THE SHOCK & HORROR OF HAITI

1/14/2010
Hi...

I have been watching the news around the world, every
news outlet you could think of..This is what kills me, the one
who rules Haiti had some dam nerve " I Lost my house, My
Mansion, where should I live ?' We'll you know what I don't
give a dam about him...People who rule there keep their people
in poverty and suffering, meanwhile all the money they have
gotten over the decades has vanished, I'm sure it went into
their pockets, I think they need an outside government to make
sure what money comes into the country goes towards helping
and educating their people.....What is your opinion ?


Cheers...Joe...

I guess this is a rotten thing to say, but my feelings watching most of the footage on that, is that those people live in such misery that almost nothing can make it worse on a scale like we understand it.  I'm not talking about death of a child or something like that--that's universal.  But  this sort of thing is almost like throwing a glass of water at somebody standing under a shower.One thing I notices that DID tick me off, but might be a misunderstanding... I saw lists of foreign aid coming to them from other countries, including poor countries like Cuba and Mexico...but didn't see anything from the United States;   If that's for real, it's shameful.I don't think there has ever been a solution to Haiti.  It was messed up from the start and I don't see anyway they're going to get any better off.  What country would want to run the place?  (Maybe some evil ones would)  They're a countrie of blacks, speaking French, in an area where no other country is like that.   They have almost no recources and over population.  I don't see any way to turn that around.

I understand that President Obama has assigned former presidents Clinton and George Herbert Bush to oversee our participation, as the did after the Pacific tsunami of 2004.

Ann

Oops - just rechecked. It is George W. Bush who is working with Clinton.

Ann

1/14/2010

The U.S.A. said they would
give 100 Million Dollars, I just
hope the bastard politicians
there don't get there hands on it !

Cheers..Joe

It was George W. who assigned his own father and ex Pres. Clinton to oversee the tsunami aid. Now Obama has asked George W. to help Clinton. The Bush Clinton team worked quite well together then. I imagine this one will work well, too. Politics seem to get set aside at times like this.

Ann

Haiti charity questioned

Not so surprising. Thing is, the mentioned "organizations that vet charities" can't "vet" a government, can they?

I've been watching the coverage on Haiti, and I hear the frustration from the victims and the reporters, and I remember hearing the same frustration coming from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Maybe we ought to be remembering Katrina. Haiti is a very poor country, so it is easy to hold that poverty responsible for the disarray going on there right now. It is truly horrible. We should be aghast. We were aghast after Katrina, too, and there is no doubt that poverty played a major hand there, as well.

But there is another common thread running through these disasters, and that is our combined inability to cope with the force of destruction which only becomes apparent and important to most of us when a disaster occurs.

We tend to hide from reality when it comes to the power of nature. We like to think that our scientific and technological advances can give us control over that power. We deny and ignore the repercussions that are the inevitable results of our arrogance.

I have posted this passage from T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, "The Dry Salvages," before. It hasn't been that long since the last time circumstances showed its relevance. How long will it take us to learn?

(The connection was easier to see, I suppose, when the "river," which was an actual reference by to poet to the Mississippi, was directly involved, but read carefully and note that the term, "river," is a symbol for the forces of nature, however they might occur.)

Quote :

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated
By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

Ann

It's difficult to make an honest comment about the situation in Haiti without offending someone. Human suffering existed before the disaster. Death for some is a relief from misery.

Lots of aid/relief is being poured into the country and rightfully so. As with past relief efforts, the greedy benefit the most. Throwing money at a disaster doesn't work. Sending people to supervise the distribution of aid is important and some of that is being done.

There are many who benefit from disaster and the media tops the list. Reporting the news is expected. Bleeding a story with lots of speculation is unnecessary.

Cogent article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_haiti_former_presidents

Ann

Media is only for one reason - profit. I'm sick of them all. I get my news from NPR and for contrast ocassionally pick up the right wing hate news. I like NPR because they run the BBC news and have call-ins from around the world.

When I gave the news in the Bahamas to local boats, I picked it up from Radio Bejing, BBC, AFRTS, and more to get some international semblance.

I do not consider movie stars and winners of reality shows as news. Again, I'm just sick of it. I wish there was an internet podcast that could provide just the news.

