Relief Efforts for Haiti/Catching up.

So, I haven't really posted much lately with various issues popping up. Well, now that I have a few moments, I'll post a couple things.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank the drunk teenager driving a black post-2005 Accord for hitting my parked mini-van in front of my house, then running like a coward. I hope the police end up catching you. Ironically, he took the corner in front of my house too quickly, drove on my sidewalk (see previous posts.. lol) and rear ended my van. The damage was not excessive, its just a pain in the ass.

Anyways, while working like a dog getting ready for an upcoming oral exam/defense, I noticed a few specific things about the relief efforts for Haiti after their earthquake.

I'm generally impressed. Many aid organizations and governments went in with "boots on the ground" rather than throwing money at the problem. All too often, people assume that donating cash money to a charity equals a significant help and/or impact on a specific issue. Generally speaking, these charities skim the donations for operational costs. Some charities/organizations, such as the Red Cross, are better than this than others in this regard - maximizing the amount of benefit per donation dollar. The difference between "cash" charaties and "boots on the ground" charaties was made very clear to me by a presentation I was lucky enough to go see, given by Lt-Gen Romeo Dallaire (Ret), Canadian Senator. ( http://www.romeodallaire.com/ ) Having commanded the peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the civil war/ethnic cleansing in the 90's and being forefront in many charitable causes for third world countries (see his website) Mr. Dallaire has an interesting point of view on charaties.

Unfortuantely, I do not have direct quotes, but essentially the message was:

Charities that have "boots on the ground" such as Doctors without Borders, Engineers without Borders, Canadian Forces (yes, not a charity, but does immense humanitarian work that rarely is covered in the media), etc, are much more effective in creating positive change and actually helping out people in third world countries than "cash based" non-governmental agencies (NGO's).

I am pleased that many organizations (governmental or not) are making a serious effort to help Haiti. However, I wonder how effective most of these groups are. I mean, its nice that there was a massive telethon hosted by various celebrities, but how effective is that actually going to be in saving lives or helping to fix the immediate problems in comparison to the Canadian Forces D.A.R.T. or the Red Cross?

The long run will show us.