Hacker News Reader

> The Red Cross says it has provided homes to more than 130,000 people. But the actual number of permanent homes the group has built in all of Haiti: six.

I don't understand what is wrong with this situation.

The priority was to stop people dying not necessarily to solve a future inequality problem.

View on HN

Do you really want to donate a charity that lies about what it's doing with your money? I definitely don't.

Did they lie, though.

Providing homes as in places to stays during disasters does not neccessary means "permanent" homes.

I think what you’re insinuating is actually worse than the reality.

I can understand “we genuinely wanted to help but we’re too incompetent to action on our promises”. That’s morally much better than “we intended to deceive from the outset and other people’s suffering is just the cover we need to line our own pockets”.

The article says that the Red Cross, lacking expertise, provided money to other organizations that had more. So I'm suspecting the criticism of "only six houses" is crafted to be misleading. It doesn't seem reasonable to say "they only built six houses" with the implication that their aid was direct, while at the same time, in the same article, criticizing them for the overhead of providing aid indirectly. You can slam them for one or the other, but not both.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com