As you surely know by now, the citizens of Flint, Michigan have been drinking lead contaminated water for 18 months. Through a series of increasingly bad decisions and arguably strategic cover-ups, local officials created and then ignored the problem until it reached the terrible crisis we see today. Flint children and babies may have brain damage as a result of lead exposure and we may not know the full reaching effects of the town’s poisoning for years.
Most of the country has rallied behind Flint and are doing what they can to help. Celebrities have taken to social media to raise awareness in addition to more immediate action. Yesterday rapper The Game (Hate it or Love it, My Life) pledged $1M worth of bottled water for the residents of Flint:
He’s game to help! The Game is pledging $1 million in bottled water to Flint, Michigan, amid its ongoing water crisis.
The rapper, 36, made the announcement via Instagram on Tuesday, January 26. He showed a screenshot of what appeared to be him wiring $500,000 to his charity, the Robin Hood Project. In his caption, he noted that he will be donating $1 million in total, half of which will be put up by Avita Water.
The drought in Flint hits home for the entertainer. He explained that his younger sister and her children live there.
“I’m on tour & not in the US as I’d like to be to help with this water crisis in Flint, Michigan 1st hand,” he wrote on Tuesday. “The truth is the population in Flint, Michigan is about 105,000 people & it takes at least 9 bottles per person a day just to use to bathe, brush their teeth, drink & cook with.“So on behalf my charity @TheRobinHoodProject I am donating $1,000,000 in water bottles,” he continued. “$500,000 coming out of my own pocket (which is everything I’ve made on tour up to this point) & the other 1/2 being met by @AvitaWater & the 1st drop is being made TODAY 1pm eastern time at ‘Food Bank East Michigan.'”
“Most celebs on here faking using the word ‘Pledge’ in their so called donations are not fooling anyone!” he added. “To those who think it’s easy getting this water to Flint, it’s not so the people who are PLEDGING they are, show us.. We want proof!!! Stop using others tragedies for your own celebrity gain…You’re not fooling ANYONE! I seen @Madonna & @JimmyFallon’s $10,000 donations…that’s cute, but not nearly enough.”
[From Us Magazine]
I get that he has family there and is understandably emotional, but this is unfair to Jimmy Fallon and Madonna. Jimmy, who is from Bay City, Michigan, set up a challenge through Twitter asking people to match his $10,000 pledge; in addition to Madonna, Seth Meyers, Rosie O’Donnell and Jon Cryer have stepped up. This is essentially a pledge drive and it serves the double duty of raising awareness. I understand The Game’s passion but I don’t think working against other celebrities is the answer. God, this mess needs so much clean up, let’s just all do what we can. Good on The Game and Avita Water for the donation.
In addition to those mentioned, here is a (partial) list of others that have pledged or donated to Flint, including Cher, Aretha Franklin and Pearl Jam.
There are many ways to help Flint. The Huffington Post has 5 different avenues to help involving research, charity and political. Time has a collection of links for charities trying to get aid to the people.
And for anyone affect by this crisis personally or through friends and relations, my heart goes out to you.
You got it @jimmyfallon – matching your $10,000 donation! https://t.co/KY0cRRZ1ih #WaterForFlint. Let's all donate!! pic.twitter.com/97nOnnLSAk
— Madonna (@Madonna) January 26, 2016
Photo credit: WENN and FameFlynet Photos
I kinda see his point. 10 000 dollars is pocket change for these people.
Also, how the hell does something like this happen in a country like the US? Jesus. Poor people.
I don’t know. Yes it is pocket change but it just doesn’t seem like a good idea to call them out the way he did. I think he’s right, but a little more diplomacy could go a long way.
And yes it’s mind boggling that this occurred. The stories I’ve heard on the radio are just unreal.
I think they could have given more but to call them out is crass. Call out the celeb’s that are not helping. On another note I’m only just reading these links now on the situation and it’s beyond awful.
I thought his entire presentation was braggy and crude. How much does he give to the homeless or to clean up pollution in towns where he doesn’t have family? How “cute.” What happened in Flint is an inexcusable tragedy, and we should pull together to help, not mock the efforts of other people while claiming to donate a million dollars when you’re only donating half that. Gross.
I agree it was crass, but often with things like this it feels more like the celebrities are giving themselves a pat on the back rather than actually helping.
GoodNames, I also thought it sounded braggy and was a little put off but at least I think it was genuine. He’s emotional and didn’t have a publicist clean up his words for public consumption. I also paused when I realized he was giving half a million not a full the full million. Still that’s a decent chunk of change.
@Esmom, I think the emotion is genuine, but he seems very immature. Good for him for trying to help, but shame on him for not being able to help without bragging, exaggerating and ridiculing the efforts of others.
