Haiti

I live in an area with a LOT of Haitian immigrants. Can't deny the reason for coming here, Haiti has always been a hell-hole. But now, after this earthquake, I can't help but feel really bad about what has happened there. I like what has happened as for relieve from this area. Miami-Dade has one of the best disaster relief teams in the world, on their way. Seeing George W. Bush and Bill Clinton working together is impressive. Colin Powell, one of my most respected people, is totally involved. This is a world class disaster. Millions of people affected. Hopefully, the real powers will help out now. Interesting that China has sent early responders to help. Chile, Cuba, Trinidad, all are helping. This is not a time for snarky remarks, this is a time for real help from all good hearted people to help a country that needs a lot of help. Pat Robertson needs not apply.

What really scares me is that there are several other places on Earth where this can happen.The countries aren't quite as poor as Haiti, but it would still be just as devastating. The millions of people living in concrete (or worse) shacks in Mexico City, Sao Paulo, or Johannesburg are just as vulnerable. The first time I saw the way some of the rest of the world lives ( northern Mexico) I became truly appreciaitive of what we have here in North America.

Yeah. I travel throughout the Caribbean. Rich folk have houses built with solid concrete, walls, roofs, everything. The rest have galvanized sheet. One good "swoosh", all gone. They are good people, I really like them, but, dayumm, they suffer from nature.

My brother-in-law - an airborne ranger - is on his way to Haiti right now with a whole bunch of his coworkers. I was happy to hear that.

The more good people to help, the better. I am not a bleeding heart liberal, but my heart goes out to these people. I watched a sailboat with 50 Haitians on board be towed into Matheson Hammock park. 20 years ago. When they got to shore, they jumped off and kissed the shore. Helped me appreciate who and where I was. I am proud of my Irish heritage. My predecessors suffered from a really serious prejudicious , but went on to be good citizens. I wish the best to the Haitians. Very few Americans are native Americans.

I have a friend who goes down there every year to provide medical aid and is down there now. He's OK, thank god, but he's sure got his hands full.

I wish them all the best and I'll help all I can. Thats about all I can.

btw.. Pat Robertson is an idiot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM

I figured it would only take a few posts before it would become a Pat bashing thread (which usually leads to religion bashing). I agree, he's an idiot. Let's try and stick to the "no snarky comments" theme.

I used to live there. I'm broken hearted. I don't even know how to talk about it.

Been there. Once, thirty yrs ago. From what I see nothing changed.

I know many people that are directly affected, and we are helping to get the ball rolling on some local relief efforts. My girl works with a guy whose entire family was there, fortunately, after two days he found out they are all alive. some are seriously injured, but alive. this gent has also been very active in coordinating relief for Haitians, long before the current disaster. He is now organizing a huge effort. we are spreading the word as best as we can. here is the note we sending, posting, telling people:

My friend/coworker is from Port-Au-Prince (his whole family is there-they work for the church that collapsed and (he works) in the (Palm Beach County) school district)…if you or anyone you know are interested in mobilizing supplies or any other aid, can you direct them to this website/phone?? He has heard very little from anyone there-it is really bad over there. He will be going to Haiti as soon as possible to set up distribution networks and assess where/what help is needed most, and coordinate local efforts. resources will run out very quickly, please help in any way you can.

AIM-Apoxee International Ministries

Rev. Abel St Amour (my friend-I can vouch that this is a legitimate organization)

http://www.apoxeeinternationalministries.org/

561-568-2895

Please spread the word

cwh wrote: Seeing George W. Bush and Bill Clinton working together is impressive.

There's something about seeing former presidents spring into action like that that makes me very proud.

Like it or not, when push comes to shove, we're the big boys and if we have some ability to curtail the almost surreal human misery over there, then it's our duty as a nation.

This is a human issue--not a political issue.

I'm sure we'll hear from Jimmy Carter soon, too. He turned out to be a better former president than president.

If all you can do is donate money, right now, the credit card companies are waiving the fees through part of Feb when you donate to the Red Cross.

I think the next most important for the next month are so are the oganizations like Doctors Without Borders.

After that, we'll have to see who the organizations are that are going to help rebuild. Jimmy Carter was mentioned- I suspect that Habitat for Humanity will be a significant part of the rebuild...

At least that helps the people who can get down there and keep things going.

This is going to be a long recovery....

Eric

Update - looks like the brigade of Airbone soldiers isn't there yet. There's apparently a problem getting planes back out again after they've dropped off people/supplies/equipment. No fuel, and now no more room for airplanes. Hopefully today or tomorrow.

looks like the efforts of all free countries are involved in this, Australia, Canada, UK and many more are donating $ and workers

It will be interesting to see what Chavez does. Both Venezuela and Trinidad are on the same fault line. Trinidad newspaper had a piece today that the engineers think the island is 22 years past due for a big one, last one was 1888. They are worried.

alfadriver wrote: If all you can do is donate money, right now, the credit card companies are waiving the fees through part of Feb when you donate to the Red Cross. I think the next most important for the next month are so are the oganizations like Doctors Without Borders. After that, we'll have to see who the organizations are that are going to help rebuild. Jimmy Carter was mentioned- I suspect that Habitat for Humanity will be a significant part of the rebuild... At least that helps the people who can get down there and keep things going. This is going to be a long recovery.... Eric

I was with Habitat for Humanity when I lived there.

