George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 156

George W. Bush’s Great America – Episode 155

< Episode 155 >

“People call it noblesse oblige, but I prefer the saying, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.'”

Donating $50 million inevitably attracts attention. As the saying goes, a word without wings can travel a thousand miles. Before even an hour had passed, news outlets were dissecting and savoring the story.

In any case, given the purpose, the $50 million wasn’t given to a single charity but spread evenly among various charitable organizations in the United States.

There are over a hundred specialized public interest analysis agencies that measure the performance of non-profit organizations. However, since ‘analysis’ is ultimately done by people, if their pockets become heavy enough to make their behinds feel weighed down without them even realizing it, ‘slight errors’ can occur during the input process. Therefore, the figures might change a bit depending on the analyst’s mindset, right?

Thus, to find out which organizations were corrupt or using funds improperly, it was faster to directly hit them with money and see how the funds moved. Of course, the only person on this planet who could do that and track where the money went was George W. Bush.

“That’s a really good saying. Don’t you think so?”

There was someone watching his interview scene being broadcast on the TV installed in the Oval Office with a satisfied expression. His name was George W. Bush, the President of the United States and the god of donation who practiced donating $50 million.

However, at this moment, he was simply overjoyed and touched by the fact that what he held in his hand was the final approval document. With overflowing satisfaction, he scribbled his approval signature on the document with a light hand.

“‘They have been entrusted with the weighty task of distributing vast wealth.’ I don’t know where I read it, but it’s a vaguely remembered sentence. Was it a classic novel?”

Bush said that and tossed the approval document in his hand to his chief of staff. The chief of staff caught the document as if he was used to it. The document was titled ‘Completion of Mississippi and Louisiana Levee Expansion.’

“At least, I’ve never heard that sentence before.”

“Whoever wrote it must have been a smart fellow. Anyway, what were the results, Chief of Staff?”

The result he was talking about was the result of the $50 million donation. The time had finally come to clearly distinguish between fake and real charities.

“Frankly, I feel like I’m about to lose faith in humanity.”

Incredibly, out of the tens of thousands of charitable organizations in the United States, only about 100 actually used the donations for their intended purpose. This was partly because Bush had applied excessively strict standards, but even considering the circumstances, it was a truly terrible figure.

“That’s just how it is. Pick out a few representative ones.”

Hearing that, the chief of staff took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Anyway, the shock was still a shock. Honestly, who would have known that only 100 places or so honestly used the donations? Above all, the chief of staff had also donated a considerable amount as an individual, hadn’t he? So, the shock was bound to be great.

“Then, I’ll tell you about organizations that everyone knows. I’ll skip the organizations where donations were improperly used for the advancement and personal gain of the staff, as there seem to be endless cases.”

The chief of staff nodded a few times and picked out an organization from the investigation list that even a child would know.

“The first is UNICEF.”

Bush was genuinely surprised as soon as he heard that. He hadn’t expected it at all. Think about it, UNICEF is a huge organization that was founded about 60 years ago and has its feet all over the world. An organization is like flowing water, and the longer it stagnates in one place, the more it stinks and rots. Whether the water intends to or not.

“How is that even possible?”

“There are probably two factors, and it seems they smelled the inspection.”

That could be. But that alone wasn’t enough. Anyone with even a slight connection to the government can smell suspicious signs and inspections, right? Above all, isn’t UNICEF a place that always gets caught up in various scandals when you least expect it?

In particular, I still remember the photos of them having lavish dinners on luxury yachts.

“What’s the other one?”

“It’s because of China.”

This was also unexpected. Why is China suddenly popping up here?

“China?”

“Yes, China. The China where UNICEF is waging an all-out war.”

‘International’ charities, including UNICEF, suffered from a common ailment: a chronic shortage of funds due to their inherent limitations. There were many places in the world that needed help, but the budget was always limited.

And in the meantime, the number of places that needed help increased even more. That place was China. UNICEF, along with the Red Cross, voluntarily took the position of commander-in-chief, leading the weighty task of feeding the 1.3 billion starving Chinese people.

The problem was the insane number of 1.3 billion. If it were just a matter of feeding them, it might be manageable, but thanks to the new disease that swept through, volunteers had to move around wearing fluorescent orange protective suits that could completely isolate them from the outside. Otherwise, the disease would spread to the volunteers as well.

Moreover, that protective suit is, of course, terribly expensive. It’s not like its durability is infinite either. If you do volunteer work vigorously, the shielding fabric will somehow wear out, tear, or get holes. Or, a minor mistake could cause the impact-resistant face shield to break.

