I think many of you talk from the point of view of living in a first world nation where you have advantages. Even the homeless people in America can get food, shelter and other things through government programs. In Haiti, there is nothing really there and people are suffering in mass. There are no services to help them. The only service is a man who belongs to the Red Cross or some other charity group that will help them. For some here in this forum, the subject of donations to Haiti is not a serious matter so the thread gets trolled and thrown to "chit-chat". This goes to show some of the morals and values some of you have. If thats how you want to live and be, then thats your life. I certainly hope the same fate falls upon you and your loved ones one day to make you truly understand what is going on. Picture yourself being a resident of Haiti and having to go through whats displayed in the picture below. Please take this seriously and donate to Haiti right now. Go to the Red Cross website...go to the other sites mentioned. Take out your credit card and give. This picture is ugly, its horrible, but I hope it will make you give. Thanks.
So you dont want to support organizations like the Red Cross who provide services to all during times of disaster and emergency? They were there for Americans in their time of need and now they are providing their services to the Haitians. If your family was involved in a disaster, wouldnt you want the Red Cross to come assist them? What about the community you grew up in? The Red Cross is always there for Americans and even have their offices set up in most every state. They collect blood and train people in CPR. They perform many critical tasks the government or other services do not provide. The Red Cross operates through donations. If you have decided to not donate to the Red Cross, then you are essentially voting against them and their efforts at making things better during such disasters. I guess if you were having a heart attack then you would not want a Red Cross trained person performing CPR on you. Once you realize what this organization does and how it helps people all over the world, I think you would change your mind.
You may have missed my earlier post. Red Cross is a very, very wasteful organization. The fines they've amassed are mind boggling IMO. And they've used cash donations - from people like you and me - to pay those fines. As far as having a Red Cross person "performing" some procedure on you. Hey, as a long time platelet donor, I had a Red Cross employee not properly oversee a donation last year and my entire arm was black and blue due to a needle becoming dislodged and blood and saline was pumped not back into my vein but into my arm -- under my skin for 3-4 minutes. The Red Cross has seen the last of me as far as whole blood donations, platelet donations and cash donations. And do some digging -- and see how much was spent on new offices etc. post 9/11.
I should have replied in greater detail before to the above post, but I will reply to it in detail now. Hurricane Katrina took about 2000 lives. The earthquake in Haiti has taken 100,000 lives or more. There are countless numbers of wounded as well..most seriously wounded. Haiti is not thousands of miles away from America, but about 650 miles away. It is essential the security of this small nation be maintained or else it is a stone's throw away from the United States. It could very easily fall to gangs, warlords or terrorists. The United States has to demonstrate humanitarian treatment of its neighbor through such assistance. It may cost the United States a few hundred million for the support mission, however, this is the cost of business. If the US does not help Haiti, then countries of the world and other entitites will no doubtedly will turn against the United States. In fact, this support operation will most likely sway people over to supporting the United States who did not support the country previously. If something were to happen to the United States, then we would want support from others. For example, a large earthquake hits California. In that regard, we would want countries like Britain, Canada and Mexico to send us doctors or whatever else assistance is possible to manage an event like that. No one is going to assist the US if the US did not help out Haiti. Finally, its just the right thing to do. Over 100,000 people dead and the country has suffered serious infrastructure damage. Even the place where the head of government sleeps has been leveled. You can't just sit there on your hands from 650 miles away and do nothing after seeing these gruesome pictures and mass graves. The right thing to do is to do something. If you are against giving because of some excuse like internal problems here in the US or about New Orleans not being rebuilt, then you need to rethink. There are over 100,000 dead and many more seriously wounded in another part of the world. You need to donate now to the Red Cross and at least a few other charities that are working down there. Please do it now.
Excuse me? This is a picture of innocent children in a school who were crushed and killed. You are laughing at a pile of dead children? That is what you find funny and you feel the need to joke about it? You cant compare this event to others. This was not a war, but an act of nature that killed untold amounts of innocent people. These people were unlike the soldiers in Korea. They were not fighting a war. Laughing at that picture is like laughing at pictures of the holocaust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement Haiti has been a basket case for a long time, post american intervention, it should be pointed out.
I donated to these guys instead http://doctorswithoutborders.org/ I heard red cross sucks big time in efficient usage of donations