aid to countries where disaster, corruption or war has totally decimated peoples' lives, and the struggle donating countries have in ensuring that the funds and equipment aren't siphoned off.

It's very enlightening and I've gained a very different perspective on the problems of humanitarian aid v corruption.

The problem is Janeainsworth that they are not "managing" their own economy or government and have never really done so. The French left them in appaling debt, the USA propped up Papa Doc and then invaded when it suited them and have used the country as detailed above. The main reason Haiti is in such a state is not disaster or corruption, it is the way it has been interfered with. It now needs a system of real support to enable it to develop. The USA and other western countries have this way of blaming local corruption without ackowledging their own involvement and responsiblity.

There appears to be a sub-text here that poor countries are primarily to blame for their poverty because they are mired in corruption. Of course, it would be silly to suggest that there is no corruption in developing countries but my feeling is that there is just as much corruption in developed ones.

For instance in 2009 the Independent reported:

"In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme.

" 'I believe the real looting of Iraq after the invasion was by US officials and contractors, and not by people from the slums of Baghdad,' said one US businessman active in Iraq since 2003.

In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in "pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills" to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money. He is among the few US officials who were in Iraq to be convicted of fraud and money-laundering."

I realise that this is straying somewhat from the subject of the Red Cross, but I think it is worth bearing in mind that developed countries are not immune from greed and corruption either.

Perhaps they're possibly more adept at covering it up Eloethan?

Agree Eloethan- you make some very good points.

Papa Doc's dictatorship has left a terrible mark on the country though- and yes, imperialism is partly to blame.

Interestingly enough for me, our local French Castle is where Toussaint l'Ouverture, Napoleon's first and only black Haitian General- was imprisoned after starting the rebellion of the slaves and the Revolution for independence in Haiti, died at the turn of the 19th Century. many Haitian who live in Europe visit every year.