Yeah, private charity…. I’ll take what’s offered but:

Government institutions are required to provide disaster relief. They are more than capable of quickly reacting in a competent manner, provided they are not run by dummies.

Of course this just treats the symptoms. What kind of an administration have we been supporting in Haiti that left the public so exposed to this catastrophe. 7.0 is a good sized quake, but larger quakes occur somewhere in the world every single year.

Royal Caribbean has seceded from ethics, and declared themselves The Nation of Why Not. They are a nation adrift, cast off from conventions of life on land, and sail to Labadee® free to ask, “why not keep exploiting them?”

Jeez, hacksaws this week because bandages, splints and antibiotics weren’t there last week. Probably going to have to go back to the hardware store again next week for something else.

The Army and Marines are going to have to repond to a natural disaster of biblical proportions every several years. Maybe we should plan ahead for something like this.

Just how quickly do you think something of this magnitude could be responded to?

Amount of Aid to Haiti

Do the hacksaws come with extra blades and does the beach furniture come with complimentary sun block? These multi-billion $ corporations must give something to qualify for their charitable tax break I would imagine.

This is corporate America at its finest. Expect more of the same. Capitalizing on the grief and misery of others is capitalism and the American way.

How quickly do you think we could respond if our friends the Sauds needed immediate military assistance? It seems like the mission is there, the need is recurring, and the military has had to improvise in Haiti, in New Orleans, and with the Pacific tsunami.

And will continue to have to improvise.

I wonder if Doctors Without Borders ever managed to get their 12 tons of medical supplies permission to land? Disgraceful.

Good morning, pups. It’s Collins and Kristof today. In “Democratic Silver Linings” Ms. Collins says looking at the bright side, having 60 votes in the Senate could have been more trouble than it was worth. With one less vote, expectations might be more modest. Well, at least we won’t have to hear any more crap about the “filibuster-proof majority,” as if that poisonous toad from Connecticut was a Democrat. (Apologies to all poisonous amphibians.) Mr. Kristof has “Some Frank Talk About Haiti,” and he says just because Haiti is poor, it does not mean it always will be. Far more than most other impoverished countries, Haiti could plausibly turn itself around.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got toasted Thomas’ English muffins and your favorite jam. Now that we’re out of the deep freeze we’re back to rain. At least it’s a slow, persistent rain rather than torrents. Have a great day.

Everyone must be sleeping late today…

It’s hard work bitching all day every day.

Hi, Marion. Thanks for the post. Kristof is too polite to give Bobo the roasting he so richly deserves. BTW, has anyone noticed that Brooks has a remarkable resemblance to Toht in Raiders?

Ain’t that the truth!

Good morning.

All rested up???

I guess you are aware that Haiti had democratically elected Aristide and the US just went down and kidnapped him?

He has not been allowed to return to his country. We only supporst fascist dictatiors. If a leader actually wants to help his or her people, we figure out a way to get rid of them.

It explains a lot about obama the campaigner and obama the president.

Yep. Like that list you linked to. Thanks. Would wish that they showed the numbers as a % of GDP in the donating countries too. Some very poor countries are ponying up. That would be a lot of work, since some of the donations are goods not money. Also, the total of a billion, I don’t know how much of a dent that will make. If anyone has a link to an article that probes how much would be needed to restore P-au-P I’d appreciate it.

A niece was there for the earthquake. She is fine, but I should call her sister today for an update. Last I heard, she was not trying to get home, but seeing if she could find a way to help.

Try this, it’s really way to soon to tell but one thing is certain, they shouldn’t rebuild it where it is now. . .sort of like New Orleans

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Montreal+conference+will+look+rebuild+Haiti+from+ground/2461084/story.html

Seeing how an offer was being made and the equipment was already there in port, why not offer ALL the chairs the hospital wants instead of just the SPARE ones? Heck, why not send over a list of the ship’s whole inventory and ask what the country would like so long as that they don’t take too much of an item to threaten the safety of the ship? Having a ship anchor in port right after a major natural disaster and just toss crumbs at the devastated locals isn’t exactly good.

Seems to me that deck chairs would be much more comforatable than the ground.

Haiti wants the cruise ship business. When hurricane Andrew went thru homestead & Miami, we didn’t shut down Fort Lauderdale.

I am extremely aggravated that we no longer have the National Guard for disaster relief; they were supurbly trained for this work. No one noticed that shrub sent all of our state DEFENSE forces overseas 2001 including our coast guard. We now rely on hired mercenaries as noted in NO Katrina.

Haiti is a glimpse of what happens when we have total “privatizaion” and corporate rule backed by u.s. military. By the way, you do know that we now have an established Northern Command military “available” in case of civil unrest here in the states. That’s the military running the ‘relief’ effort in Haiti right now. Unlike our former National Guard, they have no clue how to help.

p.s. the cruise line is also ferrying supplies in all available space in the ship each trip.

Serious question?

News reports say there will be some 15-16,000 US troops in Haiti by today. Does anyone know what they are going to do?

You know they will hire Blackwater and subsidiaries do the rebuilding and likely security. There are already a number of private security companies in Haiti, first introduced by Bill Clinton.

My guess is that the military is there to make sure that the upheaval doesn’t interfere with the continuity of the puppet government. Despite the racist chatter about ‘security’ and ‘looting,’ there is no major security problem in Haiti; Haitians are too busy trying to survive and help each other. More importantly, the last thing the US wants is for Haitians to pull themselves out of this disaster with any ideas for self-determination. The earthquake crushed Haiti physically; the military is there to make sure that Haiti stays crushed economically, politically, and spiritually. We are adding to our hellfire tab with this one.

Thanks for the affirmation of my suspicions, if not inspiration. (sigh)

I really have doubts that the mission given to the U.S. military has anything to do with providing or facilitating the delivery of life saving aid.