This will be a big problem - the guy in overall charge of US Haiti relief has ONE WEEK of experience

[Waiting For Everyman]

I was saying yesterday in another thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4227437&mesg_id=4227555

that on CNN I saw the guy who's heading up our relief to Haiti, and he looked like a "drive-up" - meaning, he looked too young and too soft to have the right background for this. From what's said about the reasons for delay in getting relief out to people, I get the distinct impression that there is a major stupidity glitch at the top. And I'm pretty steamed about that!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7477356

So I searched up some info on him last night.

First I found this: Beat Sweetener: The Rajiv Shah Edition; The Washington Post drools all over the new USAID chief., which let drop the shoe that Shah has been on the job for one week.

http://www.slate.com/id/2241545/?from=rss

From that, I found two articles which illuminate us further:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2010792002__courtesy_of_usaid_caption.html?syndication=rss

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thebusinessofgiving/2010243353_former_gates_foundation_exec_r.html?prmid=obinsite


Rajiv Shah is 36, he's a Gates Foundation wonk-type, he had 7 months at the Dept. of Agriculture, and then this earthquake happened 6 days after he was sworn in as USAID chief... in overall charge of the entire US effort in Haiti. Which he is screwing up. Obviously the WaPo article referred to in my first link above, indicates there is already an effort underway to bolster him against the (deserved) criticism which is, and will be, coming his way. In other words, a well-connected whitewash has started. He has no business being in this position - and it shows - and lives are being lost because of it.

This is going to be reported, and become a big problem, mark my words. It'll be a problem because this relief effort is being f'd up! And it's f'd up at the TOP. Yes, there are logistical problems, but it's more than that.

Nobody could've known that this earthquake would happen, and so soon after he was sworn in. But it was certainly known that you don't put a yuppie deskjockey schmoozer in charge of a crisis job. USAID is about crisis relief, for god's sakes! What did those who nominated and supported him think - that we'd be lucky enough not to have a crisis anywhere in the world until he was safely promoted into his next bigger non-crisis job somewhere else in the government?

His big patron is Hilary Clinton. So now I'm guessing that her trip to Haiti today will be largely to make sure that no responsibility lands on her protege, making her look bad for backing him for this job.

It would be better to recognize the problem and get him to resign right now, and put in someone who is right for the job and might actually stand a chance of coping with it. (Like Gen. Honore, for instance.) I'd HOPE that would be done, but I doubt it will be.

So I'm doing the DU hardcore a favor by pointing this out. Now you'll have extra time to start rationalizing and thinking up excuses before this hits public notice and becomes a "scandal". It will, eventually. Go ahead... practice below.

I think this is absolutely SHAMEFUL. You don't put the lives of people in this kind of need, in the hands of someone who is CLUELESS. You don't make a "political plum" out of the life-and-death survival of millions of helpless, starving and wounded people. It should just be admitted to quietly, and FIXED NOW.

We can do better than this relief effort has been. Now I know why it isn't being done. This clears it right up, for me - it tells me all I need to know about it.

[liberal N proud]

1. Why do they do this?

With all the people in the US and World with logistics experience, why do they put someone in charge with so little experience?


Oh the humanity!

[timeforpeace]

37. Who picked him?

[midnight]

2. I agree... Fix it now... We don't need another Brownie....

I think this is absolutely SHAMEFUL. You don't put the lives of people in this kind of need, in the hands of someone who is CLUELESS. You don't make a "political plum" out of the life-and-death survival of millions of helpless, starving and wounded people. It should just be admitted to quietly, and FIXED NOW.

[shopgreen]

3. another Brownie in charge-so it appears.

[cali]

32. you have to be dead ignorant about the resumes of both men to make that idiot comparison.

[Ineeda]

50. Saw him interviewed the other night on MSNBC

and he seem pretty damn bright and to have an excellent handle on things. Sorry, I don't remember which show or even which night, but I think it was Rachel on Wednesday.

[Pavulon]

4. The top man is not handing out stuff

he should be coordinating efforts and letting his subordinates do their jobs. Gates foundation handles massive operations and being able to organize people and money is this guys job. How, exactly, is he already fucking up?

[cali]

5. the chief U.S. aid effort at this time is vested in the military. The military

does not take orders from USAID. And by the way, honey, what are your ever so sterling credentials that qualify YOU to state with such absolute conviction that the U.S. (or U.N., or any other's) efforts are a fuck up?

Do tell, darlin'.

[MadHound]

6. I just love how people with absolutely no experience in any kind of emergency response work

Feel qualified to judge how this is going in Haiti. Not only not qualified, but uninformed, getting your information from the TV, not actual reports on the ground.

