Disaster relief exposes loopholes

The official Red Cross denied any connection with Guo, but lawsuits against Guo, supposed to safeguard the charity’s organization, have never been forthcoming. In sharp contrast to the defamation of the Red Cross, the girl has become an online celebrity ever since the scandal. Even until today, the Red Cross has never fully explained why it has still refused to sue Guo, despite some rumormongers who poured gasoline on the flames of the scandal and were subsequently put behind bars long time ago.

It will be hard for the charity to regain the public’s trust. That’s a key reason why any news related to the Red Cross touched people’s nerves. The Red Cross needs to disclose information about the 3,000 winter quilts, such as price and supplier, to erase people’s doubts about secrete trade.

The same method applies to the local government’s aid of moldy bread, too. On Sunday one Internet user named “Gangfang” exposed online that more than 200 villagers from a village of Wenchang of Hainan had received two boxes of moldy bread. The local civil authorities announced that it would conduct an investigation into this incident.

No matter the Red Cross, the semi-official civil charity society that collects money from government revenue and people’s donations, or civil authorities that release relief resources with public funds, need to raise transparency on the usage of funds. In the cases of winter quilts and moldy bread, the Red Cross and civil authorities need to disclose more information to rule out the possibility of corruption.

It will be good news if no abuse of money is revealed in the two cases.. However, the two cases have highlighted the emergency to improve natural disaster relief. It will be equally important to restore people’s confidence in China’s charity and disaster relief work.

At the early stage, the disaster relief work should be people-oriented. Scientific planning should be made according to the disaster-hit regions’ local situation. Especially at the early stage, the most needed resources, rather than materials perhaps in reconstruction use, should be supplied first.

In most cases, disaster-hit areas may have their power cut that would not be conducive for food preservation. So the charity groups or civil authorities need to prepare the kinds of food that can be easily preserved and have a longer shelf life. And they need to be more efficient in the releasing of materials that can be helpful.

Only by providing timely help can disaster relief work regain the public’s respect.

The author is an editor with China Daily