Donations to Red Cross Drop Following Guo Meimei Controversy

China Red Cross online donation records system.

From NetEase, ifeng, & Sina:

Records show that after the “Guo Meimei Controversy“, many Yushu donations less than 1 yuan

Summary: Information on the Qinghai province Red Cross Society official website regarding donations for the Yushu Earthquake show that since July of this year (following the Guo Meimei controversy), many people’s donation amounts are of 1 yuan and less. Although there are also many people donating, still many people’s donation amounts were only 1 fen, 2 fen, or 1 mao with the vast majority being 1 yuan of money.

List of donations being 1 RMB or less during the second half of July 2011. List of donations being 1 RMB or less during the first half of July 2011.

Comments from NetEase:

网易天津市手机网友:

You, as someone who agonizes over whether or not to add an egg to your noodles, donating to those who spend tens of thousands on a meal, you have the nerve/gall to do such a thing?
You, as someone who uses a shanzhai mobile phone as a watch, donating to those who wear Patek Phillipe, do you not feel shameful??
You, as someone who rents a several hundred monthly rental, donating to those who live in villas, do you not feel disgraceful??
You, as someone who squeezes onto public transportation everyday, donating to those who drive Lamborghinis, do you not feel embarrassed??
You, as someone who carries a no-name bag, donating to those who carry Hermes do you not feel ashamed?
You, as someone who to this day has yet to find a wife, donating money to those who keep mistresses, are you not just screwing yourself over??

网易北京市手机网友:

Whoever donates is a SB, whether you believe is up to you, but I believe it.

网易广东省河源市手机网友:

Friends, let me tell you a piece of information. On 2009 August 21st, there was a flood disaster in Xinyi city of Maoming in Guangdong province, and all of the supplies, money, food that various levels of society donated are still kept in (the Beizhong village committee) for nearly two years now with none of it having been distributed to the disaster victims. Nearly completely corrupt. I happen to be one of the disaster victims, and everything I’m saying is the truth. What can I do? They won’t distribute anything to me. One word: Corrupt. So you guys shouldn’t donate any more in the future because we won’t get it. All we can do is thank you for your good intentions.

网易天津市手机网友:

If [Guo] Meimei were to come spend a night with me, I’ll donate 100.

网易广东省手机网友:

Refusing to donate is everyone’s responsibility.

9663538614 [网易四川省成都市网友]:

In the future if one wants to be benevolent/charitable, everyone just organize themselves and go directly to the scene [of disaster, of need] themselves instead. If one donates to that cunt Red Cross Society again, then one truly becomes a stupid cunt.

网易广东省深圳市龙岗区网友:

We are all poor people, Guo Meimei is someone we truly can’t afford to financially support!

网易英国网友:

How come I feel the vast majority of people have all become stupid? Over a decade ago when we were attending primary school, when our teachers were having us donate clothes and workbooks to disaster areas, our teachers already said that these things will never reach the hands of the disaster victims, and they were having us donate only in order to complete a task [that was assigned from above]. Do each and everyone of you don’t know this? That you had to wait until the Guo [Meimei] matter to come out before you finally saw the light [realized the truth]?

网易河北省网友:

Give your money [directly] to those who need the help. Forget about the Red Cross Society.

网易浙江省金华市网友:

I thank GMM [Guo Meimei], because from now on I will never again donate a single fen.

WOOWOOWOO [网易北京市西城区网友]:

Red Cross Society: However mall a mosquito is, it is still meat! It’s good enough that there are people even donating, be content with what you have/don’t complain!

网易广东省广州市网友 [ljc19840524]:

7.23 has faded from people’s attention, the truth will forever be buried, truly a tragedy of our country’s people.

牛村小干部 [网易湖南省株洲市网友]:

Strictly speaking, those who don’t peacefully and unresistingly be slaves are called American running dogs. Those who do peacefully and unresistingly be slaves are called rabble. Those who happily be slaves, even praising their master, are called wu mao

T0nKa [网易火星手机网友]:

You can toss and turn [say this or that] however you like but I’m never going to donate even a half-fen ever again.

