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Today is the 86th World Red Cross Day. According the wikipedia page, in 1863 Henry Durant and 4 other Swiss men got together to create a committee and organise a conference to improve medical conditions in battle. Out of this success, the next year another conference yielded the first Geneva convention. For the first time, signatories from much of Europe agreed to guarantee certain conducts in war, including neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers. It took thirteen more years before the committee finally changed its name to International Committee of the Red Cross, and by then every country in Europe had their own national Red Cross society.
World Red Cross Day itself was created in the aftermath of World War I, according to American Red Cross's press release. The idea came about during a three-day truce in the Czech Republic during Easter for the promotion of peace. Eventually the organisation picked 8 May, the birthday of founder Durant, as the one time every year where 'the Red Cross would advocate for the relief of human suffering from disease and the humanity of seeing a world free from suffering due to war'.
I fully support those goals, but also feel the International Red Cross is hopelessly tainted by the scandals of its North American brethren. Remember when Elizabeth Dole, Bob Dole's wife, had a moment where she might run for President? Her qualifications were many, but what dazzled me at the time was her tenure as president of the American Red Cross. After I had enthused about the possibility of a female president and concluded Dole would be a great choice on a message board, someone privately messaged me to say her brother was HIV-positive because of the tainted blood the Red Cross had in its blood banks.
I have no clue if this was indeed true but other ugly details soon came out in the news. Under her watch, for instance, much of the language in the Red Cross AIDS program material was significantly toned down for political reasons. When she left, the Red Cross had a loss of $84 million due to a failed complicated cost-saving measure of its blood division and in one case, led to a lawsuit against a rival blood bank for stealing a trade secret (list of blood donor names). The Nation has a good writeup of Dole's hand in this.
The moment I stopped donating to the Red Cross was when I learnt $200 million out of $1.1 billion raised after 9/11 was saved for the organisation's future plans instead of for victims. I hadn't a job at the time, but managed a donation of $50 from selling my business textbook (original price x2.5). The news made me furious. If the fund is named 9/11, why was part of that going to the Red Cross itself? Then four years later, our neighbour to the north found out the Canadian Red Cross pled guilty to distributing contaminated blood supplies during the 1980s. Thousands have contracted HIV or Hepatitis C.
Charity is one of the human race's great virtues. But when you cannot trust a charity to help make it possible, it makes you extremely cynical towards making donations. I wish the International Red Cross good luck in trying to live up to its original expectations, and hope it can retain some of its lost credibility.
World Red Cross Day itself was created in the aftermath of World War I, according to American Red Cross's press release. The idea came about during a three-day truce in the Czech Republic during Easter for the promotion of peace. Eventually the organisation picked 8 May, the birthday of founder Durant, as the one time every year where 'the Red Cross would advocate for the relief of human suffering from disease and the humanity of seeing a world free from suffering due to war'.
I fully support those goals, but also feel the International Red Cross is hopelessly tainted by the scandals of its North American brethren. Remember when Elizabeth Dole, Bob Dole's wife, had a moment where she might run for President? Her qualifications were many, but what dazzled me at the time was her tenure as president of the American Red Cross. After I had enthused about the possibility of a female president and concluded Dole would be a great choice on a message board, someone privately messaged me to say her brother was HIV-positive because of the tainted blood the Red Cross had in its blood banks.
I have no clue if this was indeed true but other ugly details soon came out in the news. Under her watch, for instance, much of the language in the Red Cross AIDS program material was significantly toned down for political reasons. When she left, the Red Cross had a loss of $84 million due to a failed complicated cost-saving measure of its blood division and in one case, led to a lawsuit against a rival blood bank for stealing a trade secret (list of blood donor names). The Nation has a good writeup of Dole's hand in this.
The moment I stopped donating to the Red Cross was when I learnt $200 million out of $1.1 billion raised after 9/11 was saved for the organisation's future plans instead of for victims. I hadn't a job at the time, but managed a donation of $50 from selling my business textbook (original price x2.5). The news made me furious. If the fund is named 9/11, why was part of that going to the Red Cross itself? Then four years later, our neighbour to the north found out the Canadian Red Cross pled guilty to distributing contaminated blood supplies during the 1980s. Thousands have contracted HIV or Hepatitis C.
Charity is one of the human race's great virtues. But when you cannot trust a charity to help make it possible, it makes you extremely cynical towards making donations. I wish the International Red Cross good luck in trying to live up to its original expectations, and hope it can retain some of its lost credibility.