Do you have any clue about how these things work? Do you have any clue about emergency response? Do you have any clue about conditions on the ground in Haiti?

Oh, and the person in ultimate charge of this operation is the president, and he has a bit more experience than a week.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. but not in emergency response

he is even wetter behind the ears....

:sarcasm:

A good manager DELEGATES a bad manager does not... regardless of EXPERIENCE LEVEL.

Of course you know that...

[MadHound]

13. I just wonder how some people think that tens of thousands of tons of supplies can be loaded

Overnight. Sure, it can just all be packed in willy nilly, but then it's even more of a nightmare when you get there.

[EFerrari]

21. It's just good to see something getting through today.

By this time tomorrow, things will probably be a lot more stable.

[Davis_X_Machina]

27. They could be....

...if Obama just wanted it bad enough. LBJ would have done it already. :-)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Please provide evidence that he's actually done stuff wrong.

Instead of this Fox News style character assassination.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MineralMan]

15. Demonstrate what you are writing with facts we can check.

Your post just sounds like bandwagon disruptive crap to me.

[havocmom]

9. Assume much?

"His big patron is Hilary Clinton. So now I'm guessing that her trip to Haiti today will be largely to make sure that no responsibility lands on her protege, making her look bad for backing him for this job."

Seem to recall that Hillary seems to surround herself with very bright and competent people. I will give her the benefit of the doubt to start with on this guy.

What is shameful is all the Guard members (and equipment) in Iraq, doing police work when they could be home, available to send to do the very relief work most of their training has been for over the years. They were sent by a puppet GOP prez and they should be brought home, where they better serve their real purpose.

[Leopolds Ghost]

28. I didnt know the Guard was doing police work in Iraq. I thought they were shooting people over there

Funny how times change and clouds my memory of what they're doing...

[havocmom]

46. Yes, but it is advertised by the folks who sent them a 'police work'

Several returned Guards in my area defined that a bit further

[Catshrink]

11. I'm not so sure he's screwing it up...

We don't live in a fairy tale, movie set world where things happen instantaneously. It takes time. He may only have been in the job 6 days, but he's not working alone.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MineralMan]

16. The September 11 forum is over there ========>

Go there, please, with your conspiracy theory crap.

[EFerrari]

14. I don't think you understand that what is happening right now is a ritual.

The ritual is the US (and others in their own countries like France and Canada) making a good show of helping Haiti in its hour of need. And they will do that. Hundreds if not thousands of service people and volunteers will work very hard.

But the goal here is not the goal you think it is. It's not to put Haiti back on its feet. Its to put Haiti back on its knees so it can continue to be exploited.

In that context, they could put me in charge of this operation and it wouldn't matter very much in the long term for the goals of the capitalists that are trying to stay in control of poor Haiti.

I promise you, more than riots, death or hunger, the State Department is trying to figure out a way to keep Aristide out without openly violating international law. The puppet government they put into place has been outed as a mirage and now State's main problem is how to put the clothes back on the Emperor.

So you see, their energies and your concerns are in two different realms entirely as far as I can tell.

[Waiting For Everyman]

22. I agree.

As with all of our other problems, and this one of Haiti's... if we really wanted to solve them, we could do that - they ARE SOLVABLE. But we don't want to. So we don't. We just waste resources, pretending to, and funneling them from the bottom into top pockets.

It's very, very sad. "Sad" doesn't cover it. No word does.

So many people are going to die there. And they don't have to. As Anderson Cooper put it, "stupid death". Stupid death, and on a mass scale.

I'm just praying that somebody with some smarts gets control of the wheel, somehow, there - at least on this one.

[EFerrari]

25. The people who profit from Haiti don't see it as waste but as overhead.

And I am much less hopeful than you are that our relationship to Haiti will change because of this event.

In any case, some people will get to eat and drink and see a doctor today. That's something.

[Leopolds Ghost]

31. Exactly. And more than that, a lot of "assessment" steps taken by any large force are ritual.

Ritualized shoulder-swatting designed to ward off potential dangers to themselves and others that have the net effect of ensuring that any relief effort occurs in the "proper time and sequence" that we are (professionally) accustomed to.

[qazplm]

33. exploited for what?

They dont have anything.

So now you think Obama is sitting in a room with folks like Hillary and Bill and saying, those Haitian suckers, we are going to exploit them once again for their...

The CTs are ridiculous around here sometimes. Clinton and Obama have been in their respective positions for about a year, somehow, I doubt Haiti was even on their radar screen this time a week ago. Now they are reacting to the short term problem. The long term problem is still a ways away.

