Haiti: WTF?

and on that note HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND EVERYBODY

Have we covered this already? http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html

Wyclef's YELE isn't the charity it's purported to be.

I'm still not convinced that this would be a 'censorship' issue, as he would still be free to broadcast to commercial markets. Therefore it's a subsidy issue or a morale issue. But yeah I know there would be a dittohead outcry if they yanked the AFR contract; just have to hope that those comments make him less popular with serving soldiers. Wesley Clark tried a campaign to get Rush yanked a couple of years ago but like everything else Wes has tried, meh.

Happy for him to keep his slot if I can see him being publically horsewhipped.

public outcry if the Armed Forces radio ditched Limbaugh--it would never ever ever happen

I'm in one of my 'you know the Right is right, I need to get a high powered sniper rifle' moods. The man is Satan's monkey and should be shot. Repeatedly.

Horsewhipping is unhumane, a simple .30-06 perforation in his head would be.

smdh.. what i think is, rush limbaugh should not be part of the haiti story. i mean, rush limbaugh will say more ignorant shit next week, and the next, and the next, and it's just what he does and what he's always done.

Actually, I'd just like to see him seriously humiliated in public, HIS public, but I have fonder sentiments about dried pond scum than I do about him today.

And daria is right, giving ANY attention to this parasite when there IS a real story of human devastation is a needless and foolish distraction.

There's a reasonable point in this article about being careful with how you donate and how you restrict your donations, but "Don't give money to Haiti" is a stupid fucking headline for it. http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/01/15/dont-give-money-to-haiti/

Yeah, thats downright irresponsible.

Damn David Brooks gets to be on PBS and NPR as some kind of moderate conservative and then he says factually unsupported crap like this:

As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.

We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?em

Isn't Haiti about 60-70% Catholic?

That sounds accurate.

Harrison and Brooks blaming Haitian vodou religion rather than say colonialism is ridiculous and I don't know where they got that child-rearing thing from. Yes there's less poverty in the Dominican Republic, But Brooks makes it sound like that country is a country club now (rather than one which still has lots of poverty), and he wrongly suggests that it has suffered through the same number of problems as Haiti. Ugh.

also hey david brooks just as a heads up do u think it might be possible that a certain cultural fatalism might itself be a product of economic/structural pressures that make haitian life ~as it is lived~ appear pretty capricious? like if i'm totally poor and my bro died at a young age of a curable disease, and my mom and uncle etc, and i just sorta observe that most people don't live too long and are in general at the mercy of forces beyond their control, maybe it would make sense to me to adopt a worldview that tries to explain that

or: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/314/7089/1271

In comparisons among Chicago neighbourhoods, homicide rates in 1988-93 varied more than 100-fold, while male life expectancy at birth ranged from 54 to 77 years, even with effects of homicide mortality removed. This "cause deleted" life expectancy was highly correlated with homicide rates; a measure of economic inequality added significant additional prediction, whereas median household income did not. Deaths from internal causes (diseases) show similar age patterns, despite different absolute levels, in the best and worst neighbourhoods, whereas deaths from external causes (homicide, accident, suicide) do not. As life expectancy declines across neighbourhoods, women reproduce earlier; by age 30, however, neighbourhood no longer affects age specific fertility. These results support the hypothesis that life expectancy itself may be a psychologically salient determinant of risk taking and the timing of life transitions.

obv not exactly the same, but the point stands: if you can only expect yr life plans to be thwarted by shit you cannot in any way address, then yr gonna be fatalist

also, guys, voodoo isn't a bad word. i know it gets played up a lot in the media, but the fact is that much of haitian life IS informed by voodoo. not like everyone is sacrificing chickens all over the dang place, but like respectable church going grannies still believe (though they may not ~like~) in witch doctors and zombies and what have you.

not that anyone is really doing this but: getting defensive on haitians behalf when someone mentions voodoo is backhanded (and unintentional) culture chauvinism. "how dare he say that people practice voodoo! why, they're mostly christian down there!"

