As with all natural disasters, grifters, con men and thieves move in to take advantage of people’s miseries…and the huge amount of aid flowing in to indonisia must be tempting. how long before we read of bank accounts in Switzerland, flush with cash from stolen aid? Will the end result be massive scandal? And, how long before the USA is blamed for causing this? I’ve heard that quite a few Imams are laready blasting the “great satan” for this!
I was thinking the same thing. I’m glad of all the help the tsunami victims are getting, but I hope to hell that someone is watching the books, because you can bet there are plenty of sharpies over there planning to siphon as much wealth off as possible into their own little pockets, and if a few thousand people starve because of it, well that’s tough.
Given the dull regularity with which this sort of thing occurs (can you say “kleptocracy”?) part of any large international aid should be an independent auditing outfit and the acceptance by the country getting the aid that their officials can be tried in international criminal court for stealing aid.
If disaster aid money & goods haven’t been stolen yet, I’d be surprised. That is no reason to stop aid in any way, just good reason to visit personallized disasters upon those taking their bite.
To its credit, the Indonesian government has promised “stern retribution” against any soldier found engaged in any kind of embezzlement or extortion in what, it should be remembered, is a rebel province.
Incidentally, what are your thoughts, ralph? Or is this another of your overly hysterical OP’s to which you will never return?
Aid-stealing has probably already occurred, only not exactly like the OP describes; the Better Business Bureau here has warned about charities that are bogus or posing as real ones, and it’s not surprising that such organizations would spring up.
I was thinking more upon the lines of some Internet-based scam, fleecing the relatives of victims…like “Dear mr.s Engvold, we have little lars here…he is alive and well, only we need 5 jillion rupiahs to send him home to you in Sweden”. Here is his photo. Also, we’d appreciate it if you would sens us some expense money as well.
Also, I’m sure that bogus “charities” are springing up in Nigeria as well…
Just saw on the local (OKC) news that several things like this (scams, bogus charities, kidnappings) may have already been detected, US and abroad. Haven’t found any links yet.
The first theft of aid money/goods probably occurred within moments of when they were first delivered. I have no doubt that corpses were immediately stripped of jewelry. Sadly, this a significant portion of humanity will do such things. If the theives don’t get too greedy or unlucky, we’ll never hear about it.
Haj
And the corrollary, “How long before we comfirm that it happened?”