@goodnamesalltaken he actually regularly donates to homeless people and lower-income families in the cities that he’s touring in. So it doesn’t just have to do with the fact that he knows people in Flint. He’s actually one of the most charitable celebs.
@Anna
I’m glad he’s charitable, but I still think he’s a jerk.
The thing is, The Game isn’t really a big huge deal anymore right? The last and only album I have of his is The Documentary, which was his first album I think.
I don’t think he’s rolling in money, you know? $500,000 is a lot in his case.
I’m giving him a pass personally. It’s obviously something that he feels really emotional and passionate about and I think he just got a bit carried away.
Well he probably doesn’t gaf given that adults and children are suffering from poisoning, and people have been called out for less. Screw diplomacy: help people – is likely his point.
@goodname I don’t think we can call anyone who is donating a million dollars in water and also explained how many bottles of water a person needs a day for basic survival a jerk. Calling out other celebrities was unnecessary but clearly he feels emotional.
Sorry all I saw was a charitable guy who wants more done ans didn’t have a PR person write his statement. Now those who are giving $10k are also admirable and shouldn’t be called out but I don’t see a jerk.
Are we really gonna tone police a hood guy ( that off the top doesn’t have that calm way about him) that is ENRAGED by seeing essentially government covering up what is tantamount to genocide?? In a year where black people where being downed for sports almost???? and seeing celebs sorta lowballing the issue when they could all step in and make a significant change?? Not that I’m a fan of him cause I consider him just left of Joe Budden ( this isn’t complimentary as he is the patron saint of F*ckboys) but Imagine what this does to our collective psyches as PoC?? you should see the daily… Heartbreak/hopeless/HURT wrapped up in a neat angry case in all my social media, youngings, and olds we all feel BEAT/Overwhelmed/Outraged far too often, his tone does in no way bother me
(Michael Moore is not getting any flack for being far ruder and cruder about this and basically calling out the fact this is a poor/black/full of immigrants area)
QQ, all very good points, I thoughtlessly hadn’t considered the level of rage that was coming through. Absolutely justified rage. Such an atrocity.
@QQ
Good point. I want everyone to follow rules that do not necessarily have any meaning to them, and I was looking at this through a lens of “how to graciously give to charity.” Your words made me think more about the context and the intention, and I was too harsh. Thank you.
Many people called out Madonnas tweet, it is a slap to give ten grand when she charges hundreds to fans for her concerts n water bottles sell for $5. Tweeting it don’t make u special unless its to bring awareness. Maybe they need to be called out, its insulting when she drops ten grand on lunch when she can help, she says she wants to then do it.
I see your / his point too (love your name, btw!) but at the same time $10K buys a heck of a lot of bottled water. Also, it’s more than a lot of celebs are doing. So I think that yes, they could have given more but at the same time, they already did more than so many.
Heck, they did more than the politicians in Flint itself did!
As a non-American, I don’t understand why it has fallen upon private citizens to provide CHARITY for what is essentially a massive failure of government.
The Republican governor and his cronies (who arguably engineered this situation to force the privatization of a public resource) should be strung up by the balls, with mandatory jail time.
The piss-weak environmental regulation (which Republicans want to cut further or do away with altogether) needs to be reinforced and HEADS NEED TO ROLL. The Federal Govt should be supplying water, which is then paid for by the mother of all fines upon those responsible.
I really don’t understand the US sometimes and the obsession with states’ rights, deregulation/’the Feds’ and the reliance on philanthropy (rather than public resources) to remedy a situation.
A country like the US? Don’t you have thousands of abandoned houses in abandoned suburbs thanks to the GFC?
No, but thanks for playing.
Strange. I could’ve sworn I saw a heap of news reports about suburbs turned into virtual ghost towns because so many people couldn’t keep up their mortgage repayments.
What you said has a grain of truth and a mountain of exaggeration, as usual, but I shouldn’t have responded to your trolling.
Locke Lamora isn’t from the US, Dangles. So “she” doesn’t have abandoned houses anywhere.
Trolling? Wow.
…and just like the politicians who created this health disaster, the bankers and politicians and brokers who created our housing crisis are still living cushy lives and keeping their jobs (AND BONUSES), with no charges or prison sentences whatsoever.
Yet people are still perpetuating the “bootstraps” myth. The American dream has always been a myth; it’s more like a nightmare for half the country.
Yup. I don’t even have an office OR an apartment!
I simply moved into an abandoned house in one of our millions of ghost towns.
What is the “GFC”? Global Fighting Championship? Georgia Forestry Commission?