[EFerrari]

41. No, I don't think that, thanks. And Bill Clinton is fine with the sweatshops

that pay Haitians 30 cents a day or, so far he is.

You are mistaking history for theory.

[snot]

17. To confirm: he was previously employed with the Gates Foundation?

or he's just the "type"?

[MineralMan]

20. Yes, he was with the Gates Foundation, which may well have

given him all the experience he needs in dealing with this situation.

[EFerrari]

26. Yes, the Gates Foundation.

Gates Foundation exec quits; says move not tied to federal investigation

Dr. Richard Klausner, global health director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, resigned yesterday, saying he is launching a new...

By Alicia Mundy and Warren King

Seattle Times staff reporters

Dr. Richard Klausner, global health director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, resigned yesterday, saying he is launching a new venture in Seattle. He would not reveal details.

Both Klausner and Joe Cerrell, director of Global Health Advocacy for the Gates Foundation, said Klausner's resignation had nothing to do with a Friday Seattle Times story that the Government Accountability Office has begun looking into conflict-of-interest guidelines and Klausner's role in a lucrative contract awarded to Harvard University when he was National Cancer Institute (NCI) director.

While Harvard was in the running for the $40 million NCI contract, Klausner was under consideration for two jobs at the university, including its presidency.

"This is an unfortunate coincidence of timing," Cerrell said. "The decision has been in the process for some time now."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002490773_klausner14.html

This is from 2005 but I only searched for 7 seconds.

[MineralMan]

36. What has that to do with this thread?

[EFerrari]

38. With your post, citing the Gates Foundation.

[MineralMan]

39. Nope. Someone asked if he had, indeed, worked for the Gates

Foundation. He had. I made no comment about the Gates Foundation. And your post has nothing, whatever, to do with this thread, since it is not about the subject of the thread. It's just Gates-bashing. Sorry, but no, thanks.

[EFerrari]

42. I'm sorry, you did comment on the Gates Foundation.

"Yes, he was with the Gates Foundation, which may well have

given him all the experience he needs in dealing with this situation."

If you have a short term memory problem, just letting that be known would be helpful to people who reply to your posts.

[MineralMan]

43. My friend, my statement was about the experience he might

have gained at the Gates Foundation. It was not laudatory or anything else regarding the Gates Foundation.

He had experience there. I have no idea what that experience involved. Generally, I support the things the Gates foundation is doing inre: health concerns in the third world. But, I did not say anything about the Gates Foundation in my post other than he had some experience he gained there.

[EFerrari]

45. If your point was about the experience he might gain at the Gates Foundation

then you are holding up the Gates' conflict of interest as some kind of standard.

And if you have no idea what experience that might be, what was your point, exactly?

[baldguy]

18. The Dir of USAID is a political appointment. So what?

Obama has and will make a lot of political appointments. That doesn't mean they're all going to be Brownies, and it doesn't mean the various agencies under them will implode.

[EFerrari]

19. The deal isn't in that it's a political appointment, imho.

I'll take any political appointee of the President's over anyone Bush hired for anything.

It's that USAID is primarily not about aid but about influence. USAID has funded some very ugly customers, the most recent example I can think of are the white separatists in Bolivia.

And what that means to me, anyway, is that aid isn't their first priority but gathering up influence is.

[Leopolds Ghost]

34. USAID is an arm of the "promote US economic influence" of State. Should they be in charge of relief?

I've heard there's a lot of problems with USAID... any truth to that?

[EFerrari]

40. USAID is pulled every which way but they are often agents

of destabilization of regimes Washington doesn't want. Afaik, that's their main task. :shrug:

[qazplm]

23. so what exactly

has he done wrong so far?

[Cleita]

24. Another Brownie?

Holy sheet!

[cali]

30. No.

Prior to his appointment at USAID, Shah worked in a range of leadership roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation including Director of Agricultural Development, Director of Financial Services, leader of the Strategic Opportunities initiative and manager of the Foundation’s $1.5 billion commitment to the Vaccine Fund. He also came up with the idea for the International Finance Facility for Immunization to transform the global system of vaccine financing, and worked to secure donor commitments of more than $5 billion for this facility. Before joining the Gates Foundation, Shah was a health care policy advisor on the Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000 and a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's transition committee on health.

President Obama announced Shah’s selection as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics and Chief Scientist on April 17, 2009.<3><4> Shah’s nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on May 12, 2009.
Contents
< [br />
Born to Indian immigrant parents from India who settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the late 1960s, Raj Shah grew up in the Detroit area and attended Wylie Groves High School.

