Tommy Marcus is 26 years old, he is an Instagram star (more than 820,000 subscribers) who officiates under the name of @ quentin.quarantino. On August 17 he launched a donation campaign on the social network, “Operation Flyaway”. Objective: to raise $ 550,000 to finance two evacuation flights and allow 300 Afghans to flee the Taliban regime. It targets in priority defenders of the rights of women, journalists, artists who risk being executed by fundamentalists.
The day before, heartbreaking images traveled the world, those of these desperate Afghans who cling to the wheels of planes as they take off from Kabul airport. The emotion is immense, more than 100,000 people answer the call of the young influencer who in a few days recovers much more than hoped: 7.2 million dollars.
Except that Tommy Marcus actually only helped 435 people leave Afghanistan. Journalists from Washington post went to take a closer look at his case, they searched financial files, emails, call tapes, they conducted interviews with ten people working for Flyaway. They are categorical: these evacuated Afghans were evacuated on flights paid for by American taxpayers or other organizations, but not by that of Tommy Marcus. Who in addition has already wasted almost half of its donations on flights that have been canceled and not refunded.
This is not for all that a scam: the young American did not embezzle money, he did not enrich himself in a personal capacity. Simply, his organization has known nothing but setbacks: planes rented in Eastern Europe which ultimately could not go to Afghanistan because they were not insured for that; clearance issues to land in Kabul; flights canceled at the last moment because the money had not been released; security providers paid but never used …
A big contract signed with an airline in Beverly Hills in California also raises questions, because the boss of the company, a New Zealand businessman, is the subject of an investigation for fraud in previous cases: his planes have not still not taken off for Kabul.
To ensure its back, Flyaway still paid funds to two more established and more solid NGOs, specialized in evacuations, but they too had no luck … In the extreme logistical disorganization of the airport from Kabul, a 300-seat plane took off on August 24 with only about 50 people on board.
The moral of this story is that we don’t improvise humanitarianism. The Tommy Marcus case shows the limits of spontaneous initiatives … what is more is in a context of extreme confusion after the takeover of the Taliban where even governments rarely managed evacuations well.
In the Wahsington Post, the head of a large philanthropic organization describes crowdfunding campaigns as the “Wild West of Charity Fundraising”. Two days ago, after many adventures, Flyaway still managed to get a small group of about 70 people to leave. “I’m not here to tell you that our operation was perfect, writes the young influencer. She was not“. But see”the niece and nephew of Dost, one of our Afghan interpreters who has been with us 24/7 for the past five weeks“leave the country … Just that,”That is what matters“.