Dk,
when I was first exposed to German news I thought it boring. I was accustomed to hype. Now I find it refreshing. One can get the news is a sober manner without all the hype.

There are news stations around the world that offer something for everyone. Those who want all the bells and whistles can find it. Those who need someone to interpret what they hear or read, can find it. Fortunately there are stations like NPR that don't create news, but simply report it.

My right wing friends tell me NPR is a liberalist wing of the left wing government...........so to appease them I listen to other tripe - but it's hard to see how the BBC that runs on NPR is a liberalist wing of the U.S. govt.........

dkchristi wrote:

My right wing friends tell me NPR is a liberalist wing of the left wing government...........so to appease them I listen to other tripe - but it's hard to see how the BBC that runs on NPR is a liberalist wing of the U.S. govt.........

It's that we are working with two different realities. I keep hoping that the split we see right now is going to start working toward a center.

Ann

alj wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_haiti_former_presidents

<< The most vocal critic has been radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who urged people not to donate and said he wouldn't trust that money donated to Haiti through the White House Web site would go to the relief efforts. He said people contribute enough by paying income taxes. >>

He's got a point. The US has given billions -billions!- of dollars to Haiti to no apparent effect. Where did it all go?

Haiti's "leaders," such as they are, don't give a crap about their people. Why should I?

1/18/2010

LC....

It's called " humanitarian," I don't want
to see money going into the hands of the bastrads
who rule either , remember Papa Doc Duvalier, we'll
if you remember baby Doc fled to France with millions
of dollars, their all corrupt and they make sure their
people stay in poverty that's why I say they need an
outsider in charge of money and re-building and to
educate their people....

Cheers.Joe

They "make sure their people stay in poverty" because their people let them. I'm reading articles online about how most govt. workers there have derelicted their duty, and mobs are walking around with machetes and masks, angry that the aid workers aren't working fast enough. Why aren't these mobs assisting the aid workers instead?

Some of these countries are just perpetual aid suckers and never will be anything but.

There was the same kind of anger in New Orleans after Katrina. We are never prepared for that kind of devastation, and the frustration of the victims who have survived is very high, no matter where it happens.

Ann

I'm sure it's frustrating, but you can still work while being frustrated. Look up Greenfield, Kansas. It was leveled by a tornado in 2007. Not a building standing. Today it is almost completely rebuilt, and a model for a "green" city. Why? Their citizens rebuilt it. They didn't sit in their FEMA trailers crying for handouts. Eight years later, I'm still reading articles about Katrina victims crying because the government wants the FEMA trailer back.

Did you means Greensburg, Kansas? The small farming community where nine people died? A small town is less complicated than a major city. Poverty that existed before the disasters has complicated the situation in both New Orleans and Haiti.

Comparing them to a small town is like apples and oranges.

Ann

So everyone losing their homes and businesses was no big deal? Nice way to marginalize what happened there and excuse away their success in rebuilding. And the point is they DID rebuild, with minimal help. They didn't wait for the world to hand them food, hammers and wood, and get furious when it wasn't handed fast enough.

alj wrote:

Poverty that existed before the disasters has complicated the situation in both New Orleans and Haiti.

Yes, exactly. Which is why I can't cry a river about the tragedy -seems almost like they should be used to it, huh?

Quote :

seems almost like they should be used to it, huh?

No.

Ann

Here's how I see it, heartless as you may view it.

A lot of these articles describe people who were marginal to begin with, and the earthquake has now, for a lot of them, just hastened the inevitable. Like the story of the elderly people in the nursing home, I'm sure you've read it by now. The article described them as very thin and frail. That wasn't earthquake-caused. This earthquake just hastened what apparently has been a long, slow death in process.

And why? Why? We have given billions to Haiti, whose Swiss bank account did it end up in? People give money to Wyclef Jean's "Yele" scam, where he pays himself to give concerts there. And they're STILL giving him money. We all get what we deserve, I guess.

Oh, and how hilarious that Dubya has been tapped to help Haiti. Yeah, I got confidence he'll do a good job. Mr. "We Liberated Iraq."

Rush got it right this time.