Global financial collapse? I think Dangles means the 08 crash and the foreclosure crisis?
@Sixer-Yes but that was 8 years ago.
And absolutely, people abandoned houses that they could not make payments on after the roll-out of NINAs and NINJAs and yes, some communities were far more affected than others. The northeast was not largely affected by this as housing has and will remain incredibly expensive and almost unattainable for the average person. Our problem around here isn’t abandoned housing, it’s LACK of housing as people come to open houses ready with CASH in hand for the down-payment on a 500 sq ft apartment selling for $550,000. Many cities are like Boston, not as many are like Cleveland’s Shaker Heights neighborhood with abandoned houses.
Personally, I think there are some awesome investment opportunities in a place like say, Detroit. If I had the cash, I’d be buying up property around there. I think Detroit will be a comeback city.
Kitten
Oh, indeed. Not posting in support of Dangles (seemed like a needlessly aggressive comment to me, Dangles, sorry).
Just trying to translate – and I guess I could be wrong anyway.
To be fair, the 2008 crash, insofar as it impacted stateside, was reported outside the US very much in terms of the sub-prime crisis. For banking bailouts and austerity retrenchment and all the rest of it, we pretty much stuck to what our own governments were doing and ignored what you guys were doing. I’m not surprised if non-USans have a distorted view of how it went down there, you know?
I remember reading this brilliant story of a woman who was about to be foreclosed but, because her mortgage had been chopped up into so many pieces and sold on to so many entities, nobody could prove to whom the foreclosed house would belong. So she went to court, won, and kept the house. I loved that!
Here in the UK, counter-intuitively, the government response to the crash didn’t result in foreclosures. It resulted in an extreme house price bubble across the entire country but particularly London. How’s that for ironic?!
@ Sixer- I didn’t mean to be rude to Dangles (sorry, Dangles!). I was making a silly joke because it amused me to think of the US as a land of ghost towns and abandoned houses when my experience is so different. Here, people who make decent money like myself are getting priced-out of neighborhoods we’ve lived in for decades. It just struck me as ironic, given the situation here in Boston and most of the surrounding area (which is probably similar to London). I just meant to point out that Dangles’s characterization was not accurate, but I shouldn’t have been condescending. I’ll spare you my broken record lecture of “the US is a big country” because I can already hear you groaning through my computer screen 😉
“I remember reading this brilliant story of a woman who was about to be foreclosed but, because her mortgage had been chopped up into so many pieces and sold on to so many entities, nobody could prove to whom the foreclosed house would belong. So she went to court, won, and kept the house. I loved that!”
That’s awesome! Yes her story is typical of that time when the mortgage bubble burst. It’s crazy to think about individual mortgages being broken up and then bundled together as an investment vehicle. Even more incredulous that the global pool of money thought it was a great idea and they couldn’t get enough of it.
I actually meant Dangles was being needlessly chippy, not you, Kitten! Especially as Locke isn’t even American. Oopsy @ me! But, like I say, we did get a lot of news reports with rows of foreclosed houses in them.
I totally sympathise with unaffordable housing. It doesn’t affect me for various reasons (mostly my own good luck) but if I were to put a priority on issues affecting the UK right now, affordable housing would be top of every list. Insecure housing has knock on effects on every area of society. It’s disastrous.
KItten, I’m with you about Detroit. I have been fascinated by that city for a long time. I read not long ago, though, about how resentful some people are about more people moving in after they stuck it out and did a lot of the rebuilding. I get that on one hand, it’s the classic gentrification scenario, yet without more people investing and moving in there’s no way it will truly ever come back.
The housing market took a huge hit during the recession…but that was years ago. The housing market is doing very well now. Home sales in 2015 were the highest they have been since 2007. In December, they had an 11% increase, the highest in in 10 months. Since the recession, a lot of investors have grabbed cheap homes and either tore them down and built new ones, or renovated. Now, the US has more of a problem with gentrification than abandoned homes.
The US is vast and varied and there are areas that do have abandoned homes. I know Detroit has had problems, as their economy centered around the automotive industry, which took a really big hit during the recession. The struggles now aren’t as bad as they were back in 2008, though.
Tiffany – same in the UK with gentrification. We call it social cleansing! I think we’re just going way back when as a best guess for what Dangles meant by GFC.
Dangles: is that what you meant?
GFC: Global Financial Crisis.
I think it’s kind of the same reason why Katrina ever happens and reach the scope that it did.
Another awful post-Katrina reality is the high lead levels here – not in our water, but in our soil. Our two year-old son has high lead levels just from playing in our front yard.
Where’s Jennifer Aniston, smartwater spokesman and shareholder?
