In 2010, almost $1.4 billion in aid poured into earthquake-stricken Haiti. $32 million of that number came from the American Red Cross’ $10 text messages touted in aid campaigns and endorsed by celebrities. But according to a stunning joint Pro Publica and NP investigation released today, the American Red Cross had a lot more difficulty spending your money than you had sending it.

The investigation focuses heavily on the Red Cross’ claims of providing homes to more than 130,000 Haitians with its 2013 development project. The report reveals that while the organization raised $488 million donations, it only built six permanent houses. The Red Cross reports, which are available to the public, group expenses into large categories. For example, shelter, which included the botched housing project, accounts for $170 million.

Tracking down the impact of overall efforts unearthed a number of issues in the organizations’ transparency efforts:

For example, while the Red Cross says it provided more than 130,000 people with homes, that includes thousands of people who were not actually given homes, but rather were “trained in proper construction techniques.” (That was first reported by the Haiti blog of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.)

The figure includes people who got short-term rental assistance or were housed in several thousand “transitional shelters,” which are temporary structures that can get eaten up by termites or tip over in storms. It also includes modest improvements on 5,000 temporary shelters.

The investigation goes on to detail the organization’s mistakes, such as reportedly discriminating against Haitian employees and ballooning costs of projects with outside contractors. It pinpoints the many internal crises of an organization that was also lambasted for its handling of 9/11 and Katrina and was barely solvent a year and half before the earthquake hit.

The Red Cross is not the only aid organization to have acted ineptly in the sometimes complex operating zone of post-quake Haiti. The cholera epidemic that hit Haiti after the earthquake raised criticism of the slow-moving nature of many sanitation projects. According to Pro Publica, the Red Cross’ own response to the epidemic was internally marked as “very behind schedule” months into the epidemic. A story by NBC News revealed that the United Nations has released only half of what they’ve earmarked for the crisis through 2020.

“Like many humanitarian organizations responding in Haiti, the American Red Cross met complications in relation to government coordination delays, disputes over land ownership, delays at Haitian customs, challenges finding qualified staff who were in short supply and high demand, and the cholera outbreak, among other challenges,” the charity said in a statement to Pro Publica…

(by Tonya Riley)

 http://fusion.net/story/144256/the-red-cross-raised-488-million-for-haiti-and-only-built-six-homes/?fb_comment_id=fbc_853365848070925_853651098042400_853651098042400

Of course, nobody´s perfect: myself I am a sinner, but working to quit...

The World Airline Awards has once again recognized Finnair as Northern Europe's best airline.

Finnair has been named Northern Europe’s Best Airline at the World Airline Awards, for the sixth year running. Organized by Skytrax, the recognition is based on an independent survey of some 18 million travellers from more than 160 countries. At the same time, the Oneworld alliance, to which Finnair belongs, was named Best Airline Alliance for the third straight time.

Finnair is the first European airline to receive the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft with a spacious, light cabin with award-winning Nordic design, on-board Wi-Fi and top of the range IFE system. Finnair is also investing into bringing WiFi connectivity to its entire Airbus fleet, with installations starting in 2016.

"This is a recognition for the excellent work done by our committed team in the air and on the ground to serve our customers as they connect between Europe and Asia with Finnair," says Juha Järvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Finnair, and continues: 

"We want to offer our customers a unique Nordic experience, and will continue to invest in further improving our product and service, with many upgrades in the pipeline already. We also look forward to starting our A350 operations this autumn, as the first European airline to do so. This will enable us to offer even better customer comfort and new services."

http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/archive/news/finnair-named-northern-europes-best-airline/ 

7 Examples of What Alcohol Labels Would Really Say If They Were Honest

Whiskey.

This is the juice that will assure a young man that 3am is a great time to call his ex for a booty call. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that?  I bet she would love to be awoken form her peaceful slumber to accept a call and a visit from a slobbering, semi-coherent dude she probably wants to forget exists. Yeah, that is definitely a great idea. You should do it. Drink whiskey…

Jägermeister.

I have a great idea; let’s all go to the club (or get charged up here at home first because we can’t afford those club prices) and drink shots of this poisonous stuff that tastes like cough medicine until we all puke all over ourselves – which by the way, is almost a guaranteed certainty as a result. Or, we could just mix it with Red Bull which might help to mask the taste, help us to dance all night, and possibly even result in a heart failure. What do you think? Doesn’t that sound like fun?!

Coconut Rum.

Does drinking coconut rum have you under the illusion that it is cool in some sort of Caribbean, relaxed way where you are out having fun and enjoying your life? Well, let’s be honest here for a second; you aren’t. I mean, you might be enjoying your life to some degree, but you will enjoy it much more if you actually bothered to go and get a better drink. The only thing coconut rum ever did for anyone was show everyone around you that you can’t really handle real alcohol yet and so you are accepting a sugary substitute. It might still make you feel sick like other alcohol, but if we are completely honest with each other, it is only for teenage girls.

Tequila.

Tequila has this cool image of being sexy and the start to a great night. The only trouble is, it is often the end of a great night too. In fact, it is just as often the start and end to a horrific night. One that might see you dancing on tables, swapping way too much saliva with someone you don’t know, and as the label on this bottle suggests; just all ‘round regretting the evening ever happened. 100% regret indeed!

