Alright, alright, spare me your life story ([info]jakiri) wrote,
2005-09-04 12:21:00
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www.somethingawful.com

Lowtax decided to set up an organised donation to the red cross, in the aftermath of Katrina, with the "bonus" being that everyone who donated over $10 would get a piece of SA merchandise.

Unfortunately, the SA servers (and their CC transaction whatsit) are in New Orleans.

Lacking alternatives, Lowtax decided to use paypal - because it was the only way he could find out the addresses of people donating, so he could send merchandise out.

Paypal account up, with a donation of $3,000 from Lowtax to start it off, the information is posted on the web and the Goons do their thing.

$20,000 dollars is donated in SEVEN HOURS.

Unfortunately, we have no further figures on what would have been donated after that point, because PayPal decided to close the account and seize the funds because of "complaints from buyers". Lowtax was then instructed to fill out an automated form about the disputed purchases.

Alas, because all the transactions were DONATIONS, the automated form has merely the options to continue or return - and continuing requires that you complete one of the (non-present) transaction challenge whatsits.

It's not like the Red Cross could use that money to actually, you know, help people or anything.

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  • 11 comments

[info]jakiri

September 4 2005, 11:32:32 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, and SA does have form - $20,000 donated to buy body armour for troops in Iraq, $6,000 donated to buy children's toys for hospitals.

[info]gileswl

September 4 2005, 12:14:48 UTC 6 years ago

"It's not like the Red Cross could use that money to actually, you know, help people or anything."

Exactly.

[info]timlewis

September 4 2005, 12:23:56 UTC 6 years ago

Ah, well, hold on, now, to be fair, this article does list things which are pretty legitimate grounds for not allowing loads of disorganized aid workers to swarm into the city carrying food. It's for similar reasons that they don't really want members of the public volunteering to come and help - because unless they really know what they're doing, and unless the official relief effort knows exactly what they're doing, those people become part of the problem.

[info]gileswl

September 4 2005, 12:31:24 UTC 6 years ago

Well, maybe, but it's not "loads of disorganised aid workers". It's the Red Cross. They also appear to say they've been trying to contact FEMA and getting nowhere. I know they're stopping short of actually criticising the US government response, but that's because they're the Red Cross.

[info]timlewis

September 4 2005, 12:48:24 UTC 6 years ago

I'm still not that convinced that the Red Cross are prepared to provide aid in these kinds of circumstances, and then to make sure they get all their own people out safely afterwards. But you're right, of course; I would have thought they could be doing something.

[info]gileswl

September 4 2005, 16:16:25 UTC 6 years ago

If this was an isolated case, I would think that the "authorities have legitimate concerns about interfering with their own efforts" explanation was the most plausible. But instead we are getting things like, well, this. This leads me to think that FEMA, its funding reduced, newly incorporated into the DHS and under a political appointee, simply did not have the requisite management structure in place (I'll stop short of those pundits who seem to think they know what that would have been).

[info]jakiri

September 4 2005, 13:32:11 UTC 6 years ago

There's more to helping the people affected than just going to ground zero, you know.

[info]gileswl

September 4 2005, 16:06:01 UTC 6 years ago

Yes, I grant you, but the Red Cross specialises in "ground zero", so I thought it was relevant.

I'm not in any way belittling the decision to donate this money, and obviously PayPal's behaviour is absurd (although I very much doubt that this is actually anyone's fault. PayPal is presumably set up for very different uses, corresponding to a different set of priorities). Clearly money donated to these kinds of charitable organisations is not going to be wasted.

[info]jakiri

September 4 2005, 18:15:53 UTC 6 years ago

http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Paypal lost a class action lawsuit about this kind of thing.

[info]jakiri

September 4 2005, 13:33:59 UTC 6 years ago

Oh, and comment on the actual matter at hand!

[info]timlewis

September 4 2005, 14:29:08 UTC 6 years ago

Never!

I love toffee. I don't know why I don't eat toffee all the time.

What was I talking about again?

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