She pimps that stuff all over town, those big azz water bottles are like a second handbag for her.
Seems like this would be charitably great for her to do and it would line her pockets because…free publicity. …and yet, crickets.
She strikes me as the type to not even read the news. Will probably find out about #FlintCrisis in a few months.
This whole thing is tragic and embarrassing. It’s also what happens to a country when you vote Republican.
It’s a despicable situation, and the biggest F**K you, is that the governor still has a job. That man should be in jail. I do not understand how he can still be in office, there is some serious shady business happening in that state.
@Karen …
An even bigger F**K YOU (according to my cousin who lives in Detroit) is that the people in Flint are still receiving Water Bills for water that is no longer safe to use … and they are being penalized for not paying their water bills. Sad.
Are you joking? That is unbelievable!
Maybe she’s trolling?
But seriously, that’s terrible.
Yes, I heard about that. It’s insane. Criminal
Its true. I live about an hour south of Flint
I remember reading about people in Detroit having their water cut off for non-payment. That’s illegal here in the UK.
Not just that, but if they don’t pay they’ll face even higher bills for their poisoned water thanks to late fees in the future.
And the cream of the jest–Snyder/state workers in Flint were given bottled water to drink and warned not to use the building fountain during the same months Snyder’s minions were telling citizens the water was perfectly safe to drink.
sorry, posted to the wrong thread … I know, I know I’ve done that a lot lately, but it’s been a rough month.
I live an hour from Flint. What has happened to Flint is nothing short of criminal, and political cronyism at its worst. The state appointed manager that made the call to switch Flint out of the Detroit water system is now in charge of managing the Detroit Public Schools. These are all political appointees, leading back to the governor, Rick Snyder.
And yes, the citizens of Flint are being charged for the poisoned water.
The whole thing is atrocious and sickening.
Unbelievable. I hope eventually some serious charges are filed and those responsible have to pay in some way.
Oh my god. This is so shameful. Every politico involved from the city council to the governor needs to be removed from office and fined. So disgusting. The people of Michigan have been suffering for a long time with economic issues, now this?? Even though The Game was calling others out, he’s still doing something to help (as are they). Going to check out ways to help. Let’s do what we can.
Drinking water is tested daily, weekly and monthly for certain parameters. I believe Lead is a weekly tested parameter in most cities. This went on for 18 months. That means that MANY, MANY people would have seen test results showing elevated levels of lead and…did nothing. The lab, the employees, the government…none had the balls to be a whistle blower? All while KNOWING, KNOWING that CHILDREN were drinking this water. That babies were drinking this water.
Several people need to be in prison ASAP.
I am so angry about this. I have no idea what to do with it, but I want to do something! It isn’t enough to just send water (though that is important), we need to address HOW.COULD.THIS.HAPPEN.!?!? How do we prevent it from happening again?
The governor should be removed from office and charged with criminal negligence, along with anyone else (e.g. Flint’s emergency city manager, not accountable to voters) who had a hand in this man-made tragedy.
The Emergency City Manager is already backpedaling:
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/10/ex_emergency_manager_earley_sa.html
He may not have made the initial decision to switch the water supply, but he was responsible for maintaining water quality (tainted with lead doesn’t cut it) after that.
Aside: I am originally from SE Michigan. I left when I was 8 years old; on the other hand, my dad, b.1925, lived in that area his whole life. He was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 2008 and passed in 2014 because he was riddled with separate cancers-your immune system fights off cancer, too. I am absolutely convinced that environmental exposure to toxins in that area-remember, Henry Ford started the manufacturing process there back in the early 20th century-caused him to develop leukemia.
The children who were exposed in Flint-appalling. Their future may be fraught with serious illness-even mental retardation-because of their exposure.
Of course it’s shady. It’s politics. He’s a politician. Probably nothing will happen to him.
After Hurricane Sandy, we were given water in bottles, at specific giveaway spots, and I guess I always assumed it came from the GOVERNMENT, like the National Guard, not private donations! Really??? Is our country so screwed up we need charity drives to provide our citizens with WATER?
Yes.
The answer is a resounding and infuriating yes.
My town was hit by Sandy too, and yes, every spot where people could get supplies (water, food, clothes, cleaning products, towels, toiletries, etc) were all donated by the community and manned by community volunteers. The shelter at the high school was run the local Red Cross.
I don’t recall FEMA or any other government agency handing out supplies. The National Guard was here and worked their butts off, rescuing of people who ignored orders to evacuate, and getting first responders in to assess damage and deal with wires, gas leaks, fires, etc, but I don’t think they were a distribution center. In fact a lot of people here donated stuff to them while they were stationed here.