网易北京市海淀区网友:

Those who donated one fen were probably just seeing whether or not the system works. But there is probably exaggeration. This black organization is claiming it is poor, in order to get more donations, as well as the lay the foundation for the next act of embezzlement/corruption.

linyihaokf [网易广东省深圳市网友]:

Fucking Red Cross Society, refund me my money, plus interest.

网易广东省网友:

Whoever cause this situation is whoever should be called to go donate, After all, if there’s one thing they have, it’s money [referring to Guo Meimei], enough to go around showing off their wealth, and her mother even knows how to play the stock market to get rich [referring to Guo Meimei and her mother's first public interview responding to the controversy in which her mother said she got rich investing in stocks], so let her entire family go donate!!!!! Whether you donate or not is up to you, either way I’m not going to donate [A play on Railway Ministry representative Wang Yongping's infamous response]!!!

网易上海市网友:

Though very weak, it is still a voice…
From this day on, no matter what piece of news you put as the headline, I will still continue to ask for the truth about the train accident:
What is the true number of dead victims?
Who ordered the stopping of search and rescue efforts?
Who ordered the burying of the train cars?
“Whether or not the Railway Ministry put the rescue as its top priority, this must be truthfully answered.”
So long as the truth is not revealed, the questioning will not stop!

网易河南省郑州市网友:

How sad, Guo Meimei has caused the Red Cross Society to have no where to turn to reimburse its expenses!

微人不微笑 [网易广东省网友]:

One girl’s line of text, not even as long as a JB, has turned the great Red Cross Society upside down… How do you expect me to feel safe/secure [in donating]… A society with a severe crisis of confidence. We’re not far from a barbaric age now.

What do you think? What charities or organizations do you trust with your donations?

  • MonkeyMouth

    sofa? did i really get it?

  • http://www.qq.com/1325279774 Kedafu

    “they’re are just 五 words to say
    as you go down down down….”

    your gonna…..

    Song of the Article

    Burn in Hell
    -Twisted Sister

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3C_eAtlS0

    Armchair Bitch!

    五毛党

    • MonkeyMouth

      ahhh…..twisted sister….

      WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE???????!!!!!!!!!!!!

      now that i grabbed sofa, i actually read the article. ( sorry, to all those hardcore SMACK heads for allowing an amateur smack-head get the comfy seat. ) I have only met a few ‘rich’ folks in China, and let me just say i have never met fatter, lazier pigs than them. this is evolution in reverse.

  • Anon

    Chinese are no fools. Could a private TCM hospital with the official recognition of the PRC set up the ‘Red Taijitu’ Ambulance Brigade and Charity? Whats with the Christians when you have your own religion?

  • http://candosino.wordpress.com terroir

    “Eating the Emperor’s grain” is a long standing, time-honored tradition.

    It’s like lifting your shirt up over your belly (fat guys only, please) in the summer or spending ten years of your life to learn English you can’t speak just so you can put it on your resume — it’s a tradition that means less of what it represents than what it immediately confers.

    To eludcidate: a mid-riff baring mesh neon tank top would solve many a fat man’s heat problems in the summer — but you dont’ get to exercise your ability as a fat man to show off the gut you’ve been working on all your life. What’s the point?

    Tradition.

  • http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1914680181 Elijah

    No way!!!!

    A corrupt government organization (despite being an NGO outside of china) has been ousted and lost all public confidence????

    Whether or not you believe, I don’t believe it.

    So….. wonder if it will spread…

  • Tengu

    I guess the big issue here is Relief and Aid and how it is kept out of the hands of the people who need it and milked by so many others for the easy profits made.

    Holding up grain, fuel , medicines and water in Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Niger and from flood, earthquake victims is a great way for rebels, warlords, corrupt government officials to make money.

    The greater the disaster, the more lax the accountability.

    Guo Meimei dragged this into the light by her hubris, it probably saved some people money, but how much as lost in good faith?

    How much good will will be damaged by this…it’s the future it will impact the most.

