Why did some of the kids... read NGOs went ahem public with issues going wrong

[nadinbrzezinski]

and tell us that the ugly US was playing favorites?

Here is a lesson in NGO marketing 101.

The concert tonight, sadly, puts an end to the public awareness of this mess. You will see Haiti fall from your TVs fast. Why? Well many are exhausted from this pretty downer of a story, and quite frankly the miracles and the sexy stage of this response, like all others, is pretty much over.

So now starts the slow slug of the recovery phase. This is the time when TV and print reporters go home, yes even in Haiti, and we all go on with our lives.

To those NGOs collecting money, and going... LOOK they are NOT letting me land my planes... the window to get most of their operational money for this is pretty much over. That is why they went there. It was a way to raise money. Oh and it happens pretty much every time, if things are going well by day four, if things are a disaster within a disaster, by day two.

So now the NGOs know that the money they raised for this is essentially the operational money they have. Yes, some of us who know how this works, will continue to give what we can afford for months, years to come... it will take years... but this is pretty much over. They know it.

That is part of the reason for the stunt... and aid agencies know it. They also know that many people around the world, and even in the US will respond to cynical manipulation of things they know will happen every time, and logistics here have been a nightmare. So this is a window into how agencies raise money. They know the first 72 hours see most of their funding come in... and the first two weeks the rest. Then it slows down to a trickle. Mostly I suspect from old hands in the bidness that know recovery phase is very costly, and it is not sexy.

Now to me this actually tells me that in a disaster this size, and this will be counter to your favorite ki... err charity, has to be put under a very regimented command and control. Not that this is going to happen. But that concert is the end of full, Haiti coverage. If you see burps, it will be burps... and truly this is human nature. People will move on...in fact, people have moved on.

[Junkdrawer]

1. Doctors without Borders had a legitimate gripe. They've moved on.

What's with all this retrospective insults and justifications?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. It will be somebody else next time

and next time, and next time, and next time.

Remember I have done this

:-)

Just telling you how this works...

Hey for Mexico City it wasn't DWB, but a medium sized Christian Charity... DWB did not exist.

Oh and for the politics inclined the US accused Mexico of playing favorites...

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. kick

[tammywammy]

4. Interesting perspective.

And probably dead on.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. There are many reasons why I have become a cynic

and that is one of them.

[lazarus]

6. K&R

Nice coda (sadly) on the whole thing, nadin.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. What is sad is that some folks have a problem recognizing this

because it is their chosen child.

Hell I go through the ICRC since they are forbidden by internal regulations to play those games... and those regs go back a long time, to Henry Dunnant.

Some national societies play those games... most do not.

[lazarus]

8. I donated to DWB

I don't regret it too much, but I do a little bit. We'll do the ICRC from now on.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. It will get to the operation

so don't regret it... and as I said, somebody else will next time...