Another Red Cross Fiasco

When will the Red Cross return to operating in the public interest? Over the past several years, I've documented a number of problems in the organization. Fines for violating blood safety laws, failing to specify how their money is spent, focusing on PR rather than helping people, the rapid turnover of presidents - and the list can go on and .

The latest fiasco is the organization's handling of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. They did well in the raising of money - about a half billion dollars. The spending and their claims as to what they did is another matter. Some examples:

• Claiming they would build 700 homes in Campeche and building none.
• Claiming they provided homes to 130,000 people. They'd have a hard time fitting that number of people in the six permanent homes they built.
• Claiming they helped  “more than 4.5 million” individual Haitians “get back on their feet.” That's kind of hard in a country of 10 million.
• Launching hand-washing education campaigns where "people had no access to water and no soap.”