TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Tue, 01/26/2010 - 09:29

How come no one's questioning the Red Cross?

Some are using the earthquake in Haiti as an opportunity to discredit musician Wyclef Jean. He’s a young, black male entertainer. And he’s doing something they don’t like— bringing attention to a humanitarian effort that does not fall in line with their "us against them" rhetoric. If you watch how Fox News and the like have covered the crisis in Haiti, it’s as if they are pissed off there isn’t more looting going on. See here, here and here.

There may be some unanswered questions about Jean’s Yele Haiti foundation. There appears to be about $100,000 he paid back-up performers and whatnot, associated with a benefit concert. But this is a charity he started out of his own pocket. Most of what has been reported about Jean appears miniscule compared to the organization’s tangible good works.

Meanwhile, no one questions the American Red Cross, the nation’s largest relief agency; an organization that has been mired in scandal, both personal and fiscal for roughly a decade, the agency who has received the lion’s share of relief funds for Haiti, about $147 million, $25 million alone from $10 text donations.

Woes at the ARC

Issues at the American Red Cross did not begin with 9/11. But in its aftermath some of the organization’s internal issues came to light. It was revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the ARC to aid survivors and their family members were actually used on Red Cross operating expenses, trying to plug a funding gap at the agency. Then a few short years later, the American Red Cross was embroiled once again for its response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. 

In New Orleans and the coastal flood plains of Mississippi, even though the ARC’s coffers were swollen with money to address the disaster, the ARC did not immediately open shelters, provide food and other necessities to people closest to ground zero.

"The Red Cross has been my biggest disappointment," said Tim Kellar, the administrator of Hancock County, Miss in a New York Times article. "I held it in such high esteem until we were in the time of need. It was nonexistent."

Even some of ARC’s own volunteers were disgusted.

"I will never, ever wear the Red Cross vest again," said Betty Brunner, who started volunteering in 1969 when Hurricane Camille destroyed her house. She quit in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, over the ARC’s weak response.

Two days after Hurricane Katrina, there were no shelters in New Orleans and very few in the coastal communities. 

But that’s not even the end of ARC’s problems.