How to help people

[Texsox]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews....also_on_reuters

 

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) - A group of children clamber curiously over their new toy, a power tiller that sits otherwise unused by the side of a dirt road in a coconut palm-fringed village.

 

Hundreds of power tillers, sometimes known as walking tractors, have been sent to India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami.

 

But tribal leaders, farmers and activists say the Indian government has simply been wasting its money as they don't know what to do with the machines, including the one that has become a plaything in Malacca village in Car Nicobar.

 

In the southern Nicobar group of islands, which lie much closer to Indonesia than to India, tribes have maintained coconut plantations for generations and have no tradition of cultivation.

 

 

 

"This relief package for agriculture is a surprise for us, as most of our people don't know how to use a power tiller or how to do cultivation," said Martin Luther, a member of the tribal council on Car Nicobar island, who lives by Malacca village.

 

"Very few of us are making use of it, and in most cases in Car Nicobar these tillers are either used for carrying goods or simply kept unused," he said.

 

More than 300 tillers, each costing nearly 100,000 Indian rupees ($2,150) were sent to the Nicobar islands. Thomas Philip, secretary of the tribal council on Car Nicobar, says 106 were sent to his island when just one or two would have been enough.

 

It does not surprise Samir Acharya of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, who says he has seen tsunami relief often mis-spent in the archipelago, some 1,200 km (750 miles) off India's eastern coast.

 

"It seems there were funds available for tsunami relief and there was pressure to invest them, so without proper survey of tsunami-hit farmers these power tillers were purchased," he said. "They are now laying unused in the Nicobar islands."

 

more at link

 

 

These types of stories seem all too familar. The UN sucks at this. People get nervous about donating to private charities. There has to be a better way so people are helped and money isn't wasted, thoughts??

[Balta1701]

It's not just the UN who does this sort of stuff. The US has done exactly the same sort of screw-ups in Iraq. Companies shipping over parts that cost tens of millions of dollars that are totally incompatible with the Iraqi infrastructure leading to expensive equipment that sits around and does nothing, tons of money spent on expensive equipment that breaks down when its handed over to Iraqis who aren't taught properly how to run it, etc.

 

At least based on the U.S. experience, neither the U.S. nor private companies seem to be good at this sort of rebuilding either.

[Texsox]

It would seem that smaller organizations, that can get closer to the problem, would have a better understanding of what is needed. But those are more likely to not have large resources and more likely to be corrupt.

[Balta1701]

It would seem that smaller organizations, that can get closer to the problem, would have a better understanding of what is needed. But those are more likely to not have large resources and more likely to be corrupt.

So you're saying that the small organizations are more likely to be corrupt? I'd say our experience in the last 10 years or so shows exactly the opposite...that the large organizations, i.e. corporations, governments, the U.N., are much more likely to be corrupt, as they are big enough to be able to cover up the things they're doing.

 

The oil-for-food program turned corrupt because it was a gigantic program which, while it saved a lot of lives, also was moving around billions of dollars, and with that kind of cash flow, it's easy to steer a few million in business one way in exchange for a few million in bribes. The corporations working in Iraq have done the same things...they work in so many places and move around such huge amounts of cash that if they overcharge the government for $50 million and do a shoddy job on a few other projects...unless there's an auditor monitoring all of the work they do (which there isn't), the company makes out like gangbusters.

[Texsox]

I am thnking of something like the Balta-Tex charity with a half dozen employees in some third world backwoods.

 

I'd trust Catholic Charities, Heart Association, United Way, and those types before I'd trust the likes of you and me.

[southsider2k5]

So you're saying that the small organizations are more likely to be corrupt? I'd say our experience in the last 10 years or so shows exactly the opposite...that the large organizations, i.e. corporations, governments, the U.N., are much more likely to be corrupt, as they are big enough to be able to cover up the things they're doing.

 

The oil-for-food program turned corrupt because it was a gigantic program which, while it saved a lot of lives, also was moving around billions of dollars, and with that kind of cash flow, it's easy to steer a few million in business one way in exchange for a few million in bribes. The corporations working in Iraq have done the same things...they work in so many places and move around such huge amounts of cash that if they overcharge the government for $50 million and do a shoddy job on a few other projects...unless there's an auditor monitoring all of the work they do (which there isn't), the company makes out like gangbusters.

 

I gotta go with Balta on this one... absolute power corrupts absolutely. There are more likely to be the tempations that would cause corruption in a bigger organization, vs a smaller one. There is also probably a more intimate connection to the cause, which would lead to being less likely to steal from it.

[Texsox]

I gotta go with Balta on this one... absolute power corrupts absolutely. There are more likely to be the tempations that would cause corruption in a bigger organization, vs a smaller one. There is also probably a more intimate connection to the cause, which would lead to being less likely to steal from it.

 

I agree with you on the premise but wouldn't absolute power be more likely in a six person relief organization?

[Balta1701]

I am thnking of something like the Balta-Tex charity with a half dozen employees in some third world backwoods.

 

I'd trust Catholic Charities, Heart Association, United Way, and those types before I'd trust the likes of you and me.

None of those stand up to the Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation.

[southsider2k5]

I agree with you on the premise but wouldn't absolute power be more likely in a six person relief organization?

 

What power can you have in a six person relief group?

[Balta1701]

I agree with you on the premise but wouldn't absolute power be more likely in a six person relief organization?

I think what's more likely to happen is this: for a 6 person operation to successfully embezzle enough funds to make its people wealthy, it's going to have to embezzle a much higher percentage of the amount it takes in than someone like Bechtel or Halliburton in Iraq. Those guys can make a cool $50 million by overcharging the government a mere 1%. If I'm running a 6 person charity, and I take in something like $10 million, if I want to become a millionaire, I need to have well over 10% of the amount I'm taking in disappear into my pockets. If an auditor bothers to look at me at all, then that's a big enough discrepancy to raise all sorts of red flags.

[Texsox]

What power can you have in a six person relief group?

 

My premise was a smaller relief agency, close to the people in need, would be better than a large, multinational, out of touch agency. The smaller agency would be less likely to have resources and more likely to be corrupt.

[mr_genius]

It's not just the UN who does this sort of stuff. The US has done exactly the same sort of screw-ups in Iraq.

 

the US sucks! BOO US! BOOOOO!