Habitat has had an established presence for over 15 years in the region. Worth supporting.

However, Habitat is NOT an emergency disaster relief agency. They are NOT equipped to do rapid reconstruction for large numbers of people in a short period of time. They are a HOME OWNERSHIP ministry, and there are very few in Haiti (even in good times) who can EVER afford home ownership at any price.

I love Habitat, but it makes me sad that they are thought of first for disaster relief. Though I gave 3 years of my life to their efforts in the region, I'll be sending my money to someone else in hopes of touching more people more rapidly.

SVreX wrote: I was with Habitat for Humanity when I lived there. Habitat has had an established presence for over 15 years in the region. Worth supporting. However, Habitat is NOT an emergency disaster relief agency. They are NOT equipped to do rapid reconstruction for large numbers of people in a short period of time. They are a HOME OWNERSHIP ministry, and there are very few in Haiti (even in good times) who can EVER afford home ownership at any price. I love Habitat, but it makes me sad that they are thought of first for disaster relief. Though I gave 3 years of my life to their efforts in the region, I'll be sending my money to someone else in hopes of touching more people more rapidly.

So you don't think they would help some of the rebuilding? I'm not thinking disaster relief, but rebuilding.

Who else would you suggest for the rebuilding effort? Red Cross doesn't do that. And Doctors without Borders don't lay concrete. Need some suggestions.

E-

If you want to touch people rapidly, that's doctors, riot control and infrastructure. Rebuilding comes later.

Habitat always gets a lot of financial support after disasters. They DO rebuilding, but they do it their way.

They have family selection processes, volunteer hours requirements, local committee requirements, and need local leadership in place before they do much. Homeowners are selected one at a time, and ultimately the houses are never given away, they are sold.

Fact is, no matter what the price, some people simply can't ever afford to buy.

Additionally, in a place like Haiti, land rights are always an issue. True ownership doesn't come without decent protection for land ownership, which is hard to come by and define in Haiti.

Don't get me wrong, I believe Habitat will handle the funds honorably, etc. But they will build according to what THEY do, which is not relief work. It could take some time. There have been several times where large amounts of designated funds have poured in to the organization for efforts in a specific area where they did not have established efforts, and the money had to sit idle for many years while they developed efforts to utilize it.

I don't even know what to suggest if your heart is in helping with rebuilding efforts. Please understand, this is huge. Housing for as much as one third of the population of the entire country may have been destroyed.

The quickest impact with the biggest short term results will certainly be relief efforts with medical missions. They simply don't need rebuilding yet, they need life support. Lots of Haitians survive under normal conditions without housing- climate is quite good. But sickness, malnutrition, and disease are going to kill a lot of people.

The largest rebuilding impact will probably ultimately be a US (and other governments) relief and aid package that addresses large scale housing reconstruction to help huge numbers of people who are unable to help them selves (read- can't pay for anything).

The greatest impact you can personally have would probably be to donate money now to relief and medical missions, then plan on going to personally assist with a rebuilding effort (such as Habitat, or smaller ministries) at a later date. You won't regret it.

My plan is to do just that. I'm going to get my money as fast as possible into the hands of SOMEONE to do SOMETHING, then I will get myself down there to use my hands to bless others- probably later in the year.

gamby wrote: This is a human issue--not a political issue.

WELL,IT HAD TO HAPPEN SOMETIME, I GUESS...

Oh, berkeley... Danny Glover blamed the Haiti Earthquake ( a geological event originating a few miles under the earth's surface) on Global Warming and the failure of the world's leaders to come up with a climate change agreement in Copenhagen.

South Florida school districts, Palm Beach, Broward and Dadr, have over 200 old portable classrooms, disassembled, ready to ship. They will give them to help Haiti. Problem is shipping and re-assembly. A lot of people could live in those, re-assembly would not take long, but towing a barge and delivery to site will be a challenge.

mel_horn wrote:

gamby wrote: This is a human issue--not a political issue.

WELL,IT HAD TO HAPPEN SOMETIME, I GUESS... Oh, berkeley... Danny Glover blamed the Haiti Earthquake ( a geological event originating a few miles under the earth's surface) on Global Warming and the failure of the world's leaders to come up with a climate change agreement in Copenhagen.

Isn't he waiting for a taxi somewhere?

We had some asshat on the radio complaining because the mayor sent our collapse rescue teams there. He said what if we get hit with an earthquake while they are gone? What is the point of having men and equipment like that if you can't use it to help people.

I was at a local Habitat for Humanity location today to get some office stuff. They are actively asking for help for Haiti. Good to see. I really want to see some way to get those portable classrooms down there.