Haiti Earthquake Disaster

[jcw]

Griszzly Mouse, I think that is the most disgusting post I've ever seen on PowerSwitch. I rather hope the mods remove it and warn you that you risk banning.

Nice to see the calls for censorship.

Not that the several points made in his post were addressed at all. Some might agree with some and disagree with others but it's simpler to call for censorship and banning.

[contadino]

Haiti has been a messed up place for centuries and will stay that way for a long time yet. They have been repeatedly bumping into the malthusian limits of there country and levitated above there carying capacity by international aid by a long time now. The nation has a low average IQ so it likely remain incapable of producing anything much. Those who died in the quake were perhaps done a favour by nature as the wont have the long toturous death by starvation that most of them will face soon. Providing aid to these countries just prolongs there suffering, It would be more humane to give them cyanide pills instead. Soon your nation will be the one's needing aid but there will be no nations returning the favour, and your celebrities will probably still be trying to raise money for Africa.

Phew! Thank heavens for earthquakes, eh?

Twat.

[Aurora]

The Telegraph - 21/01/10

Simon Cowell is to organise a charity single for victims of the Haiti earthquake, after a personal plea from Gordon Brown.

Article continues ...

Haven't the poor Haitian people suffered enough?

[stumuzz]

Twat.

Bloody immigrant.

[Kieran]

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 74218.html

Great article.

[2 As and a B]

Excellent article. Andy Kershaw put together the Rough Guide to the Music of Haiti compilation that got me interested in Haitian music.

He is absolutely right about the Bbc reporting! The Bbc has really lost its way. The Channel 4 News is miles better - and they bother to pronounce Port-au-Prince correctly (poor toe prance).

And all this obsession with "security"! That's what you get when the Americans run the show. Probably something to do with H&S and safeguarding the human rights of the soldiers. Did you see that TV news report of a group of US paratroopers going out on patrol? - each had a helmet, a gun and backpacks the sizes of mountains on their backs containing... all their survival supplies!

Haitian onlookers watched, mostly without expression, perhaps intimidated by the firepower and accustomed to harsh tactics by local police.

http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApInternational/201001190684

[earthship]

We will be going to Haiti soon. Raising money and volunteers. Need contact with organizations in Haiti to partner with.

watch www.earthship.com for details.

thanks!

[biffvernon]

Need contact with organizations in Haiti to partner with.

http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/

I gather these guys are coordinating a lot of Haiti stuff.

[ziggy12345]

Grizzly Mouse, do you have any facts to back up your assertion that "the nation has a low average IQ" and how that relates to Haiti "likely remain incapable of producing anything much" (sic)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_Global_Inequality

That graph cannot be correct! Birmingham is blue!

[Ludwig]

You must be delighted today Jonny. Most of the victims were Muslims.

Heartless b*****d!

I hope you never find yourself in the same desperate situation.

Jonny is not being heartless, he's being realistic. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Anyone who knows about PO and the inevitability of a population crash, but who still gives money to the Third World, is actually being rather self-indulgent. I include myself here but I think it is important to be honest with oneself.

It makes me think of people who get upset about birds being killed by wind turbines. I would guess that other forms of electricity production are far more destructive to wildlife - but only indirectly, so that's OK.

It takes a certain sort of moral courage to see suffering and yet to disregard it for the less tangible long-term good. To seek to be innocent of all wrongdoing is actually rather cowardly. If that's what you want, you'd be best off killing yourself, because merely by being alive and using up the world's resources, most of us are doing more harm than good, however saintly we try to be.

[Ludwig]

jonny,

I can't argue with some of your logic, but your take on life is harsh in the extreme. In our world of obscene wealth and obscene poverty, surely we (the winners in the capitalist world) can find some compassion and lend a hand at this moment of terrible suffering.

But who's going to be lending US a hand in ten years' time? We are not going to be the "winners" for much longer, and we will not have much compassion to spare for people in the Third World when our own children are starving.

I think what bothers some people about suffering is not so much the suffering itself, as that it reminds them how cruel the world can be.

[2 As and a B]

Aren't two quite distinct things getting mixed up here?

Firstly, Haiti's immediate problem. Natural disasters - earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions - are no one's fault. Isn't it the natural reaction of everyone to want to help in whatever way they can? Well, not everyone obviously. There are twats (my opinion) who constantly only think of themselves, but they are few and far between.

Then there is the long-term chronic problem. Isn't this always caused by overpopulation, manifested as poverty, resource depletion and/or lack of education? Haiti's chronic problem is like a vision for the world in microcosm, as GrizzlyMouse said. And giving a supporting hand now means, if nothing changes there, just a greater scale of misery in the future. Could aid - food, debt-relief, housing, education and medicine - be made conditional upon some form of birth control that would stabilise or, ideally, bring the population down?

Anticipating that there will be a knee-jerk reaction to that, all I can say to head it off is to ask you to think deeply out of the box about a virtuous circle - about the benefits of medicine, housing and education and the long-term benefits of a lower population.

[2 As and a B]

Happened across this last night.

The Price (and potential) of Failure

In Global Business this week Peter Day talks to Clare Lockhart, Co-founder and Chief Executive of the Institute for State Effectiveness based in Washington DC. The Institute grew out of her on the ground experience in Afghanistan and it tries to think hard about ‘failing states’. Here Clare Lockhart talks to Peter Day about Haiti, Disaster Relief and what she has learnt from Afghanistan.

Listen on Bbc iPlayer

Institute for State Effectiveness website

And Clare Lockhart saying much the same thing on camera in 2008 - very easy on the eye! - and the ear!

[jonny2mad]

Well she puts the blame on local corruption, haiti has lots of potential, but the local haitian's are so corrupt and such bad leaders the country's in the state its in.

Yup that sounds right, but I think her solution comes from the same paternalism that caused the empire except its far less honest .

You the father we your children as my friend the somali would say .

Sad the game wont be able to continue for them but it wont

[2 As and a B]

What do you mean by "local corruption" and "local haitian's are so corrupt "?

Did you get to the bit where she advocates accountability/transparency and that aid should go (in small amounts) to communities for them to do as they will with it?