Posted on 09/01/2005 2:59:41 PM PDT by angkor
I called Doctors Without Borders [Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)} today, asking what help they would be providing to the New Orleans (and elsewhere) Katrina victims.
I had donated $500 to MSF just a few weeks ago.
The answer, summarized, was "We don't provide help to developed countries."
Meaning, MSF will provide nothing, ZERO, to help the victims of Katrina. The answer was quite unambiguous.
Fool me once, fool me twice.
I'm going to ask them for a total refund of my (recent) donation to MSF after Labor Day, and will make MSF's life extremely miserable if they don't refund it.
Finally, they're disgusting. I've seen MSF do excellent work in other countries.
Save your time and anxiety.
You don't have a snowball's chance of getting your money back.
You gave it to them on their terms.
They will barely respond to you.
As soon as you become a pain, they will drop you.
Here's the thing: It's not your money.
Stopped being yours the second you gave it to them.
Let it go.
Why would you dontate to something you did not understand? How did they fool you twice? Why would you make their life miserable if they do good work and you were proud of your donation when you made it? It will go to a good cause where it is needed.
They have a clear mission. The US of A is the wealthiest nation in the world. We really have resources available from lots of sources and do not need their resources. They should stay focused on their mission.
"DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?" (surely they can make an exception for New Orleans)...
This organization was established to provide medical help to third world countries. That ain't us. We spend more on health care than any other nation in the world. We can handle this.
I just read through their web site - the most advanced country they work in seems to be Pakistan.
http://www.msf.org/
Get real! We are the richest most developed nation on Earth. This storm may wind up killing a couple of thousand people, in undeveloped nations where these doctors are needed these storms kill tens of thousands.
We have the capability to deal with this disaster.
Get over it.
Thanks for all the responses.
I've seen MSF on the ground, helping the indigent and injured - and, yes, even American citizens - in need of overseas medical help.
There was no "set up", I've given them money previously due to my eyewitness observation of MSF's usefulness and sincerity abroad. They do serious good work.
But I did find the MSF North America response to be .... unbelievable.. ridiculous. It was from Quebec.
If they cannot find it in their mission to help in NO, I have no need for them anymore.
I WILL get my donation back from them, and kick it over to the Salvation Army.
You're a fool. I've seen them operating on the ground in desperate situations.
However, I'm the fool in thinking they would help the USA.
All of this begging for help is really starting to bug me. Please stop begging for other countries to help the Hurricane Katrina victims. It is unseemly! We have the money and the means to do it ourselves. You make it seem as if all of our previous help was conditional: Since we've helped YOU so much, now it's your turn to help us. Really, unseemly!
"Whatever you do, don't give them your bank account number,
you'll be getting E-mails from Niger for years."
Then you'll be forced into hiding from the Nigerians untill you're found disoriented, naked, and washing your clothes in a stream.
Point taken.
F'em.
Well, you seem DETERMINED to get your money back, so....
On the other hand, it could be $500 well spent if you threaten to publicize the fact that they refuse to treat U.S. Citizens.
Simply call the PR Director and inform how you have feelers out to newspapers and radio and television shows, on getting interviewed re--
TAKING THE BULK OF THEIR OPERATING INCOME FROM U.S. CITIZENS, BUT REFUSING TO TREAT U.S. CITIZENS IN TIME OF MEDICAL DISASTER.
You will probably be offered your money back.
Do not take it.
Respond that you would like to hear of a press release and press conference within 24 hours, saying that Doctors, owing to the gravity of the situation in NO, is immediately dispatching as much personnel as it can to the area.
Let them know that you will not let go, and you suspect that many, many, MANY Americans will not be too pleased about their refusal...and that they would likely never donate their money again.
Mention O'Reilly.
Let them know it ain't just you.
Let them know you belong to a powerful online community, whose members organize and line up behind causes at the speed of internet.
Let them know that it has a quarter million members, and just about every one of them is a stubborn, principled big mouth WHO FOLLOWS THROUGH.
Just a thought.
Gosh, I suppose I have to give up French Fries again (sarcasm/off.)
John, I am exactly the sort of person who would take this advice.
Thanks for the feedback and watch for the fireworks.
Tomorrow, when the NYC office opens.
Bastards.
We have no shortage of doctors here. MSF is an organization with a particular mission, and they stick to it. They have established infrastructures in countries that need them on an ongoing basis. The U.S. is quite reasonably beyond the scope of their mission.
As an otherwise MSF-supporter, I have to ask you "why"?
What's the difference between a natural disaster in Banda Achea and another in New Orleans/Biloxi?
Don't bother to answer, the difference is objectively zero - and you know that - whereas MSF/DWB (and you) are taking an egregiously political position, in lieu of human lives.
Bastards.
Exactly. Why should take staff out of areas where the population is basically always in dire straits, to help in a place which is quite capable of helping itself, and whose desperate hurricane victims will be carted off within a few days to better quarters and food than MSF's patients have ever or will ever see? They're dealing with mass starvation scenarios in places where nearly the whole population is always on the brink of starvation for their whole lives. I see no reason why they should drop that to go help a group of mostly way overweight people who will be resuming their overeating within days, and will also have access to excellent medical care within days. More people would die of starvation and easily curable illnesses in the countries they'd be leaving, just in the time it took them to fly over here, than will die from the entire aftermath of the hurricane.
MSF is an organization that always needs funding. Whoever runs it is dumber than a post in a democrat's back yard.
If MSF said, "sure we'll help," then the charitable coffers of the USA would have opened to them in the future. Now they will starve, when it is remembered that they could have helped. Additionally their names will be put on the Persona Non Grata list of the USA Dept. of Staff and the War Dept. I can hardly wait when they later want into a theater of war,or theater of aid commanded by the USA. They will simply be told they are not needed.
Dumb and Dumber.
Je ne sais pas quois d' autre!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.