Haiti: WTF?

jesus

From a 2008 article:

The Haitain (food) crisis is so extreme it forces people to eat (non-food) mud cookies (called "pica") to relieve hunger. It's a desperate Haitian remedy made from dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau for those who can afford it. It's not free. In Cite Soleil's crowded slums, people use a combination of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening for a typical meal when it's all they can afford. A Port-au-Prince AP reporter sampled it. He said it had "a smooth consistency (but it) sucked all the moisture out of (my) mouth as soon as it touched (my) tongue. For hours (afterwards), an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered." Worse is how it harms human health. A mud cookie diet causes severe malnutrition, intestinal distress, and other deleterious effects from potentially deadly toxins and parasites.

Another problem is the cost. This stomach-filler isn't free. Haitians have to buy it, and "edible clay" prices are rising - by almost $1.50 in the past year. It now costs about $5 to make 100 cookies (about 5 cents each), it's cheaper than food, but many Haitians can't afford it.

Big aftershock being reported.

Those boston.com photos are (as always) astonishing and some of the captions are beyond WTF.

A man pulls the body of an earthquake victim from a coffin in order to steal the coffin at the cemetery in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010

jesus christ. it's apparently 6.1 (which is very serious). fuck.

xpost

Still coming to terms with those photos. Sitting at my desk with tears in my eyes. So fucking useless and so in awe of people who drop everything to go and actually do useful stuff instead of what I do.

Fuck.

everyone is useful to those around them, dude, i wouldn't worry too much about it. unless of course you're designing earthquakes in which case shame on you, ned, ~shame on you~

news seems to indicate that the aftershock was more frightful than it was destructive---most buildings went down in the initial quake, and the vast majority of people appear to have had the good sense to avoid the ruins since then. i hope

Violinist Romel Joseph spent 18 hours trapped in the rubble, reciting every concerto he'd ever played...

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1436927.html

DV's meta comment: when I was in Portugal last weekend, there was a lot of TV news about Haiti, with CNN being the only English-language channel. I was struck by how emo their coverage was - everyone was going on about how they *felt* about the earthquake, whether it was anchorpeople, local correspondents, politicians, representatives of aid agencies, whatever. The other news coverage seemed much more like it was reporting stuff that was going on, though they were all talking in foreign so I can't be sure.

I am also interested in the suggestion that Haiti's descent into terrifying violent lawlessness is a bit overstated: The myth of Haiti's lawless streets

This story is also interesting: Haiti escaped prisoners chased out of notorious slum

i think in general "violence in the streets" following disasters is overstated. cf the looting thread

I think it's partly because we have read too many John Wyndham novels.

What a relief to read that cruise liners can still find a safe haven away from all the looting and dying.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/17/cruise-ships-haiti-earthquake

yeah, noted upthread. despicable savages.

Oh I missed that. I suppose it's just one of those weird coincidences. Still, I'm not sure I'd be very happy breaking out the barby on the beach (if anyone actually did that). Having said that 60 miles is long way away? And those cruises are really expensive so you probably want to get as much for your money as possible.

well I think the fact that it berths there at all is pretty problematic, but you know

I'd say Ned is probably quoting a DM article comment there

or indeed a comment from that Guardian stream

That cruise ship thing is a non-story, it's not like it's docking or not docking is going to make things better or worse for the good folk of Haiti. It provides a kind of easy knee-jerk contrast ("Haitians in desperate straits while people on cruise ship party!"), but even if the ship does not dock, plenty of people will still be partying and plenty of Haitians will still be in desperate straits.

And those cruises are really expensive so you probably want to get as much for your money as possible.

I've seen Caribbaean crusises priced at starting from a grand, which is not really that much in the cosmic scheme of things (for first worlders etc.).

btw i'd like to shout-out to gbx and Ned and others on this thread for making me donate...imo this should be worldwide mobilisation

and i know i should do so of my own volition but every little kick up the arse helps

the cruise ship offers a particularly obscene juxtaposition of haves vs. have-nots in close proximity, but it begs the question: at what geographic distance from scarcity and disaster does it begin to be ethically right to enjoy life's luxuries? i've had a few moments this past week where, having a nice meal & a glass of wine, I wasn't sure how different i really was from the cruise ship passengers.

i guess i see the cruise ship as a symbol of something much bigger, that implicates all of us to some extent.

it's not really just the juxtaposition tho or the enjoyment of luxuries. it's that cruise lines actually -use- Haitian coastline and then puts up barbwire to keep them out. the amount of money they make off Haiti is grossly disproportionate to what they spend on Haitian salaries, I'd wager, and I doubt they pay much to he govt for the privilege of visiting. assuming of course that they don't just outright own the beach.

not precisely the same enjoying a night out in yr hometown

there's probably some way to formulate a rule of thumb or even a mathematical equation to work out whether having a glass of wine at your house is the same thing as going on a cruise liner to a country that's just had 200,000 people dead and be able to enjoy yourself. but i should think that when it comes to it, you just kind of know.

xpost

now that you put it that way...