    They take advantage in moments of crisis to feed off the bones of the weak and the war torn. They’re like vultures preying on the weakest and most vulnerable.

    The Somalis are doing it right now, stating the have no drought, holding grain and water shipped by NGOs while their people die.

    In the US it’s done in insidious ways, preachers ripping off their flock and hiding behind a dated tax system, CEOs of non-profit Hospitals making 7 figures.

  • Brett Hunan

    I can’t blame the netizens and Chinese citizens for their reaction to this situation.

    Unfortunately, there is really no fix to this problem. Many people say more education can help. Those with higher education will surely do the “right thing” more often.

    We can all comment on why and how…. but the important part is that the people are losing patience and interest in helping others in times of need.

    Donations truly are a huge help in times of need. I’d like to believe that donations do more good for the needy than for the greedy, but its not so easy to prove.

    I have none to offer, but maybe others have suggestions as to how to fix this problem.

    To answer Fauna’s question, I myself like AND trust Health Volunteers Oversees as a nonprofit and suggest others to check it out…. no I am not affiliated.

    • Tengu

      I used to donate to a charity regularly and I found out that the CEO has been investigated by the auditing department and had to justify his exorbitant salary. My fault, I should have performed more due diligence on the place.

      It soured me, just as it did many of these people.

      Is it as Alikese states an excuse to not give, a definite possibility.

      Once trust has been lost, unless you have accountability and transparency from the organization it’s tough to regain confidence and for anyone to not think first before giving.

      As Brett Hunan states HVO is a non-profit with good transparency.

  • Shanghairen

    What happened with the Guo Meimei story? I didn’t follow it closely. Did anyone ever have any evidence she worked for the Red Cross and that she embezzled donations?

    • From Xiamen With Love

      Well correct me if i’m wrong but to my understanding she was probably a mistress kept by one of the big heads at red cross. therefore she did embezzle donations however indirectly.

    • Marsvin

      Evidence? What is this the 20th century? It was on the interwebs man!

    • Tengu

      You know, I was so fixated on the “booty bouncing” the other day it slipped my mind…

      From what I understand where it stands now is:
      She didn’t work for the Red Cross Society.
      She used to sell cars.
      She was a small time model in Shenzhen.
      No one knows her actual identity.
      No one knows where she got the money.
      No one knows if she has money.
      No one knows if she owns the cars ( most of them had no license plates). Just because you’re sitting in a Lambo and leaning against a Maserati doesn’t mean you own them.

      I don’t think the origins of the embezzlement are known and I’m not sure if anyone knows for a fact Guo Meimei that embezzled anything or if she was just an uncouth, loud-mouthed piece of tail to some bureaucrat who has enough weight to keep it all quiet now and discarded her already.

      She seems to have dipped below the radar for the time being.
      BUT
      The Shanghai Chapter of the Red Cross did spend 9,000RMB on a dinner!

      Unfortunately the whole Guo Meimei baby debacle may have been a publicity stunt, but it did incredible damage to the Red Cross who already run too fast and free with the donations.

      Charity begins at home….these guys think it means THEIR home.

      Did you know Terroir ruined my morning fruit shake?

      • 2-cents

        I was reading a follow up to this somewhere about a month ago, but people were following her everywhere, harassing her.
        She’d show up at a airport, and outside would be filled with news people bombarding her wiht questions.

        Her QQ had something about fleeing to australia to lay low tell this whole thing blew over. Netizens were petitioning the australian embassy to cancel hervisa tell shewas properly investigated

  • Leo

    Guo MeiMei must have her troll face on the entire time.

  • Alikese

    I think this is another case of people making excuses about why they don’t want to donate. Nobody wants to lose 200 yuan, so rather than saying you’re cheap and don’t care about the people you say that you aren’t donating to make a point to the Red Cross.

    Success! Let’s go spend that money on headshake and hookers.

    • Tengu

      The hell with the kids born with an “Adamantic Third Leg”, first lap dance for Hongjiang is on me.

      • Alikese

        If you get fatty, fatty Hongjian, who beats up all the boys, to jump around dancing it will cause an earthquake and even more train crashes. We just can’t win.