Shah earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and M.Sc. in Health Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and also attended the London School of Economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Shah


Brown was born in Guymon, Oklahoma, on November 8, 1954. He received a B.A. in public administration/political science from the Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma). He was named the Outstanding Political Science Senior. He received his J.D. from Oklahoma City University's School of Law in 1981.

While he was in college, from 1975 to 1978, he handled "labor and budget matters"<1> as an assistant to the city manager of Edmond, Oklahoma (1980 population of 58,123). His White House biography states that he had emergency services oversight in this position. However, the head of public relations for the city denied that Brown had oversight over anybody and explained that "the assistant is more like an intern."<2> Brown disputes this characterization of his position, and the city official cited by Time in this quote claimed on a local news broadcast (Oklahoma City's News 9) that the "more like an intern" remark was taken out of context. Claudia Deakins, the spokesperson for the City of Edmond, submitted information to the House Committee investigating Hurricane Katrina showing that Time Magazine had taken her quotes out of context. Time Magazine erroneously reported Brown's position at the CIty of Edmond and the former Mayor of Edmond, Carl Reherman, and the former City Attorney, Mary Ann Karns, each submitted affidavits<3> to the House investigating committee showing that Brown had, indeed, emergency management experience.

While attending law school, Brown was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues from 1980-1982. In 1981, he was elected to the city council for Edmond, but resigned to work in private practice.<1>
Law career

Later in the 1980s he lived in Enid and practiced law there. Stephen Jones, the senior partner and founder of the firm, wrote in personnel reviews of Brown that he was "an asset to the firm" and described Brown's work as "excellent," "first rate," and "outstanding" During the Hurricane Katrina controversy Jones then described him as "not serious and somewhat shallow".<2> Of 37 lawyers with Jones' firm, Brown went into solo practice when Jones and his partners decided to split up the firm. Jones was found to have contradicted himself after Brown's attorney, Andy Lester, submitted to the House committee investigating Hurricane Katrina, the personnel documents showing Brown's excellent work at the firm. Brown was the first and only lawyer at the Jones firm to attain bond status counsel with the USDA's Farmers Home Administration and SEC.

He also taught at OCU law school as an adjunct. From 1982-1988, he was the chairman of the board of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority. Several power plants were built during his tenure. One hydroelectric plant located at Kaw Reservoir was completed in 1989 and named the Michael D. Brown Hydroelectric Power Plant and Dam in his honor. Kay County commissioners discussed forming a committee to rename the plant but took no action.

He ran for Congress in 1988 against Democratic incumbent Glenn English, who had not been challenged in the previous election. English's well-financed campaign soundly defeated Brown with 122,763 votes against 45,199. After losing, Brown promised to try again in 1990, saying, "I have an excellent chance of prevailing. It's a Democratic state, but a very Republican district."<4> However, Brown did not run in 1990, and English beat his Republican opponent, Robert Burns, 110,100 votes to 27,540.
Personal life

Brown and his wife, Tamarra, have two children.
IAHA tenure

Before joining the DHS/FEMA, Brown was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, (IAHA), from 1989-2001. After numerous lawsuits were filed against the organization over disciplinary actions that Brown took against members violating the Association's code of ethics,<5> Brown resigned and negotiated a buy-out of his contract. Brown was not fired or terminated despite rumors among the association.

A March 2000 two-part report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, chronicling one of the disciplinary actions, lauded Brown for pursuing an investigation against David Boggs, "the kingpin of the Arabian horse world", despite internal pressure to end the inquiry.<6> The Brown-led investigation found Boggs performed medically unnecessary surgery on horses to enhance their visual appeal. An ethics board suspended Boggs for five years. Boggs protested through multiple lawsuits against both the organization and Brown, alleging slander and defamation. Brown and the IAHA prevailed in each of the lawsuits brought by Boggs but the lawsuits nonetheless took a financial toll. Some members interviewed felt Brown showed an imperious attitude, and nicknamed him "The Czar."<7>

Brown started his own legal defense fund before resigning, a move he said was necessary to protect his family's assets.<8> However, some IAHA insiders claimed that this was what really led to his ouster. He raised money from breeders for the fund as well as IAHA, creating what some called a conflict of interest. Despite his contract stipulating that IAHA was to pay all his personal legal expenses, on top of his $100,000 annual salary, the Association refused initially to pay the legal bills, and Brown created the legal defense fund on the advice of IAHA's legal counsel. IAHA became financially depleted, and merged with the Arabian Horse Registry of America.<9>Brown sought and received a buy-out of his employment contract with IAHA and was not fired as some opponents in the Arabian horse world alleged.