I can understand the comparisons to Sandy but it’s dangerous because the politicians themselves are trying to pass this off as a “Hurricane” type event. While handled terribly, Sandy WAS a natural disaster. This was not. This was people in power ignoring bad test results everyday for 18 months all while knowing that vulnerable babies and children were consuming this water. They knowingly allowed them to consume water with the potential to cause permanent, life-long neurological damage.
This angers me a lot.
@Pinetree13 …
I’m very angry by this as well. They need to establish a ‘Clean Drinking Water for Flint’ website where people can go and make donations. This is simply an unforgivable offense. Who knows what physical damage has been done to those little kids they showed getting Lead Poisoning tests. It just breaks my heart.
The National Guard has been handing out water.
I saw them handing out water on the news…just one case of water per household. This is not the solution.
Yes, one case doesn’t do much good, but they have been distributing water. Was just trying to make sure everything is factual.
I also received water during a disaster from the National Guard when I was a kid, and it wasn’t much, but I remember the feeling of gratitude. I think our water was from Anheuser Busch in little white cans with blue writing. It tasted like tin, but it was water.
@Nikki – The government, albeit at a more local level, is the entity responsible for this whole tragedy. I wouldn’t expect too much out of them.
If anyone is interested in ways that we can really help, please go read the article on Michael Moore’s blog. I’m not sure if posting links in comments is permitted on this site, but a quick Google search will lead you to it.
I’m on his mailing list, so I got that yesterday. This news hasn’t made it across the Pond to Blighty news reports so it was the first time I’d seen it broken down in detail. It’s horrifying.
Exactly. DON’T send water bottles. It’s not actually helping. It’s a ineffective band aid on a much bigger problem, and you’re just sending more trash for them to deal with. This is going to take YEARS, and sending X number of water bottles for a few months isn’t really helping. A better and more sustainable long term solution is either larger sources of water, or a advanced filtration system in each home until the piping system is solved.
Moore’s math is pretty spot on. “100,000 bottles of water is enough for just one bottle per person – in other words, just enough to cover brushing one’s teeth for one day. You would have to send 200 bottles a day, per person, to cover what the average American needs each day. (this includes showering/cooking etc) That’s 102,000 citizens times 200 bottles of water – which equals 20.4 million 16oz. bottles of water per day,”
The government should help everyone in Flint re-locate until it’s safe to return. This is b.s. and makes me so mad !
Can someone explain to me why if they have switched the back to Detroit city water, why they still can’t use the water in Flint? I’m genuinely confused.
The damage is already done. When they switched to Flint water, the water corroded the lead the in the pipes. Both in the supply pipes and in many people’s homes.
So even if you switch the water back to city water, the pipes are still going to leech lead and other chemicals into the water from the damage caused by the Flint water. That damage doesn’t go away when you go back to city water.
@Scal – Gotcha! Thank you! I thought it might some type of leaching situation but wasn’t sure. Sound like maybe a lot of these donations would be better spent to redo the pipes in Flint.
Madonna is the richest female artiste and the Game is not worth up to $20mil. I can see why he feels Madge can do more
We could all do more.
Especially when isn’t she from there? Or Michigan at least, you think she would care more.
$10k could be a lot for Jimmy Fallon but yeah Madonna has plenty of money, but at least she gave.
Yeah but The Game was on TMZ yesterday and he said the 1 million he donated was from his own Charity. It didn’t come out of his own bank account. Not like that matters, but just saying he shouldn’t say anything about celebs who are donating out of their OWN pockets.
He said he donated $500k to his charity for this purpose, which was matched by Avita totaling $1 million.
I can’t be certain he’s telling the truth, but by his words that money did come out of his pocket.
My heart breaks for these people – even more so since they live so close to the world largest fresh water source, the Michigan Lakes. I hope that the officials of Flint are held responsible for what they did and go to jail where they belong and the people are given all the care they need.
It’s great he’s giving so much, but don’t crap on others who are helping too. If he thinks the $10,000 challenge is not enough, he can start his own for more.
Yes. Or maybe he can organize a group effort.
The Game is an immature jerk of the highest order who has zero clue of what should come out of his mouth. Still, I’m glad he’s stepping up to help out. This situation is heartbreaking and every little bit helps.
A pledge drive can help raise awareness, but let’s face it, most celebs spend more than $10k on their dogs in a month. Why not pledge to match donations up to a $500k or something? I guess that might start getting too close to actual money for these folks.
Yeah I’m surprised by the number of people coming to the defense of celebrities. Let’s be honest…most celebrities are quite greedy. Here we have people that don’t just have millions, but tens of millions, some even have hundreds of millions. Many time they preach for *us* peasants to donate to charities they support mean while they give the equivalent of nothing. If one of us donates $100 that would be the equivalent of MILLIONS for them.
