Rick Cohen Quotations

What you have is charity giving a positive veneer to an activity that may not be all that positive for many of the people that participate. It doesn't look good, feel good or smell good when charity is raising money not because of the charitable intent of people, but in a sense because of their weakness.

Having someone close within the family structure and friendship structure that they can look up to can make a difference.

It applies to corporate giving as well. If you have a company that says, 'We're pledging a million dollars to disaster relief,' well, a good chunk of that is probably going to come out of what they give to some other group.

I worry for small local charities that don't have the large fund-raising machinery in place.

This is not simply a competitive scrum for who can scarf up the most charitable donations, but where should the money go to make the rebuilding of that region possible.