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lundi 27 juin 2016

A tarnished Red Cross

FEATURED EDITORIAL:
HOME FEATURED EDITORIAL
Published on June 27, 2016
In the wake of tragedy or natural disaster, Americans want to help. Many send money electronically or write a check to the American Red Cross.
What organization could be more solid? People have long trusted that the Red Cross would responsibly apply their contributions.
Not so, apparently.
A U.S. Senate investigation into how the agency managed a half billion dollars in donations for relief following the Haiti earthquake in 2010 not only raises questions about how the Red Cross handled donor funds, but reveals troubling details about its operations.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) has released a 300-page report so disturbing that a shakeup at the charity seems in order. Other members of Congress recommend an independent outside auditor — on a permanent basis.
● The Red Cross has long told the public that 91 percent of contributions go directly to clients in need. But this cannot be verified in the case of Haiti. There is no evidence for such a number. It was hype, a sales pitch, a lie.
● In Haiti, other groups were sub-contracted to do work the Red Cross lacked the manpower or expertise to accomplish. Much of that work was never done. But those groups charged another 11 percent in administrative costs.
● The Red Cross collected almost $500 million for Haiti and built only six permanent homes there. Six.
● The report says the Red Cross attempted to stymie and was not open with federal authorities.
The public first came to know what the charity was doing — or not doing — from media reports. Senator Grassley launched his investigation after learning about Red Cross handling of funding and other matters from National Public Media and ProPublica. The senator concluded that a whopping 25 percent, or $125 million, of the $500 million received from donations for Haiti, was used for in-house expenses.
Some 1.5 million Haitians’ homes were destroyed. Six homes is scandal.
The Grassley report reveals that additional funds were spent on oversight, to ensure proper use of Haiti aid. However, the senator’s office learned that the organization “is unable to provide any financial evidence that oversight activities in fact occurred.”
Senator Grassley’s office also said Gail McGovern, chief executive officer of the charity, made false statements as to whether it cooperated with congressional investigators. He said there was little cooperation with federal authorities, and that after a year of talking back and forth with the Red Cross, “We did not get satisfactory answers. It was like pulling teeth.”
The Red Cross could not even provide a complete list of all its projects in Haiti.
American Red Cross leaders have obviously forgotten that they are accountable to the public, and have a higher duty to keep faith with both their givers and those in need. It broke faith with both.
The American Red Cross has now been tainted and needs a complete leadership overhaul.
It also needs a watchdog.
Finally, someone needs to go to jail here. Fraud on the backs of almost unfathomable human suffering is about as shameless as shameless gets.
http://www.toledoblade.com/Featured-Editorial-Home/2016/06/27/A-tarnished-Red-Cross.html

American Red Cross exposed as massive, incompetent fraud: built just six homes after collecting half a billion dollars in Haiti earthquake donations