The thing is everyone goes “Oh wow $100,000 that’s such a big amount!” But we are looking at that from our point of view, of what we consider expensive. The proper way too look at it would be too look at the donation in comparison to overall wealth. if you do the math, you would see that most celebrity donations would be equivalent to us donating $5.00 and then BRAGGING about it and telling everyone else to donate.
But just because they make more, that does not oblige them to donate more. Who are we to say how much they must donate? Lots of people donated nothing. 10k way beats $0. Who are we to determine how much they should donate?
It’s their money and absolutely none of your business how much they donate to charity. They aren’t obligated to give a dime. Who are you to knock them for giving ten thousand dollars? How much money did you give? Was it fifty percent of what you own? All you perfect people – you would think our problems would be fixed by now.
OMG Thank you @GNAT Someone with some damn sense! It is no ones business how much anyone donates to charity. It’s not your money. Charity is not some obligatory tax (yet) its OPTIONAL and should be applauded at any amount.
Thank you!!!
I usually agree with you on posts GNAT but here I do not. I give money to charities every single year. Some years more, some years less, but every year. So do all my friends and family and most co-workers. I can’t really relate to saying that celebrities don’t need to give. They have the power to do so much good without having to sacrifice anything. If someone has that much excess money and they don’t choose to do anything for charity…while it isn’t mandatory…it sure makes them a lousy person in my books. So yes, it’s not obligatory but to me a good person helps others out (when they can). Whether that be charities or locally, etc. If you’re mega rich and then throw what is the equivalent of a sandwich for you, at a charity, yeah I’m going to criticize. This is celebitchy afterall.
I applaud his generosity but putting down those who donate less is crummy, particularly when others are donating nothing and as others have pointed out, would he have done this if his family was not directly affected?
On the other hand, bottles water is, I hope, a very temporary band-aid. Polluting the rest of the world to ship water in plastic bottles to a whole community seems very counterintuitive to me.
On a related note, it reminds me of the similar situation we had in one of our own Canadian communities with unsafe water. Even in the most developed nations things like this can happen through a combination of greed, official lack of interest and/or responsibility avoidance and general red tape officiousness. None of it should happen in the first place, and access to clean water, like clean air, should be one of the basic human rights. (Which is why I always boycott companies like Nestle, who are quietly trying to privatize water supplies all over the world.)
Coca Cola are doing that in India, too, vauvert.
Presumably, the best short term answer is to supply water butts and have daily household water deliveries to fill them while the infrastructure is repaired/diverted?
Why didn’t he name check all the celebs who donated zero instead of complaining those that did is too low of an amount?
This!
am i the only one who thinks something is incredibly wrong if people in a country depend on rich celebs donating to get CLEAN WATER?
seriously?
And what do we think the profit margin is on even half price water?
Seriously too.
I’m sure the water bottle companies just got a nice spike in profits ! The companies should be donating the water instead of selling it to people who then deliver it to Flint.
I live about an hour south of Flint and have spent a lot of time in Flint and have family that lives there. This whole situation …… I can’t truly put in to words. This city was already on hard times- lots of unemployment due to industry moving out which lead to a lot of crime and drug use. The city and the people of the city have worked really hard in the past few years to try to turn things around and this water crisis is just a punch in the gut.
Not only are innocent children possibly negatively affected for their entire lives, but people are still getting water bills for water they cannot use and people are moving out in droves. But- their houses are worth nothing so they basically have to abandon them.
In any case, I’m glad national attention has been given to this because things like this should not happen in this country. And I’m glad celebrities can lend their name and donations (regardless of the amount) to help these poor people who have had it hard for too long.
Wow… Speechless. Thanks for sharing your firsthand knowledge. I’m sure lots of people aren’t aware of all this
All I can say is that my heart goes out to you.
I just donated to the Flint Water Fund to help out. If anybody is interested:
http://www.unitedwaygenesee.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=5
Thanks for the link. More info from their page, in case anyone is wondering what they’re doing:
“The United Way of Genesee County has set up this fund for the purchase of filters, bottled water, emergency support services and prevention efforts. 100% of the fund is used for these projects and no Administrative Fee is assessed.
The UWGC has sourced more than 11,000 filters systems and 5,000 replacement filters, ongoing sources of bottled water to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and also supports a dedicated driver for daily distribution.”
TT-thank you for the details. Every American should know, because this can happen anywhere, and our “government” doesn’t care.
Thank you for your concern! It was a series of poor decisions by numerous public officials that led to this crisis and no one will take the responsibility for what happened. And no one is coming up with good ideas on how to fix it.