Moreover, although the United States is providing a large amount of medicine, is that an amount that can be administered to all 1.3 billion Chinese people? Even tailored to various situations and diseases? Naturally, a considerable budget had to be spent to treat various patients. A typical shortage of medicine was ‘insulin.’

It is truly lamentable that, on the other side of the world, bodybuilders were using this insulin to build water muscles for satisfaction and aesthetics. They didn’t care that young children with acute illnesses were dying without knowing why because they didn’t get insulin in time.

It would be one thing if they were only fighting against famine and disease. UNICEF’s mission was not limited to that. UNICEF basically has five key areas of focus: ‘child survival and development, basic education and gender equality, AIDS eradication, child protection, and policy support and partnership for the protection of children’s rights.’ These were the five things that had to be done at the same time as the work above.

And not only in China, but also while protecting children suffering from poverty and disease all over the world!

Given this situation, even the donation that Bush readily offered was only a drop in the bucket.

“So, you’re saying that most of the money I donated to UNICEF flowed into China?”

“That’s right.”

“I see…”

Hearing that answer made me feel a little less guilty. In order to maintain Pax Americana [American peace, referring to the relative peace promoted by the US’s global influence], the process of squeezing China was essential, so they were pushing it more than necessary. Thanks to that, innocent people were dying en masse, but honestly, would Bush feel comfortable?

There are people in the world who tremble and commit suicide out of guilt or live with a nervous breakdown for the rest of their lives, even if they indirectly cause the accidental death of just one person. But no matter how strong Bush’s mind is, like steel that doesn’t waver in any situation, how could he not feel uncomfortable seeing the situation in China?

“Do you have anything else to say?”

“It’s nothing. What about other places?”

“As you probably know, the Red Cross has the exact same problem. In fact, this side is more serious when it comes to budget shortages.”

I heard the names of a few other organizations, but none of them caught Bush’s attention more than UNICEF. It was either the first time I had heard of them when I donated, or they were within my expectations.

“But how was the embezzled donation money used?”

“Do you want to hear it?”

“Tell me.”

“Company dinners that always have the word ‘luxury’ attached, luxury overseas trips disguised as volunteer work. In addition, the heads of the organization plant seeds in their bank accounts and feel proud, as if they were farmers, watching the amount grow…”

“Oh, I thought they bought foreign cars and yachts.”

“I don’t know about yachts, but there are many organizations that have purchased real estate or financial products.”

Well, the amount donated wasn’t that much to buy a yacht.

“Okay, let’s drop this and what does the Federal Assembly say?”

There were some setbacks in the donation process. For example, the Democratic Party reacted fiercely, saying, ‘It’s a political show for re-election!’ As with all Americans, they don’t like politicians and lawyers very much, so they were fiercely criticized as soon as that statement came out. Roughly, it was criticism to the effect of ‘The president is donating like this, what are you doing?’

Thanks to the most popular president taking the lead and readily donating a huge sum of $50 million, an unexpected donation boom swept through the private sector. Even people who didn’t usually look at Bush in a good light didn’t spare their praise this time.

The donation craze became a whirlwind called noblesse oblige [the responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility], and the upper class was forced to spend a certain amount to manage their image, and thanks to this, the amount of donations reached the highest level in history since mankind conquered the earth.

Anyway, in response to the fierce opposition party’s reaction, the White House had its spokesman summarize it in one word.

‘If you don’t like it, you can donate too.’

Of course, that’s not what they really said. Unless the spokesperson left their common sense and guts in their mother’s womb, how could they say that? It’s just that if you extract the key points from a long and verbose story using political words, that’s what it means.

However, whether it was the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, unless there was another reason that was so desperate, there was no one who could readily donate $50 million just for the purpose of checking. Thinking that they had to do something, $13 million was raised in the form of group donations. That alone was a considerable amount, but even to the eye, there was a considerable difference between donating $13 million as a group and donating $50 million alone.

What’s truly amazing is that even though Bush is working so hard to donate, he wasn’t even in the top ten of the most charitable philanthropists in the United States. There were many philanthropists in the United States who donated in the hundreds of millions. More than half of them were IT industry workers, people with CEO positions, or people in the financial world.

“By the way, what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about those ‘fake charities.’ Won’t you have to create a separate budget again?”

“There’s no need to use the federal budget. I’ll take care of it myself. Originally, budget reduction is a skill in life. In other words, it starts from the mouth.”

Watch me.