The Tsunami Money

[Ex Seaviewer]

After the Tsunami,the world collected huge amounts of money.I heard that owners of a shop in Patong Beach,when their shop was destroyed by Tsunami,received only 20000 baht.It was only for Thai people,not for people from India,Nepal,....etc.It seems to me "small money"
What happened with all our money?What should I do next time when there is a world-disaster? Send money or not???

[easyrider_au]

Your question may be best answered by asking the likes of The Red Cross etc.

I'm sure those organisations would be happy to tell you where money was spent.

[Minder]

Originally Posted by Ex Seaviewer

After the Tsunami,the world collected huge amounts of money.I heard that owners of a shop in Patong Beach,when their shop was destroyed by Tsunami,received only 20000 baht.It was only for Thai people,not for people from India,Nepal,....etc.It seems to me "small money"
What happened with all our money?What should I do next time when there is a world-disaster? Send money or not???

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++

Sad to say that it is an old story and I certainly don't know the answer - who do you trust?

The Australian Red Cross collected 14.4 million dollars with its 2002 Bali Bombing Appeal and has kept most of it in their bank accounts to be used "to address the long term needs" of the victims (their words) - whereas most gave expecting the money to be distributed immediately to the victims.

Don't know how you could call that anything other than a fraud or a scam.

Apparently the fine print enables these organizations to use the money as "they see fit" and if you don't like it, well, too bad.

[tonycott]

I'm not a fan of giving to charity if I cant see where the moneys being spent, my mate worked in a charity shop and he told me that they dont actualy make much money from the shops, loads of charity money gets spent on management e.g cars & expenses.

If your planning a trip to Thailand then maybe hand over some money to the people who you can see really need it or give up a day or 2 of your holiday to help out.

This is a hard one as you never really know where your money has gone.

[Spector]

It was made fairly clear by the American Red Cross that money donated after the Tsunami would be used where ever and however the Red Cross saw fit. Not saying the money wouldn’t go to “good works”, but just not necessarily Tsunami related. At the time it was a huge cash infusion for the organization. (a fundraiser dream)

[Captain]

A huge amount of money was collected, but there were also a lot of victims, and not only in Phuket. Don't forget Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nicobar etc.
I am sure a lot of the victims would have been happy to receive 20000Baht. And the money is not in the first place for starting a new shop, but for the first needs and help of the victims.
By the way, foreign governments boasted to offer a lot of money. How much did they really gave? As there is a difference between saying you are giving, and actually giving.
Read somewhere that after an earthquake in Iran a lot of money was promised but about 1% given.

[Petter]

After the Tsunami,the world collected huge amounts of money.I heard that owners of a shop in Patong Beach,when their shop was destroyed by Tsunami,received only 20000 baht.It was only for Thai people,not for people from India,Nepal,....etc.It seems to me "small money"
What happened with all our money?What should I do next time when there is a world-disaster? Send money or not???

Its starnge you dont remember because this was quite big in the press at that time,and cause a lot of discussions by people who belived that their money was sendt to Thailand.

But Thailand was very clear by their prime minister that they dident want any Tsunami money,acc to him they had control over the situation and would solve it themself,they did even set up some founds to help neighbour countrys that was affected.

So Thailand did not get any officially big money from Red Cross or FN or others because of this.
The goverment dident want any money and sayd NO

[barfly]

I still wasn't happy that soon after donating my money specifically for the tsunami appeal, the Red Cross decided that a large amount of the money given to that appeal would be given to non-tsunami Africa.

And never again will I give a penny to the American Red Cross after hearing that the top person(Marsha Evans a couple of years ago) gets a salary of over $600,000.

[LivinLOS]

If your going to give to charity.. Find one thats localized and you can make a difference to.. One that is actively working. Either that or give yourself direct but I tend to feel that sudden cash influx is wasted and not always a good thing.

[visa2003]

As far as the Tsunami goes, I thought the best thing I could do to get money on the ground, and where it was needed, was to holiday in Phuket and spend like a madman!!!!
I actually got some great deals on stuff that I wouldn't usually do, but helped people at the same time!!!!
A donation or 2 to Temples and charities didn't go astray either!!

[per]

If I remember correct, a huge amount of TBH dissapered from a locked
safe in a government office in Phuket. The room was also secured.
It had to be some/one of the workers with access who took all the money!
As I know, they never found the bastard. Many claims that a lot of the
money they got in Phuket falled into the pockets of the government staff.
Several countries tried to investigate where the support was "lost" without
any result. I think Sweden was pretty angry for the missing money.
Per

[LivinLOS]

Yeah and the box was prised open and one hinge hacksawed through.. And they said it was lost through poor accounting and wasnt anyones fault.

[MrDK]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

If your going to give to charity.. Find one thats localized and you can make a difference to..

I do agree with that. I gave a fair amount to Red Cross and was disappointed when I learned about the "diverted" money. One should understand that Red Cross is a disaster relief organization. It's mission is not to rebuild, but to help people survive, providing aid such as water, food, blankets, tents, etc. So many people (incl. me) gave to Red Cross with the idea that much more would be done.

Giving to a local charity is much better, however, when you are oceans away it is had to nail one down. I have a business associate in Thailand who, on her own, made it a project to rebuild a school and pledging for money from her business contacts. I got company and co-workers together to raise a hefty sum. ... Much better than Red Cross - if rebuilding is the objective.

[erik1]

Well I have done research in the past and saw where the 200 million raised in the Netherlands was going to be spend.

One i remember as it was for 10 million euro

That went to a project to educate a group of 100 women somewhere near the epic centre on how to setup their own business so that they would be self sufficient after loosing all. Very good idea to help people develop

10 million euro = 400 million baht ===> 4 million baht per woman to learn how to set up the business? give them 10% in cash and they will be self sufficient for the next 10 years and safe 9 million Those guys should be

[Coolhand]

Originally Posted by barfly

non-tsunami Africa.

Although the casualties in Africa were far fewer than Asia, it is a mistake to say that Africa was not affected by the tsunami - there were fatalities in:-Somalia, Tanzania, Seychelles, South Africa, Yemen Kenya and Madagascar.
The casualties in Thailand estimated at 8,000 dead, and 7,000 dispalced are a lot less than Indomesia 167,000 and 500,000; Sri Lanka 21,000 and 514,000; and India 18,000 and 647,000.

[barfly]

Originally Posted by Coolhand

Although the casualties in Africa were far fewer than Asia, it is a mistake to say that Africa was not affected by the tsunami - there were fatalities in:-Somalia, Tanzania, Seychelles, South Africa, Yemen Kenya and Madagascar.
The casualties in Thailand estimated at 8,000 dead, and 7,000 dispalced are a lot less than Indomesia 167,000 and 500,000; Sri Lanka 21,000 and 514,000; and India 18,000 and 647,000.

Yes, that's why I specified non-tsunami Africa, as opposed to the parts of Africa that were affected. A bit ambiguous, I suppose.