Another thing people need is not only drinking water, but water to bathe in. They cannot shower with this water, lots of people have developed terrible rashes from bathing with the contaminated water. I saw one family having to bathe her daughter in the sink with bottled water. Its terrible.
I’m happy to say my family and friends that live there have found other places to live (moving in with family members outside of the city) but not everyone has that option.
This is disgusting. I feel personal shame for what our country has done to its citizens (on many, many fronts).
Thanks to those above for posting the donation link. We are in this together when our country abandons us.
-TheRealPinky
Why is the State of Michigan not supplying the clean water? These people live next the Great Lakes. Can’t they truck clean water and distribute it to people’s homes in large amounts until the city is either abandoned or the billions spent to repipe it? I think sending bottled water must be a waste of money. A literal drop in the bucket. Surely a more effieceint solution is available. But this is the government so I guess expecting a rational response is like dreaming and good on anyone who wants to help.
I was born in Flint and grew up in the Flint area. I lived in Flint for years. I now live just outside of Detroit. I am appalled at what has happened to this state.
You are asking why the state of Michigan doesn’t provide clean water to Flint. This is the exact same leadership that allowed this to happen instead of spending the money to add anti-corrosives to the water. This is the same leadership that switched to the supposedly cheaper option of the Flint River instead of staying on Detroit water but still allowed the ridiculous rates to be charged. This is the same leadership that stated that libraries cannot provide unbiased election information. Don’t expect anything good to come from Michigan’s government. They would have to care about someone other than rich white men.
Agreed. The problem now is that damage is done. The pipes are already corroded, and no one knows how long they will continue to leach lead. Possibly forever. So until those pipes are no longer used or replaced, the water will continue to have lead it in.
I applaud anyone who is helping Flint, but especially people who are helping immediatelty. It’s ~water~. There’s no time for delays to hold pledge drives. I am grateful to see people doing this, but agree with other commenters that $10,000 is not much for people who are crazy rich. In any case, donations have to happen NOW.
What’s happened in Flint is infuriating. The move to “save money” by directing toxic water to residents is mind-bogglingly despicable. And to let it continue, month after month, when they knew it was poisoning people, can only be called one thing: criminal. Just how bad does it have to get before Governor Snyder and others who knew about it are held accountable for poisoning people? Why has the Governor not been removed from office? And just how much is Governor Snyder donating to get decent, clean water to people right now? How about most of his salary for the last 18 months?
There should be severe fines and prison sentences for everyone who caused this mass poisoning of Flint’s residents. If a private individual wilfully poisoned another person, they would be arrested and criminal charges would be filed. The same thing should apply here.
Lastly, for anyone who wants to help, there is a GoFundMe campaign collecting money to buy water for the people of Flint.
The thing about the water collection stations… at many of them, you need a valid government ID to pick them up (I assume it has something to do with per-person limits). So older people without driver’s licenses still have very few options, and illegal immigrants are afraid to try because they might get reported/deported. I really hope these charities and celebrities are setting up their own pickup spots.
Say what you want about disenfranchised groups, but clean water is a basic human right. And there’s a ton of it RIGHT THERE that no one can access. This is appalling.
Thanks for this post, Hecate!
My heart goes out to everyone in Flint.
Thanks to the gane and ither celebrities to raise awareness.
I agree, it’s a good post and I’m glad it’s getting attention.
I would love to see the government properly address the issue.
I would also love to see the government officials have their water cut off and see how long they last.
And while we’re at it, I would LOVE to see those responsible have their government pensions go toward fixing the problem. How could they do this to people?
I am not sure if the Government will really address as it is deserved. But, they might do it as they want to “save face”. Contaminated water can cause so much damage. I do not even want to think how long the population of Flint will endure/suffer the consequences … 🙁
How does he have that kind of money? I only know those two songs in the article. What are his other hits?
U.S. citizens have been poisoned and absolutely no one has been arrested. Oh, I guess it’s just a coincidence the majority of the people poisoned are poor and black.
Speechless….
Tragic to the nth degree! These poor people. If I won the powerball millions I would not hesitate to donate a few million for water!! I truly wish I could. I am going to look up about Flint now. I didn’t realize how bad it was. The government officials that knew they were doing this to people should be locked up with the key thrown away forever!!!! Disgusting human beings!!!!
Well the media was too busy talking about the stupid Oscars when REAL problems were going on. This is nothing new to those who live near or around Flint. The former mayor of Detroit (Mr. F*ckhead) said he knew about Flint’s water problems yearssss ago. I know it’s out of his jurisdiction but I’m sure he had the power to raise his voice but he was too busy sexting.
