Today's Apocalypse Sign: How Much Money Does One Man Need?

With the disaster in Haiti monopolizing the news for the last week, I thought it time to reflect on what is really a tragedy. I am speaking of course about the relief efforts. Oh, don't get me wrong, I believe that the world (and the US specifically) is swiftly coming to the aid of one of the poorest countries in the western world. What I am concerned about is the manner in which the US relief is being funded.

Before getting into the full roll here, I would like to set the playing field.

1. Haiti is a very poor country. Infrastructure is barely above primitive man in many areas. Unsanitary conditions, tin shacks, unpaved roads and THEN a 7.0 earthquake. Nothing could be more devastating.


2. Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them women and children, are now homeless. Many are injured and some at risk for amputation of arms or legs. The streets of Port Au Prince are literally bedrooms, hospital rooms, and morgues. People are being flown out to moored ships for surgery.


3. With almost 2 million people crammed into a small area of land bordered by ocean and only one barely paved road to the Dominican Republic on the other side of the island, the risk of widespread disease could rise to epidemic levels in short order...especially with the temperature and humidity in the area creating a fertile breeding ground along with the limited sanitation.


4. So much relief is coming in so fast there is no place to handle it all. Planes are circling the small airport for hours. Soon the airport will be so crowded with relief planes, supplies, and personnel there will be no room for any more planes to land. Supplies being trucked from the Dominican Republic are on the road for almost 10 hours to reach P-A-P. In the coming days these caravans could be subject to hijackings by desperate Haitians.


5. There appears to be no coordinated effort of the various factions of the relief efforts so there is just a lot of action. In the early days this may suffice but shortly chaos will start creeping in.

I am sure many additional observations could be made but I will stop at 5.

Ever since Hurricane Katrina and the relief debacle that followed, the US has been quick on the trigger whenever catastrophic events have taken place. First the tsunami halfway around the world and now the Haitian earthquake. Both possible signs the apocalypse could be upon us.

The Myans may have it right about 2012.

Here is the motivation for this blog and for this first post.

Getting money to agencies that need it and getting supplies bought with said money to those who ultimately need it.

First for donations...there are many who are asking for donations, some like the Red Cross are certainly trustworthy to donate to...others are complete scams. As always the worst in times brings out the worst in human nature. Many people have already been scammed by Haitian relief frauds.

The texting to 90999 goes somewhere and adds $10 to your phone bill and then the money goes somewhere...I've seen lots of ads for this but cannot for the life of me remember the agency THIS money is going to. Stick with the Red Cross if you want to help and be sure your donation will really help.

Second, I want to explore what to me is always the obvious in these situations. Why couldn't the top 100 richest people on the face of the earth donate $10 million each? This would be an immediate windfall of $1 billion in the coffers to provide any damn thing needed right now and the short-term future.

Further more, put these same people in a room to decide on a board of directors to oversee the managment of this money in the relief effort. They are all shrewd business men of some sort and know how to prudently spend money to get the maximum effect. Cut the red tape, get shit done, and move this thing along at light speed...that would be their mandate.

Besides the human factor that the relief efforts must urgently address, someone has to start addressing the rebuilding that will certainly have to take place. With the potential of 10's of thousands of bodies buried beneath the rubble and the risk of all sorts of disease sprouting up, this group can begin the task of coordinating the shipments of heavy machinery (many of them have friends in construction and should be able to get either donations of equipment or great deals on the purchase) and other items required for what will surely be a massive and long-lasting rebuilding effort. If it actually get's started.

I don't want to attempt to layout a whole plan here, but you get the idea. By God those who have, need to help! They should be ashamed to just sit back and let the ones who can afford it least, shoulder the load. I watched a show the other night on TV and one of the actor's lines stuck with me. When an FBI agent was using a big-time arms dealer to help him catch a not so nice arms dealer, he asked him, "How much money does one man need? It's about doing the right thing."

I say Amen twice to that. Mr Gates, Mr Buffett, and yes even you Mr Cuban and all the others on the Top 100 Richest list...you've worked hard for what you have earned, I say "How much money does one man need? It's about doing the right thing." And Bill...let's be honest, you could and probably should pony up the billion by yourself. Then Warren wouldn't want to be outdone so maybe we start a humanitarian tsunami...what a thought.

I will leave you with this...NASA is selling two space shuttles for the discounted price of $28 million each. They have 20 bidders lined up so far. I say let those 20 bidders put their $28 million each to better use...that would be $560 million dollars to go to the relief efforts. Ya see, getting 3 or 4 billion dollars pulled together in short order is no real trick at all.

And the bonus...we are not relying on or asking ordinary everyday people who barely have enough to live on, lost their home, have been downsized, or are just simply struggling in today's economy to donate what little they are gladly donating to help people in another country to try and survive.

Because right now, as it is, if not them then who?