Gangs Armed With Machetes Loot Port-Au-Prince
Central Business District Resembles Hell On Earth As Bodies Pile Up And Armed Men Battle Over Food, Supplies
Just a reminder that even a hell on earth like Haiti can get worse. The world can throw us curve balls that most people aren't ready for. Open your hearts and wallets for the suffering in Haiti, then make sure you're good on bread. bullets and band-aids. Stuff happens, even in America to Americans...
11 comments:
Aid is on its way--in the meantime, let's pray for them...
Tks. Done. Made contribution via cell phone.
Michael,
The problem is that headline could have run before the earthquake as well.
Ratcatcher55
We will do what we can to help both on a personal and governmental level. I just hope they remember our help in the future and stand by us. My prayers to their quick recovery
BTW ever wonder why it took our leadership hours to respond to this and days to respond to a terrorist attack. Just a thought!
Perhaps this is an unpopular sentiment but I have a hard time donating money for earthquake relief to a people with an entitlement mentality. When you add that to gangs of armed thugs roaming the streets and roadblocks made from dead bodies (see Reuters - link on Instapundit), you have to question whether your donation is going to help poor, suffering people or just line the pockets of the Tonton Macoutes.
What about the people in the Dominican Republic? Are they not on the same island? How come I am not hearing the same calls for them? Is it because they are capitalist and not socialist? Were there buildings better?
I don't like throwing money away. I won't willingly give money to our government or especially the UN/UNICEF.
But there are many truly good organizations that are helping and many that were already there. There are SO many orphanges there that do incredible things with minimal moneys.
The "problem" with this quake is the epicenter was pretty much dead center downtown. From the looks of it, the rural areas are doing much better and it was very minimal by the time it hit DR.
Mark,
The DR has historically enjoyed better government, got the better 2/3rds of the island, doesn't have this fault running right through their captial system, and managed to make teh jump from "successful banana republic" to "budding representative democracy" in the late 1970's.
My wife and I opened our wallets to the people of New Orleans. In return we got demands for more money, excuses, refusal to invite FEMA and then blaming FEMA for what was actually a very competent response, the grossest incompetence on the city and state level, dispersed criminality as people were moved to Texas, insistence on continued, tax-paid hotel stays: whining. And an insistence on rebuilding a city that is doomed geologically.
Norman Mailer: "The fruit of specific brutality is general paranoia." Our wallets are still open, but to people more likely to work effectively.
I have to say that one of my first thoughts on hearing of the quake was "I hope Michael is in touch with people who will be studying this situation intimately from start to finish from a 'Best Defense - Survival' perspective."
Many of the first responders we met in the first season of TBS/SURVIVAL are in Haiti...we'll be debriefing when they return....
mb
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