Haitian Earthquake

[Virgil]

I guess this belongs in the serious discussion. Or perhaps it's just general chat. Not really looking for a discussion or chat. You have probably seen the news and some of the images. I'll post a few here. For those that are older and can afford to do so, please send a small donation (it doesn't have to be much) to one of the magnificent international relief charitable organizations. I'll list a few excellent international ones:
Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders
CARE
Food for the Poor
Catholic Relief Services
You can google and find their web sites. There are others as well.

The people of Haiti were among the poorest in the world to begin with. I'm sure they don't have the resources to address what's going on now. I have a friend who has gone to Haiti to help in an orphanage for one week every year. She was planning to go next month. I don't know how this effects her plans. But she has told me stories of the destitution. She has shown me pictures. It's got to be really bad now. My heart goes out to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDLKYSCYP4k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MakuJNqLqU

Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press Writer – 34 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets Wednesday, crying for loved ones, and rescuers searched collapsed buildings as officials feared the death toll from Haiti's devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands.

The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation a day after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the capital of 2 million people.

Tuesday's earthquake brought down buildings great and small — from shacks in shantytowns to President Rene Preval's gleaming white National Palace, where a dome tilted ominously above the manicured grounds. SNIP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake

[Hurricane]

Texting "HAITI" to 90999 automatically donates $10 to the Red Cross Relief Effort(the $10 is just added to your phone bill later).

USCG and multiple civilian agencies are on the scene with more on the way, including multiple US Navy Vessels and potentially an entire Marine Expeditionary Unit. This is a really horrible situation in a place where people already don't have much. My thoughts are with the victims and I hope that the aid provided is able to provide some measure of relief and comfort.

[Janine]

Can you even imagine 1/3 of a country of people being effected? Also, this number is unfathomable to me: "Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake"...let us all hope and pray it's not that high a count and that more people are still alive and will be rescued soon. The photos are truly devastating. Thanks for posting this, Virgil. It makes me want to cry...so poor they are and then something like this happens.

[Virgil]

Texting "HAITI" to 90999 automatically donates $10 to the Red Cross Relief Effort(the $10 is just added to your phone bill later).

USCG and multiple civilian agencies are on the scene with more on the way, including multiple US Navy Vessels and potentially an entire Marine Expeditionary Unit. This is a really horrible situation in a place where people already don't have much. My thoughts are with the victims and I hope that the aid provided is able to provide some measure of relief and comfort.

Thanks. All it takes is a billion people and a dollar each and there would be enough to help.

Can you even imagine 1/3 of a country of people being effected? Also, this number is unfathomable to me: "Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake"...let us all hope and pray it's not that high a count and that more people are still alive and will be rescued soon. The photos are truly devastating. Thanks for posting this, Virgil. It makes me want to cry...so poor they are and then something like this happens.

I've seen estimates of a possible 100,000 deaths. Totally stunning.

[DanielBenoit]

This is a really noble move from you Virgil. My heart truly go out for those from Haiti. It really hurts me to see victims of natural disasters, probably because two very dear friends of mine were at one time in a natural disaster. There's is just something so metaphysically tragic about natural disasters, the cruel indifference of nature. . . . .

I would truly love to donate. Too bad I don't have a job

[Jozanny]

I have done a lot of research on Haiti because one of my characters is a Haitian psychiatrist, and this poor island just can't seem to catch a break. I think the entire land mass should be evacuated, seriously, and the people absorbed into other countries.

I know that would be a big thing, and don't care. A failed state is a failed state; the world shouldn't sit on its hands.

[Kemathenga]

Good Grief, Jozanny, as much as I would like to say: you're right, can you imagine they'd be wolcomed? We have all this trouble over here in europe with people coming from africa because they are STARVING, because their children have NO future and the EU, still claiming theoretically, that everyone who can't stay in his/her homeland can come there, does everything to keep them off the borders.
These are people, names, faces, stories, likes and dislikes, talents, grudges, joys and humors. And we make them to become just numbers.

I donated a bit (not enough, omg, never enough) this morning. There are many organizations, some of them have been in Haiti for years and know how to use the money. And, please, folks, if you don't have much give a little. One Dollar makes the difference between $999 and $1000.

[Maryd.]

You are truly a good man virg.

[Lokasenna]

It's terribly sad, isn't it? I was nearly in tears listening to some of the interviews on the radio this morning. Haiti has so many problems already, its just dreadful to think of this being added on top of it...

Still, I find the international response rather heart-warming - it seems like most countries are doing their best by Haiti, and maybe in the long run it will increase international awareness of the plight of many impoverished, politically corrupt Carribbean countries...

[Petrarch's Love]

It's a horrifying situation. The footage of the devastation and the aftermath is enough to make your heart stop. My local news was comparing the number dead to the loss of the entire population of about three of the local Chicago suburbs. I don't know that there's anything more to say except that my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti.

One of the saddest things about the death count there is that the magnitude of the earthquake was not such that it would have been this devastating if there had been better construction standards and reinforced concrete. We've had earthquakes this size in California without any cost to human life at all because they have such good building standards in the US and we're a wealthy country that can afford to maintain such high standards. The news coverage of this tragedy did make me aware of an organization called "Engineers Without Borders" that apparently is like "Doctors Without Borders" but instead of bringing medical care they send out engineers and materials to build stable, sustainable buildings and other structures. It isn't a group I've researched thoroughly yet, but I may consider adding this group or one like it to my donation list, since it would be good to get, even in some small way, some decent building work done in the world that might help prevent some of the kind of horror we're seeing in Haiti now.

