Tsunami relief, big bucks

Its incredible what a huge death toll (149,540) and lots of pictures will do for funding. Working in and around international development you see lots of things. At the moment, the main problem I see is this tsunami relief thing becoming like AIDS funding around here, a money grab.

I know sys admins who make $80k/year (not including the benefits such as maids, fully paid for rent for a house, yearly trips home, insurance, etc) for a job that is worth (gross) $40k/year in the US, and more power to them… but this is for an AIDS related projects (you can imagine what the higher ups are making). I find that this is neither the exception or the norm, but its not uncommon. People working in relief benefiting more than the ones that are supposed to be helped.

I can totally understand the draw, and the temptation (and too, lets face it, you can’t work for a “native salary” and save up anything, you have to have enough so you can someday go back home) but number approaching 8 billion dollars is going to attract (already has) a lot of people who don’t give a rats ass about helping others, or even about the job they do, it’s the dough. Ah, the world we live in.