Madonna is from Michigan and has been trying to pretend she’s not for a very long time. She should be doing more, and that’s generally, not just about this.
Flint has been in crisis for a long time. Tbh, this isn’t a shock to me at all. The rich people in Grand Rapids and the Detroit exurbs don’t gaf about the rest of the state — they just want to stay safe in their gated communities with their huge lawns while complaining about everyone who isn’t rich and lives in either urban or rural areas. And as they’re the ones with the money, they’re the ones with the power.
Yes Flint, ever since the General Motors plant shut down there, has not been doing well. No jobs, no aspects.
Truer words. If you want compassion, you don’t look in Ann Arbor or Birmingham. It’s an appalling situation and much more of a push to correct things has come from concerned out of state citizens than their downstate sisters and brothers.
I had no idea Jimmy was from Michigan ! Ok firstly Jimmy and Madonna donated money from their own pockets. The Game donated one million from the Charity he has. A charity that asks the public for money…though it’s great that amount was donated, he doesn’t need to put others down. What we should be wondering is why the Water Bottle Companies aren’t donating? Or why people have to donate at all when the American Government should be taking care of it (the Government has billiions to waste on war though).
His post says “…“$500,000 coming out of my own pocket (which is everything I’ve made on tour up to this point) & the other 1/2 being met by @AvitaWater…“
Well done to him. It’s incredibly generous.
Oh sorry that was not reported earlier but that’s great. Still to be honest, why aren’t water companies donating water? Why isn’t the government doing more? It’s always citizens who come to the rescue.
Sonny Bono was born in Detroit. I am guessing that’s the Cher connection. This will end up being a movie in a couple years I’m sure. If you truly would like to know all the facts and timeline go to http://time.com/4187507/time-flint-water-crisis-cover/. Time has done the best job so far at untangling the threads of what happened.
I think The Game meant that the other celebs just pledged but there’s no proof that they actually ponied up. Also, $10k from these guys is nothing to them. I’m thinking even Madonna’s mouth grill cost more than that.
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The ones to blame here are the voters who either voted Snyder in and those that didn’t vote to put in his competition, and of course, micromanaging, dictator Snyder himself, who put in these unelected ’emergency managers’ who control the local elected governments and thus the overall well-being of the locals.
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The first EM refused to change the water source for Flint after having consulted an environmental agency which informed him of the dangers of getting water from the Flint River. Btw, even the car manufacturing companies stopped using that water because it corroded car parts.
After the first EM refused, another one was put in place. This one converted Flint’s water source from the Detroit water source to the Flint River.
The excuse was that it was a cost-savings measure. Yet the Detroit water source company contradicts that excuse. They’ve put out a statement saying that they offered lower rates and that the new price policy would have saved Flint money not only immediately but also over the long run versus the plan by Snyder’s EM. In order words, the Detroit company offered to renegotiate the price but it was refused.
The plan was to build a filtration plant much later on but use the Flint River in the mean time without adding in the necessary anti-corrosion chemical which was suggested by the environmental agency. This was needed to stop the already polluted water from leaching lead from the water pipes as it made its way to consumers.
So:
1- Who makes money off of the planned filtration plant? The manufacturing & operation of it? Was there some political advantage here?
2- Consider that Snyder wasn’t a career politician but a CEO who thinks that running government like a corporation makes sense. It’s about the bottom line and propping up the CEO. But that doesn’t make for good governorship, doe it.
3 – The RW ideology of poo’ pooing environmental science and protection just to appeal to the RW voters. How’s that working out in the real, physical world?
I want to add that Flint has one of the highest water rates in the country. In 2011, it was raised by a rapid 35% increase, which, last year, a judge ruled violated city rules.
So again, it’s about making money, cutting spending, and ignoring science and pollution worries, all to be in sync with the right-wing ideology of how government should be run.
At least they’re giving something? I understand it’s not much but it’s better than nothing at all. Plus it raises awareness which is the biggest issue.
Why haven’t those responsible not been prosecuted yet???
I live about 1.5 hours from Flint. There was a news report this afternoon that a memo was uncovered that Snyder’s administration started supplying water coolers to state employees in state offices a full 10 months before they acknowledged the issue. He should be prosecuted along with his emergency manager. Michigan needs to repeal the emergency manager law.
Someone get Erin Brockovich on the case!
I don’t know any specifics, but I heard that parents are being threatened with having their kids taken away for having their water turned off for non-payment because it’s illegal to not have running water if you have kids or something.
I agree with calling out Madonna. She has loads of money and is from Michigan. Jimmy Fallon, however, is NOT from Michigan. So calling him out is not cool. He donated and challenged others to get more donations.