[NickAdams]

Truly devastating.

Thanks for the donation list.

[OrphanPip]

It's a horrifying situation. The footage of the devastation and the aftermath is enough to make your heart stop. My local news was comparing the number dead to the loss of the entire population of about three of the local Chicago suburbs. I don't know that there's anything more to say except that my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Haiti.

One of the saddest things about the death count there is that the magnitude of the earthquake was not such that it would have been this devastating if there had been better construction standards and reinforced concrete. We've had earthquakes this size in California without any cost to human life at all because they have such good building standards in the US and we're a wealthy country that can afford to maintain such high standards. The news coverage of this tragedy did make me aware of an organization called "Engineers Without Borders" that apparently is like "Doctors Without Borders" but instead of bringing medical care they send out engineers and materials to build stable, sustainable buildings and other structures. It isn't a group I've researched thoroughly yet, but I may consider adding this group or one like it to my donation list, since it would be good to get, even in some small way, some decent building work done in the world that might help prevent some of the kind of horror we're seeing in Haiti now.

It isn't entirely just because of low building standards. Earthquakes are practically unknown in Haiti, so nothing was built to withstand them. Even some buildings with relatively high standards for the region, like the national palace and the cathedral, didn't withstand the quake all that well. The fact that much of the city was a shantytown didn't help either.

Haiti has long been a nation with serious issues that goes back to its slave revolt at the beginning of the 19th century. This poor nation was ostracized from the beginning by the West. We hold a great deal of blame along with the "corrupt Caribbean" government.

In regards to Jozanny's comment, there is already quite a significant Haitian diaspora. At least 100,000 in Canada, one of them is the head of state of Canada too, and another 600,000 in the USA is a huge amount for a country of around 8 million people. Nearly 10% of Haitian born people live outside of Haiti. A massive emigration like that of Ireland in the 19th century is inconceivable today. I can't imagine any countries being willing to accept that many people.

You're right Jozanny, this country can't catch a break. The governor general of Canada, who came to Canada from Haiti as a little girl, was on television crying yesterday making a plea for her birthplace. This country is the second largest recipient of international aid from Canada (Afghanistan is #1), yet the greatest minds in international development continuously fail to make improvement. It's a mess that we've ignored for far too long, and now that it has festered and putrefied all we can think of is amputating the limb. I don't think it is fair to Haiti and her people to suggest that the country should just be dissolved, but nothing seems to be working.

[Jozanny]

Well, it is disasters like these that make me hate capitalism sometimes. For a disabled American, I have been really poor, and I mean really poor, not just comfortably poor during the time I was able to sustain a career, but I am rich next to any Haitian standard of living, and it is obscene, given the power that resides in the Northern hemisphere. I have a great deal of affection, maybe even fascination, with the island, and right now I'd like to go punch someone, like France, and that helps nothing, I know.

[Virgil]

I would truly love to donate. Too bad I don't have a job

Oh don't worry Daniel. When you're out of school and working there will be unfortunately more opportunities to help human suffering.

One of the saddest things about the death count there is that the magnitude of the earthquake was not such that it would have been this devastating if there had been better construction standards and reinforced concrete. We've had earthquakes this size in California without any cost to human life at all because they have such good building standards in the US and we're a wealthy country that can afford to maintain such high standards.

I guess that's partly right. I had no idea that the Carribean was an potential earthquake zone.

It isn't entirely just because of low building standards. Earthquakes are practically unknown in Haiti, so nothing was built to withstand them. Even some buildings with relatively high standards for the region, like the national palace and the cathedral, didn't withstand the quake all that well.

That would be my hunch too.

In regards to Jozanny's comment, there is already quite a significant Haitian diaspora. At least 100,000 in Canada, one of them is the head of state of Canada too, and another 600,000 in the USA is a huge amount for a country of around 8 million people. Nearly 10% of Haitian born people live outside of Haiti. A massive emigration like that of Ireland in the 19th century is inconceivable today. I can't imagine any countries being willing to accept that many people.

We have a large Hatian population in New York City. The internet cites anywhere from 150,000 to 400,000. I went to college with some Hatian immigrant students and the nursing aids in many of the hospitals and Rehab/Nursing facilities tend to be Carribean, and that means of course Haitian as well. It's amazing that the country is such a mess, but the immigrants here do fairly well.

Well, it is disasters like these that make me hate capitalism sometimes.

Huh? Haiti is not poor because it embraced or didn't embrace capitalism or because capitalist countries exploited it. Haiti is the way it is because of rotten dictators. Western countries have invested in many poor countries around the world and establish factories there and import lots of their goods. If the Hatian gov't was stable and if the people had skills the country could be just like the asian countries rising out of poverty. Connected to Haiti on the very same island is the Domenican Republic, which has a far different standard of living.

But frankly I don't want to discuss this. I just want to help the poor people.

[Scheherazade]

But frankly I don't want to discuss this. I just want to help the poor people.

Thank you very much for starting this thread, Virgil, and I would agree with you that we should worry about those who suffer at the moment, without turning this thread into a political why/why not.