Bureaucracy strikes again?
I've been doing it again, reading the news, blogs etc. AND I've seen a fair chunk of grumbling that's growing. Today's bushwa: Sounds like the Red Cross might not be doing a great job ...
The link to a video** has the best way to describe it--FEMA, Red Cross etc are acting like rival gangs of bureaucrats. I wish I hadn't sent them money. Apparently the PR department is on the ball because they're doing a fabulous job on advertising. I see their ads EVERY-DAMN-WHERE. Everywhere. I'm not kidding. Lots of photos of flood victims. Hmmm....Another organization to scrutinize when this is over. Don't blast me because I sure am NOT talking about the volunteers-- no way, not them.
I wonder what the answer is. Could it be [Kate, the daughter of bureaucrats, gulps] big organizations aren't the way to run relief operations? How in the world does it get done well? Locals and local governments can't handle it on their own. What does a country do?
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** Cognitive dissonance! I think these guys are right wing cranks. Hard to take, agreeing with them. And I remain sort of suspicious of all the "churches are the answer" implications, but then I would. Even though I flipping work for Catholic Charities, and have for more than 6 years, I don't trust religious organizations to keep their particular god out of the matter. ( Funny thing is on the tiny level of my involvement, I've only seen volunteers bring up the Catholic God with the refugees.)
The link to a video** has the best way to describe it--FEMA, Red Cross etc are acting like rival gangs of bureaucrats. I wish I hadn't sent them money. Apparently the PR department is on the ball because they're doing a fabulous job on advertising. I see their ads EVERY-DAMN-WHERE. Everywhere. I'm not kidding. Lots of photos of flood victims. Hmmm....Another organization to scrutinize when this is over. Don't blast me because I sure am NOT talking about the volunteers-- no way, not them.
I wonder what the answer is. Could it be [Kate, the daughter of bureaucrats, gulps] big organizations aren't the way to run relief operations? How in the world does it get done well? Locals and local governments can't handle it on their own. What does a country do?
________
** Cognitive dissonance! I think these guys are right wing cranks. Hard to take, agreeing with them. And I remain sort of suspicious of all the "churches are the answer" implications, but then I would. Even though I flipping work for Catholic Charities, and have for more than 6 years, I don't trust religious organizations to keep their particular god out of the matter. ( Funny thing is on the tiny level of my involvement, I've only seen volunteers bring up the Catholic God with the refugees.)
People should just help themselves actually. You can't depend on local, state or federal government for anything.
ReplyDeleteIn that scenerio you get the strong guys with guns winning every time. If there have to be strong guys with guns, they should be helping the entire population, not just their "own".
ReplyDeleteMad Max is not what I'd hope for in this country--any country if it comes to that. Even though those costumes were fab.
I'm not surprised Kate....that's why I gave my money to the animal org. Still trying to figure out how to donate to the blondes ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have a firefighter neighbor who was at a nearby military base helping bring in hospital patients from the hurricane-devastated areas. He said things were going very smoothly until FEMA took over halfway through the day. Everything fell apart after that, organization-wise. His wife's comment to me was, "Everything bad you've heard about FEMA is probably true."
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