Sunday, June 26, 2016
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: American Red Cross, Haiti earthquake, donations fraud
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/054476_American_Red_Cross_Haiti_earthquake_donations_fraud.html#ixzz4CmJrGY6Y The Red Cross received an outpouring of donations after the quake, nearly half a billion dollars.
The group has publicly celebrated its work. But in fact, the Red Cross has repeatedly failed on the ground in Haiti. Confidential memos, emails from worried top officers, and accounts of a dozen frustrated and disappointed insiders show the charity has broken promises, squandered donations, and made dubious claims of success.
The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.
In effect, the Red Cross exploited the Haiti earthquake as a way to get gullible donors to wipe out its massive operational debt. Check this out:
Inside the Red Cross, the Haiti disaster was seen as "a spectacular fundraising opportunity," recalled one former official who helped organize the effort. Michelle Obama, the NFL and a long list of celebrities appealed for donations to the group.
The Red Cross kept soliciting money well after it had enough for the emergency relief that is the group's stock in trade. Doctors Without Borders, in contrast, stopped fundraising off the earthquake after it decided it had enough money. The donations to the Red Cross helped the group erase its more-than $100 million deficit.
The American Red Cross: Where donation money disappears into a massive bureaucratic black hole
So what did the Red Cross actually do? Like all big bureaucracies, its top officials all stood around shoving thumbs up each other's asses and calling it "success." Via ProPublica:
The Red Cross' initial plan said the focus would be building homes -- an internal proposal put the number at 700. Each would have finished floors, toilets, showers, even rainwater collection systems. The houses were supposed to be finished in January 2013. None of that ever happened. Carline Noailles, who was the project's manager in Washington, said it was endlessly delayed because the Red Cross "didn't have the know-how."
So the Red Cross collects half a billion dollars from gullible donors, but doesn't know how to build homes for the victims it claimed to be helping? This reality reeks of so much waste that I'm now nominating the Red Cross to be a full-fledged government agency, where it's amazing waste-amplified talents can be put to use on a larger scale, wasting far more taxpayer money than ever thought possible.
Millions spent teaching impoverished children with no water or soap how to wash their hands
While all the Red Cross's home building plans were being laughed off the table, the organization decided to use its half a billion dollars in funding to -- and I'm not even making this up -- teach hand washing skills to children who have no water and no soap. F-Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?
Instead of making concrete improvements to living conditions, the Red Cross has launched hand-washing education campaigns. The internal evaluation noted that these were "not effective when people had no access to water and no soap." (The Red Cross declined to comment on the project.)
You might think that somebody at the Red Cross would first realize that washing hands requires running water, but that would be giving them way too much credit. It's not about actually helping people, you see... it's all about raising money to raise Red Cross salaries and bonuses!
Bottom line: If you give a single dollar to the American Red Cross, you're a fool. The organization is a fraud. Pick a more honest non-profit next time, and do your homework before giving money to these donation fat cats who pay themselves huge salaries and bonuses while doing next to nothing to actually help real people in the real world.
SOURCE: Propublica.org
http://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-re... Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/054476_American_Red_Cross_Haiti_earthquake_donations_fraud.html#ixzz4CmJ0Qra3

Stevenson to defend boxing crown, seeks 15th win in a row

Montreal (AFP) – Haitian-born Canadian Adonis Stevenson, the World Boxing Council light-heavyweight champion for the past three years, will defend his crown July 29 against American Thomas Williams at Quebec City.
The showdown of southpaws will be Stevenson’s seventh title defence of the crown he took from US fighter Chad Dawson by knockout in June 2013.
Stevenson, 27-1 with 22 knockouts, is on a 14-fight win streak since suffering his lone loss to Darnell Boone in 2010, a defeat he avenged by knocking out the American in 2013.
In all, Stevenson has 12 knockouts in his past 14 bouts, the 38-year-old most recently stopping American Tommy Karpency in the third round last September in Toronto.
“I am very happy to return to the ring on July 29,” Stevenson said. “I’ll demonstrate that like fine wine, I’m even better with age. Even though I haven’t boxed in 10 months, I’ve never left the gym and I’m willing and ready to defend my crown.”
Stevenson, who hasn’t fought outside Canada since 2011, holds the lone belt in the division not owned by Russian fighter Sergey Kovalev, who had hoped to meet Stevenson to decide an undisputed crown but instead is set to defend his titles in Russia next month against Malawi’s Issac Chilemba.
Williams, 20-1 with 14 knockouts, has won three times since suffering his only loss to Spanish former world champion Gabriel Campillo in 2014. In April, Williams stopped Dominican Edwin Rodriguez in the second round.
“There were many people who had lost trust in me two years ago after my loss, but here I am,” Williams said.
“I’m coming off of the best performance of my career and I’m ready to hold that belt. Stevenson has never faced a puncher like me.”
http://www.breitbart.com/news/stevenson-to-defend-boxing-crown-seeks-15th-win-in-a-row-7/