Posted on 01/04/2005 6:07:32 PM PST by wagglebee
The enormous response to relief agencies assisting victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami has led at least one disaster organization to turn off the donation spigot.
Doctors Without Borders, which has distributed emergency aid to countries battered by the December 26 tsunami, is telling donors that it has received a "sufficient" amount of money for its South Asia relief efforts and is asking them to contribute to the agency's general fund.
The organization, which has sent emergency medical teams to the hardest hit areas and has purchased and transported 200 metric tons of relief materials, has raised about $20 million for tsunami victims, according to a spokeswoman for Doctors Without Borders, Kris Torgeson.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
They should use some of the money to pay their liability premiums so that the trial lawyers can sue 'em.
It was only this one organization (Doctors without Borders) who said they have enough money. Their charter is limited - they provide medical care only. The bigger need is for food, housing, water and sewage systems, and none of the organizations who provide that say they have enough.
That's because regionally they've NEVER had good food, housing, water and sewage systems in the FIRST PLACE!!!
I love how the story is that the aid programs are going to solve the water problems in the region. As if the water problems were because of the tsunami. The water problem is there because the countries have never spent the money necessary to solve it.
Not quite right. These areas don't usually have decomposing bodies in the water supply. And they have had housing and food - or are you arguing that people can live without those?
Granted, they don't have living standards like we do in the West, but they did have survival conditions. And they don't now.
True.
God save those poor, decent people.
It will be very difficult to get furthor international "aid" dollars sent once the donors understand they are really sending money to rebuild the tourist areas that specialised in providing enslaved child prostitutes to international sexual perverts.
Sigh...
Time for the UN to take over. And watch the $$$ evaporate.
Amen to your post.
But we can direct our dollars to organizations that won't support the sex trade. IOW, no money to the UN. Send it to organizations like the Red Cross or CARE. Give it to the military (US, Australia, etc) who spend it on delivering water and food.
Check out these stats from UNICEF (yes, I know it's UNICEF, but the methodology on this is still pretty valid, as are the numbers):
% with Clean Water sources* 1999/1990
Thailand 80 (71)
Indonesia 76 (69)
India 88 (78)
% with Sanitation facilities for waste**
Thailand 96 (86)
Indonesia 65 (54)
India 31 (21)
*These include house connections, public standpipes, boreholes with handpumps, protected dug wells, protected springs, rainwater collection. Tanker trucks and bottled water are not included. The data do not imply that the level of services or quality of water is adequate or safe. No discounting was made to allow for intermittence of services or quality of the water supply.
**These include connection to a sewer or septic system, pour-flush latrine, simple pit or ventilated improved pit latrine and other facilities as long as they are private or shared (but not public). Types not considered safe are bucket latrine, overhang latrine, open latrine, uncovered pit latrine or open field, ‘bush’ sanitation.
And actually, often these countries DO have decomposing bodies in the water. They just aren't usually human bodies.
I don't know what conditions are now, and I'm not saying at all that they DON'T need help and funds, but I will say that many of the organizations who are crying for money now were crying before, because the needs are not so far different from what they were before. It was ALREADY a disaster in many of these places before from a sanitation standpoint. Now the disaster is more visible and can be linked to a tsunami.
Never send money to the Red Cross.
They "crossed over" decades ago.
I agree completely.
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