    • Jones

      Please, no checks or cash. Make all charitable donations in pure, uncut coke.

  • Hongjian

    “In the future if one wants to be benevolent/charitable, everyone just organize themselves and go directly to the scene [of disaster, of need] themselves instead. If one donates to that cunt Red Cross Society again, then one truly becomes a stupid cunt.”
    This is a good solution. On paper.

    But knowing Chinese people, they will most probably embezzle it themselves somehow
    and nothing will be received by those in need.
    All these braindead netizens can do is to talk like a bunch of fucking stupid hipster kids “rebelling” against THE MACHINE THAT KEEPS THEM DOWN, while not being a better a bit if they were in the same position and having the same responsibility.

    Chinese are nothing but talented niggers. Just a bit more freedom for them, they will only use their talents to do niggerish things like committing crimes, embezzling money and backstabbing each other for a handful of yuan.

    In this sense, the whole Chinese goverment and all affiliated organisations – no, even those who are just being either led or even just involve Chinese people – are mirrors of the garbage that is the chinese culture of nepotism, corruption and deliberate incompetence.
    I must say I feel nothing for those who are bitching and crying over official corruption – since they arent better themselves.
    Every people deserves the goverment that fits them the best – and a population that evidently has some kind of culturally ingrained reverse midas-touch (everything’s that is touched by them instantly turns into shit) equally deserves a govt. and and society that is as shitty as themselves.

    • Hongjian

      Ah.. screw it. My fucking grammar is horrible.

      I’m drunk right now, but still I wont fail to reiterate my signature;
      All americans should be lined up and shot.

      Good night, gents.

      • http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1914680181 Elijah

        And here we have proof of evolution….

        Before your very eyes ladies and gentlemen, I present: The AMAZING EVOLVING HONGJIAN.

        Watch as he goes from for absolute troll to a slightly more evolved form of offensiveness while still carrying along some evolutionary throw-backs (like an appendix).

        Step right up!

        • Tengu

          Vestigial Vehemence?

      • Jones

        I want to impregnate you, Hongjian.

        • Alikese

          You guys would hear the pitter-patter of adorable little 1/2 Chinese 1/2 Americunt babies running around.

          • Jones

            I know she’ll make a good mommy! Besides, I like ‘em feisty!

          • Tengu

            Can we bind her feet?

          • Jones

            We’re going to make her feel beautiful. For once in her life, she’ll finally feel like the princess she always wanted to be!

      • Tengu

        That’s “Americunts” to you.

        Have a nice night’s sleep, you boozy thing!

        We’re wearing her down lads!

      • Tengu

        I am SOOOO buying Hongjian a Brazilian wax, Acrylic Nails, a PRC Thong with a star over her Punani and a pair of clear heels.

        Anyone like latex or shall we stick with black leather?

        • Jones

          Nah dude, nurse outfit. I mean, a schoolgirl will work, too, but the point is I bet Hongjian is the really cute type.

          • Tengu

            Nice one. “Nurse Outfit.” Thinking outside the box buddy!

            YOU tell her!

    • Tengu

      Well we elected George Bush…FUCKING TWICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      He’s responsible for most of the debt that’s floating out there so we do deserve the government we have elect (well, we elect!). Although he did steal the first election from Al Gore, but America sat around and watched that happen.

      They voted for a guy they “would have a beer with” rather than a capable man who was a policy wonk.

      $14.4 trillion in debt. Bush ran up over $6.1 Trillion of it.

      With regard to corruption…no one can top the Bush family.

    • mr. weiner

      “niggerish” , I’m not a PC nazi, but that is just mean. Hope you watch your mouth in racially mixed company, even thinking like that makes me uncomfortable.

      • Tengu

        Well Hongjian is in her lair as we speak, possibly breathing fire like Beowulf.

        We’re used to her racist rants, but she has been mellowing out lately (one day).

        I squirmed in my seat when I saw the word and while offensive to me personally, I guess I’ve read enough of the vitriol it’s like the proverbial water of a duck’s back.

