h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Suppose there is a disaster, natural or otherwise, and a large number of people are affected. Injured, homeless, property heavily damaged, lost loved ones, the whole nine yards. Relief funds of all sorts pop us and you decide to send a donation. Call me naive but wouldn't you expect that the actual victims would get at least some of the money?

I do understand that the cleanup efforts following a widespread disaster like the Joplin tornado create a lot of extra expense for whatever jurisdiction is involved. I think that it is reasonable for a portion of relief funds to go to pay extra policemen, firemen, street crews, etc. But it is also reasonable for the actual victims to receive some direct benefit.

One small example that has me upset involves a fundraiser put on by the Little DooDah band. Many of the kids in the Joplin band lost their instruments in the tornado. The intent of the fundraiser was to provide money to the band members who needed it to buy new instruments. The kids raised $15,000. What happened was that the school district took the money, bought themselves a van with part of it and put the rest of it in the bank. Not a single band member is going to get a new instrument out of the project.

Literally millions of dollars have been donated for Joplin disaster relief and the victims aren't getting any of it. I just don't think those people who, out of the goodness of their hearts, took money out of their pockets that they could have used for their own families knew that the money was all going to bureaucrats of one stripe or another. I think we need an audit. I want to know where the heck the money is because the tornado victims aren't getting it.

Another quick point then I'll stop ranting. The residents of Joplin were first victimized by the storm and now are being victimized by acres of regulations. Some of them are absolutely ridiculous. The local ones are as bad or worse than the state and federal ones.

The funds that I contributed were, in fact, expected to go into the overhead costs of the whole restoration of life to the Joplin folks. Use it upfront for food, water, diapers and blankets. If some was needed, add to the wages and care of the thousands of volunteers who worked the devastated zone in a hundred capacities.

On the other hand, if a school council or band drum up the money themselves to replace instruments, the bleeping school has no right to redirect it to a van and savings account. That is on par with me giving $1,000 to an investment broker for retirement savings, and he or she chooses instead to put it into some little business in the area. That is mis-direction and misuse of funds, plain and simple. Have any of the kids got a parent, aunt or uncle with a little legal expertise?

I'm really shocked by that, Hypatia. And sickened that I am not more surprised.

Nick, all the things that you mentioned were covered by local churches and individuals - the food, housing,toiletries, etc. The items weren't purchased out of donations. At least not to my knowledge. I would be delighted to learn that they were. FEMA has spent millions and continues spending. That's all federal money. And like I said, those are reasonable ways to use donations. But there needs to be a general accounting.

pheew! morning prez!


what a bunch of profiteering B*******


RJR with the hump

A LARGE stink needs to be made about this with the local press.

Having watched the recovery from Hurricane Ike up close, none of this surprises me one iota. There are STILL many folks around here that haven't received any funds to rebuild their homes, whether it be from insurance, FEMA or benefits. I don't personally know of anyone who received monetary aid from donations, only on the ground aid such as food and clothing. Most of the actual recovery and rebuilding was done by neighbors helping their neighbors.

On a related note, a little "newspaper" here ran a letter to the editor that will either make you laugh or rage. It was from a reader that was outraged to find out that the benefit they attended one weekend at a local bar wasn't going to help local folks. Apparently you can't help anyone until everyone in your local area is 100% first. Also, they were originally outraged to find out the benefit wasn't about Janis Joplin.

Warning: PDF with some really stupid opinions expressed.
http://seabreezenews.com/back%20issues/1108-August_2011/Page_03.pdf

That's awful, Hypatia. That school, especially, needs to be called to account.

Just as a BTW, Hyp, I am apparently on a very short tether here. Besides lost posts elsewhere, mine above also was 'masked' for a time. Sorry if that confused any of your friends and associates

Here in New Jersey, the Board of Education does indeed have the right to determine how fundraised monies are spent. Technically, the money is donated to the school district and the fundraiser relinquishes control of it.

The way around this is for a third party group to raise the money, purchase the instruments and donate said instruments to the school district. Still no guaranty that the district will actully give them to the band, but it is more likely.

Witty, that would indeed have been a better approach. The faculty advisors here should have known how it all works.

BG, I thought we got some stupid people writing to the editors here. What a hoot! Are the letters legit or just invented for entertainment?

Er, I just read that link. It sounds like Weekly World News stuff to me. Somebody's attempt at humour?

I stress 'attempt'. The part about shooting the calico cats, oh, and the part about the headless chicken races...

I suspect they're playing on the reputation of Texas - which isn't *always* deserved. (Being nice here and recanting some of my anti-Texas remarks.)

I apologize for my apology in #8, which apologized for post #2's disappearance for a time, having gone astray somewhere as well. Someone or something has gone very awry today, not entirely unexpected mind you ...

If I don't return laters, cheers all ...

Apology accepted.

That seems to be a weird way to handle the donations. I am not aware of your legislation but from here it seems to be... erm... just wrong.

Here the common practice is that if a fundrising is going on and people are asked to donate for example for restoring the church tower (happened here last year after the storm) then the call itself is legally binding. Even said church is not allowed to used it for restoring doors.

Then again, if people donate "for helping people in Joplin" then who is supposed to decide? Local municipality? People from the fund? Some other officials?

Anyway, it has been proven gazillion times that officials as such are not to be trusted.

Dmitri, that local "newspaper" is a vanity paper. Sometimes there are some really good local stories in it, especially when they're investigation local corruption. I'd never say they are fair or balanced or even that they exercise due diligence. It's run by proud rednecks. The letters on that particular page I expect are mostly real. There's another page with an "advice column" that are entirely trolling. Around the time of that particular issue, the paper was more trolling than news. I can (almost) guarantee that we're not hosting headless chicken races and that we're not looking for folks to go shooting stray dogs. The editor takes pride in being as politically incorrect as he can be. Lately he's lost any semblance of subtlety and so his attempts at humor fall quite flat. Although, he still has great appeal to the local redneck conservatives.

Thanks for that update on the newspaper, Baron.

The term 'proud rednecks'...I love it...

The headless chicken race had me worried a bit... I do get roadkill cookbooks, I really do...

I agree with Hati. If something is advertised as benefiting a certain thing and the money actually goes someplace else, then it seems dishonest. People who donate money have the right to know where it's going. Having said that, if those people doing the advertising have no clue what the actual rules are, then it's a complete cockup all around.

What I do know is that the WC band kids thought they were helping other kids who lost their instruments and are now very disappointed and disenchanted with it all. The school district may have the legal right to do what they did, but it stinks.

Seriously, notify a local news station.

I know a letter was sent to the newspaper and never saw print. I agree that a TV station would be a better choice. The one across the state line in Kansas.