Fireball.

Nothing called “Fireball” was ever going to end in a relaxed and enjoyable evening. Is that really what you were expecting when you agreed to shots of the stuff; an enjoyable evening? I mean sure, there may have been elements or moments of the evening that flicker through your mind which you appeared to be enjoying yourself. Some of those moments will be more vivid than others. Some will seem like a dream, others will be a nightmare. Ultimately though, it resulted in you ending up passed out next to a homeless dude and feeling so sick you don’t know whether you should be at home or the hospital. Well played!

Wine.

You know, alcohol is there for you on all occasions. It might not actually help all of the time. In fact, it probably isn’t appropriate for many emotions and should probably only be indulged in when you really have something to celebrate, and even then things can go too far. But this doesn’t stop many of us seeking comfort in the bottom of a glass when things aren’t going as we had hoped they might. And the drink of choice for a young lady in need of consolation? Usually a glass of wine. Which will often then lead to another glass of wine, and another, and another, until she finds herself with half-tears trickling mascara down her face as she hugs the toilet bowl for comfort. Yeah, wine was a great choice….

Vodka.

Why do people drink vodka? I mean, if we are to be honest, it is more often the ladies indulging in the traditional clear Russian liquid, and that is usually to keep the calorie demons at bay. I mean, you can still enjoy yourself and not ingest anywhere near the amount of calories as pretty much any other alcoholic beverage. But not only can you still have fun, you can also get extremely drunk and make a fool of yourself too. But somewhere in the middle is the window which sees young woman in the bathroom together, making new BFFs, and paying booze-fuelled compliments to each other in a nightclub toilet. Oh, isn’t that lovely?

http://www.mobilelikez.com/funny/7-examples-of-what-alcohol-labels-would-really-say-if-they-were-honest/page/7/?uid=spiders#sthash.IWV6ta6D.dpuf

I had an ironic situation occur a while back – a close family member had their Facebook account hacked. Despite all of my warnings and admonitions, this young person I hold dear fell victim to a Facebook. 

My wife called and asked me why they had changed their name on Facebook. This immediately sent off warning bells in my mind, so I hopped on Facebook and visited the profile. Sure enough, the account name had been changed and the profile pic had been replaced with that of a trashy looking tramp.

I contacted my relative and told them about the situation. Unfortunately, their email had also been hacked. They reported the incident to Facebook and created a new Facebook profile. They also sent a shout out to all of their friends advising them that their account had been hacked – a pretty common occurrence in this situation.

There are a couple of problems here:

1. It is nice they created a new account and advised people that their account had been hacked. Unfortunately, only the friends who re-friend them on this account will see it. Her 1300 plus other friends are clueless about the incident, and unless they notice the strange name, then they are at risk. If they also have a huge amount of friends, then what are the chances they will notice a name change on one account? Obviously we don’t advise having 1300 friends on Facebook, but that is the subject for another post!

1. Facebook can be very slow at taking action on fake profiles. This incident was reported on Wednesday morning and the bogus profile has been active for over six months!

The hacker not only has complete access to the Facebook information of my relative, but they can also access a large volume of data on the people she is friends with. Even the most privacy conscious individuals with everything set to ‘Friends Only’ are now exposed and at risk. Think of all the information they can collect and the damage they can do in just a short period of time. Here are just a few ways they can exploit the friends of the newly acquired account:

1. Data mine for mobile phone numbers on account profiles

1. Collect personal and private information to be used for phishing attempts, identity theft or to make the ‘Grandma Scam’ more believable

1. Use Photos and data obtained to create other fake profiles

1. Install rogue Facebook applications and send spam and scam links to all of the friends on the account

1. Monitor status updates of friends to know where they are and when they are not at home

These are just a few things I came up with in brainstorming for five minutes or so. I’m sure there are countless other things a professional cyber criminal could devise.

Another scam that is very common at the moment is the bogus Facebook Security phishing scheme. We have warned on this one several times in the past. Basically, the person receives a message from someone pretending to be Facebook Security. Often times, the account sending the message has also been hacked by scammers. The profile picture is changed to that of the real Facebook Security and the name is changed to “Facebook Security” spelled with funky, non-traditional characters. Not only does this make the scam appear more legit, but these scammers have the access mentioned above to all of the ‘friends’ of the hacked account.

Pay careful attention to everyone on your friends list. If you see any name changes or other suspicious activity, immediately perform the following actions to protect your personal information:

1. Block or Unfriend the person sending the messages or that has had their name changed.

1. Notify them of the situation, so they can take action to reclaim their account and mitigate the damage.

1. Report the Fake Profile to Facebook – Do this by navigating to the offending profile, and clicking on the Down Triangle in the top right corner:

It’s also a good idea to limit who can see your friends list altogether. If a friend’s account gets hacked then having a visible friends list gives them more information and potential victims to target. This is a very easy fix – just navigate to your Timeline by clicking on your name in the top right corner, then you’ll want to click on your ‘Friends’ box. At the top of the next page you’ll see an ‘Edit’ button. Just click that button and select ‘Only Me.’

On Facebook, your privacy is only as secure as your weakest friend.

http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/how-a-friends-hacked-facebook-account-can-compromise-your-privacy-and-security.html/