Lots of benefit events happening. Awesome veteran Haitian band Tabou Combo are at the Kennedy Center in DC for free tonight (donations are requested and I think they are streaming the show online on their Millennium stage link) and there's the big deal thing on tv tonight with Madonna and Beyonce and George Clooney

So glad to see Partners in Health was one of the groups to benefit from the Hope for Haiti Now thing on tonight.

Mr Veg noted NONE of the broadcast networks are showing Hope For Haiti...but almost all of the big cable stations are. Which seems pretty shit to me, since it's such a good cause.

I preordered the album on Itunes...Red Cross also has donations set up through itunes for $5 to (I think) $100 increments.

Huh? Its on all the networks here. Preordered it myself too.

Weird. Wonder if it's just a Cali thing? Unless it's on delayed broadcast to air later. Weird.

Loved Wyclef's performance...and I'm not a big Jennifer Hudson person but damn, having the Roots as your backing band will do wonders. I even kinda liked the JayZ/Rihanna/Bono jam.

That might be it, the delay. It was on HBO, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS at least in Chicago. I even kinda liked Justin Timberlake's "Hallelujah".

starts at 8 in LA.

I am still of the opinion that anyone who says anything remotely off-script from what I see on my TeeVee is a crackpot communist scumbag queer. I can't stand to be well read, but I'm guessing somewhere in this thread some libtardo has claimed the earthquake was a hoax so the Red Cross can get donation money for Obama to save his ass because our country is going down the toilet... and, well, yeah sure, that I can believe if you're talking about green screens and special effects. But, if you say HAARP did it, well then go to Russia!

xpost...cool. I missed the beginning so I'll watch it over.

xpost WAHT

Its a new sock someone started tonight, ignore.

Not a sock; this guy already called me a sock on my introduction post. Sorry if you don't understand my sense of humor, but that does not automatically make me a sock. I am a brand new poster who is interested in meeting other NYers and talking on these forums. Just being a ridiculous retard for one moment and you have to jump all over me??? Sheesh.

maybe you should try ridiculousretard.com.

Roadrunner says: "Sorry, we couldn't find ridiculousretard.com"

hey, nice use of both "queer" and "retard"! This is for Haiti, please go somewhere else if you want to be stupid.

After spending days noting that medical supplies were not getting through, I see that Anderson Cooper is finally interviewing US personnel to ask why. But they keep just answering "We are doing our best," and that's that. Not sure how he should follow up, maybe they are just doing their best.

yeah i've unplugged from this for a few days, due to cares. however, it was my understanding that medical supplies were slow in getting through just because PaP is just hell of difficult to navigate atm.

I think the problem now is also catalogueing and knowing what they have at the airport, in addition to navigating through PaP. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with CNN did a "gotcha" by taking meds himself from someone and then coming back later to ask the military why they are taking so long to deliver meds when he did it already with this one bag of stuff.

I am convinced that the US decided to let the Pennsylvania governor fly in and out of the country with orphans(who were not immediately in need of medical care), while making Doctors Without Borders planes wait (who were needed and had supplies to immediately help those who were in need of medical care).

yeah, i just heard about that governor thing---cynical politicking, you think?

Yep. He's an anti-abortion Dem too, I believe which I'm guessing factored in of course.

Where has Preval been news stories now happening. He just finally spoke to the press again. Haiti can't win, the US govt. tossed the prior charismatic leader for being a commie sympathiser troublemaker and now the quiet technocrat prez doesn't grab the spotlight. Although with all the destruction of government buildings it would be hard for him to do so even if he wanted to (possibly doable but harder).

HuffPo says:

The earthquake that hit Haiti, by the numbers:

THE EARTHQUAKE

_ Magnitude-7.0 at 4:53 p.m. EST (2153 GMT) on Jan. 12

_ Aftershocks: 56 of magnitude-4.5 or greater.

THE TOLL

_ Bodies recovered: 150,000 (includes 54 Americans, 44 Europeans)

_ Estimated dead: 200,000
Story continues below

_ Rescued from collapsed buildings: 134

_ Injured: 194,000.

_ Children who are unaccompanied, orphaned or lost one parent: 1 million

_ People enduring amputations or other surgery: 200,000.

THE DISPLACED

_ Homeless: 1 million.

_ Living in makeshift camps: 700,000-800,000

_ Tents needed for homeless: 200,000 family-size.

_ People who have fled Port-au-Prince for the countryside: 236,000.

THE DAMAGE AND THE NEED

_ Structures destroyed: 70 percent in broad areas of the capital; 90 percent in towns closer to the epicenter.

_ Schools destroyed or badly damaged: 90 percent throughout the capital.

_ People who need food aid: 2 million

_ People receiving food aid: 400,000

THE RESPONSE

Backlog of planes waiting to land at the airport: 800-1,000.

Flights landing per day: About 140.

U.S. military: About 20,000 troops, 18 ships.

U.N. peacekeeping troops and police: 12,500

Donations: More than $1 billion from governments, including $575 million from Europe and $316 million from U.S. government, in addition to $470 million in donations through private U.S. charities.

___

Sources include the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, U.S. Geological Survey; European Commission Monitoring and Information Center; U.S. Agency for International Development; International Organization for Migration; U.S. Department of Defense; The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Save the Children.

If only they'd used condoms.