        You have to admit:
        “population that evidently has some kind of culturally ingrained reverse midas-touch (everything’s that is touched by them instantly turns into shit) ” was pretty god line.

        Eventually in this thread she will say “All Amerikunts should be lined up and shot.”

        I guess she’s/he’s not much, but she’s our Hongjian!

        She’ll make you more uncomfortable, so gird your loins laddie buck, gird your loins!

  • Visitor

    I do not trust any government entity when it comes to using money that as been donated. You know someone in the food chain is pocketing some of it. Do what I do and go directly to the source. Find someone in need and help them, it is a great feeling believe me……

  • eattot

    hmm, red cross should think out a direct and convincing way to gain our trust again.
    as build a website in which everyone can see their donate, then they need to list every item goes to, so people can see how much already spent, how much left.
    but, then they would not be happy.

    • Tengu

      Agreed. They need more transparency, a decent audit system and some governance.

      Trust is the toughest thing to gain back. It’s like someone cheating you, would you ever forgive him?

      Wearing your mask again?

    • Irvin

      Red cross doesn’t need our trust, there are always new idiots on the block ready to donate.

  • FYIADragoon

    Red Cross should just pull out of China and let them continue eating away at themselves. The Chinese are too greedy to possibly run an organization like the Red Cross Society.

    • Tengu

      All “Chunts”/”Chenises” should be lined up and shot!

      • Tengu

        There goes my Visa!

      • Jones

        Dude, the word you’re looking for is “Chimates”.

    • Wondering

      Oh, the same thing happened in the US a few years ago. Anytime there are piles of money and not enough oversight, someone is going to party. People here wouldn’t donate for a while, either. They did get over it.

    • fag

      you sound like a jew

      • Irvin

        what does a jew sounds like?

        • Tengu

          Same as a fag I guess!

      • FYIADragoon

        But I don’t like Israelis. :3 Try again?

  • mr. weiner

    So what happened to Guo Mei Mei? did she manage to bail to Australia? Plastic surgery? Taken away, shot and fed to the pigs or what?

  • Justin

    Don’t donate. Volunteer. There is one thing that people can’t embezzle and that is your time. If you are working directly with people you help, then there is no way your aid is going to get misdirected to someone who doesn’t deserve it.

  • Joe

    Who the fuck donates to Red Cross anyway? Red Cross has always been corrupt, regardless of which country it is based in.

  • Irvin

    Agree with most of the local posters, Whoever donate money is an idiot. If you really want to do charity you have to organize and do it yourself.

    That’s what one of the guangzhou TV station did. They used to report alot of tragedies and asked for people’s donation, only to realize the government took all the money for themselves in follow up stories.

    Now the station got their own vans and charity group and organize the charities themselves, they also encourage people to donate actual items instead of money and asked to follow them and do the donation themselves.

    It works, some of the unfortunate actually benefited through this. Most of the time it’s just bags of rice, but because normal citizens went to these unfortunate villages themselves and do the donation in person, these villages got much more than just material needs, they also got hope and love.

    • Hongjian

      This is pretty much the only thing that would work.

      If people hand over the responsibility to even a private group, no matter how idealistically minded, over short or long, someone will use their responsibility and monopoly over the relief goods or donations to embezzle it or profit through it.

      The idea with calling all the people who donated to actually follow the organization to hand it over themselves is simple and brilliant. With this, the organization is pretty much just degrated into a transportation or tourist company while the real aid-workers are the donors themselves.

      In China there’s always the rule that shit will only get done, if the boss is doing it personally.

      Do you have more information about that Guangzhou TV organization?

      Thanks.

  • Tengu

    Works for me! Let’s run with it!

  • Dan Danger

    Some people here curse the Red Cross itself while the organization is well respected and does good work in other countermand has for decades. The issue is the Red Cross itself but the nature of many Chinese people who cannot be trusted to handle large sums of money. I think when people study accounting here one of the classes is Embezzling 101. Why do charities perform so well in many western CPU tires but become cesspools of corruption here? The issue is not with the organization but with the nature of the people who run it it seems.

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