[Oregone]

29. Hell do un heck uv uh job

[tonysam]

35. Did he judge show horses? n/t

[jmowreader]

44. The guy in overall charge of the Haiti operation has four responsibilities

He's got to accept progress reports from his field operators; report to the people above him in the governmental food chain, be ready to go on television on a moment's notice as the official government spokesman on the ground, and otherwise stay the hell out of the way of the people who actually do this work. That's it and that's all.

If the guy can remember to charge both his satellite phones at night, and put on his makeup in the morning so he's ready to go on TV right now, he will be doing everything we need from him. What we DON'T need is the guy in charge out there trying to micromanage this operation--so as long as Rajiv Shah understands there are people who know more than he does about this and they should be given practically free reign, we might be better off than if we had a "disaster relief expert" (no one is really an expert at this shit--every situation is so different) down there trying to get his fingers into everyone's pie.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. He seems quite a good appointment, to me

USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Our Work supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives by supporting:
economic growth, agriculture and trade;
global health; and,
democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance.

http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/

He has extensive experience in global health - raising $5 billion at the Gates Foundation for an international vaccine fund (working with UNICEF and the WHO).

Ironically, when there was some criticism from within USAID at his appointment, it was because some felt he'd be too concerned with health and agriculture, and not enough with 'development and governance':

Ingram, now the co-chair of the Modernize Foreign Assistance Network, a nonpartisan group urging foreign-assistance reform, considered the early criticism of Shah to be premature and unfair. “The guy brings expertise in health (and) agriculture, but that does not neccarily tell us how he’d lead the agency,” he said. “I can see why people are saying that, but they’re making presumptions that may or may not be correct.”

One private development organization, the International Center for Research on Women, hailed Shah’s nomination. Shah “brings to USAID the powerful voice and vision required to elevate development’s role in U.S. foreign policy,” the center’s president, Geeta Rao Gupta, said in a statement. “He will provide the leadership and insight crucial for the agency at this pivotal time in its history.”

Another USAID contractor, in an email forwarded to TWI, had a mixed reaction. The contractor said it was “exciting to see a relatively young, brilliant man take the reigns and perhaps steer (government) aid in a revised direction” and praised the nominee’s management experience. But the contractor, reflecting a sentiment expressed in several of the emails, said Shah’s nomination was “yet another (or maybe a stronger) indication that Obama is shifting from nation building/good governance to heath care and food security initiatives. This may not bode well for D&G,” a shorthand for development and governance.

http://washingtonindependent.com/67461/new-usaid-chief-faces-internal-skepticism

Shock horror - he may be too concerned with health, and not enough with telling other countries how to run themselves.

Anything comparing him with Brownie is ridiculous.

Clinton said Shah, a trained medical doctor and health economist who earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and his Master of Science in health economics at the Wharton School of Business, has the required skill sets and 'a record of delivering results in both the private and public sectors, forging partnerships around the world, especially in Africa and Asia, and developing innovative solutions in global health, agriculture, and financial services for the poor.'

The secretary pointed out that Shah has led many of the initiatives that are redefining best practice in the field of development, including the Global Alliance for Vaccines and immunization, the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 'His tireless efforts to immunize children around the world have helped save countless lives,' Clinton said.
...
Shah's rapid elevation in the administration owes in large part to his earlier stint as Director for Agricultural Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was the catalyst behind launching the Foundation's Global Development Program, and oversaw an investment portfolio in excess of $1.3 billion. He also managed the Foundation's $1.5 billion contribution to a global vaccination fund, and earlier while serving as the Foundation's first Director for Financial Services to the Poor and as head of the Strategic Opportunities initiative, he liaised with the co-chairs to identify, assess and recommend new areas of giving.
...
Before his eight years with the Gates Foundation, the Detroit-born Shah had worked on health care policy for the Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign, and served as a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's transition committee on health. He is co-founder of Health Systems Analytics and Project IMPACT for South Asian Americans - a national, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing civic awareness and community leadership of South Asian Americans. He has also been policy aide to the British parliament, and consultant to the World Health Organization.

http://www.allbusiness.com/medicine-health/diseases-disorders-infectious/13577683-1.html

[Tippy]

48. EVERYONE....If you want the facts go to USAID web site

<http://www.usaid.gov/>

Please get off the Igotcha President Obama band wagon.........

[Hannah Bell]

49. 8 years with gates, & at a young age in very high-profile jobs.

that's why he got this job, & it's nothing to do with hilary. gates = big obama funder/backer. usaid position will be good to help push gates' agenda for the third world.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

51. yes, but one wonders, with all the snafus and delays...

whether 'population control' is the central policy of the earthquake relief effort...

[Common Sense Party]

52. Heckuva job, Shahzbot.