My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the flooding in Queensland. I had been overseas until the 12 of Jan and had read about the floods but had no idea just how bad things are.
I read the following article from the Sydney Morning Herald in the car that picked me up from the airport on my return to Oz from the UK / USA. 12/1/11. It was all the more disturbing to read this article against the back drop of the news from the car radio on the devastating floods in S.E Queensland
I know many charities do likewise but can anyone give me a good explanation of why the Salvation Army has some $430 M invested in shares etc. I have been told in the past the reason for this is so they can help victims in the future. With the greatest of respect I believe the future has arrived in South East Queensland.
I am sure the people that have donated these large sums of money to the Salvos� would wish them to be used to help victims and not enrich MLC fund managers and brokers. If my memory serves me right some $200 M of these donations were lost by the Salvation Army in the 2008 market crash!
I am sure that many of the charitable organizations will be doing great work in Queensland over the coming months; however, I will ensure that my donations are given directly to the victims.
Australians in general are terrifically generous and pull together in times such as these. I personally feel that as long as any person is going without a meal or a roof over his / her head any single dollar of donated money sitting in the ASX and not being used for its original intention is not only Un-Australian it is obscene!
I bring this to attention of all free thinkers on Hot Copper and ask them to be specific in ensuring that any donations they are considering making are correctly / directly applied to the actual victims without first being creamed off for other uses.