(btw my knowledge of this is NOT first-hand, so grains of salt. my friend is an anthro jd/phd who has studied voodoo for years, and has told me that SOME sort of belief in (or deference to) voodoo cultural practice is very tightly woven into what it means to be Haitian)

voodoo's basically a syncretic mashup of catholicism and various african traditions anyway isn't it?

also lol @ the idea that "life is capricious and planning futile" is somehow unique to voodoo and not present, in some form, in fairly major schools of all of the world's religions

btw kenan, not to be pedantic, but many haitians actually DO practice some kind of syncretic version of christianity and voodoo. my bro spent a lot of time down there (and in benin, where voodoo is thought to have originated, as well as in queens, where many recent immigrants live) the boundaries are blurrier than you might think

beside the point, however

― everybody's into weirdness right now (gbx), Wednesday, January 13, 2010 7:12 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

basically: yes.

smdh @ david brooks
boring conservative with no curiosity about, or respect for, any culture beyond whatever is middle class, tasteful, and found in bethesda md. yet he writes about religion and culture in haiti like he knows what he's talking about. i don't understand this.

his column on french hip hop back when those riots were happening was also insightful + relevant

So I have reviewed for DC newspapers various Haitian bands over the years-Djakout Mizik, Boukman Experyans, Beethova Obas, T-Vice, Top Vice, and others. I am trying to find out more info on how they are doing. Not that their fate is any more important than any others, but I am curious if anyone sees or hears anything. Sadly some have lost their lives and others are missing. I've been posting on ilm here:

Rolling Global Sublime Whirled "World" Music Thread 2010(with an emphasis on African likely)

I wonder if the big Haitian compas concert that was supposed to happen in Miami, Florida happened today?

things are looking pretty dire :(

Seeing those two imperialist criminals tapped by Bam as figureheads for Haitian relief in the Rose Garden yesterday really warmed the cockles of my heart. I'd love to send the pair of em into Port-au-Prince w/out Secret Service.

Jesus Christ dude you think you could set that shit aside for even this?

things are looking pretty dire :(

― I can't turn my face into a shart (dyao), Sunday, January 17, 2010 1:17 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah :(

xp rage, resentment, spleen

jon, THEY are not "setting it aside."

THEY and their predecessors made Haiti what it is and kept it that way.

Okay, I think I misread your intentions with that post. Apologies.

np.

So Drs w/out Borders says make all donations 'unrestricted' cuz they met their Haiti cash quota? What difference can new donations make now, then? (I'm srsly asking.)

yeah, i was wondering the same thing, morbs---i still think that giving to Partners In Health is worthwhile: they've got a nearly 30 year investment in ~long-term~ Haitian healthcare, and will be there after everyone else forgets about Haiti, again.

yo i'm goin back upthread but gbx thanks for taking apart brooks so thoroughly--that guy is a fuckin retard

i was *just* about to say that

:)

saying that Brooks is a retard is something that can't be said enough

I wish someone could challenge Brooks on one of the tv or radios shows he always manages to get on.

and thing is, what rankles most, is that I think his sentiments actually resonate with a lot of ppl. not in a malicious way, but in a lazy way; if someone says Haiti hasn't prospered because of cultural reistance, I honestly think that there are loads of otherwise kind and decent people that will nod and go hmm yeah that sounds plausible. if you gave them the facts they'd probably believe you, but generally it's just easier to go "well they ~do~ believe in zombies I mean srsly" than it is to square up with reality

wish I could dig up that nabisco otm post on Brooks. it is...otm

yeah it doesn't really stand out from other coverage of this whole thing, sadly

my friend was able to talk to his grandma, thank god

oh good!

I am worried about my friends partner. he is alive but he was in Haiti to renew his visa. his documents were lost in the quake and, while this not an immediate concern, it seems unlikely that he will be able to return easily, or soon.

i remember seeing a documentary on cbc that was criticizing the relief efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. it had some interesting points (but i forgot most of it), like the need for the orgs to get images to keep the money coming, to the detriment of ppl living in less photogenic sinistered places, sub-optimal distribution of and other miscommunications . it featured a heroic doctor that was doing many surgeries in the country without proper equipment. anyone have seen it?

no but I would like to!

seb yr French right? curious: do you have any idea of how hard it is to learn kreyol if you already speak (poorly in my case) French?

french is a good part of it but i find it hard to figure out what is being said. like, i just tried to read something "Manman m al lavil, li kite pitit la nan men papa m, mwen menm avèk lòt timoun yo." : figured the mom left the kid to the father, but i had no way to know there were other kids in there, too. it's weird but i feel the ongoing developments of texting in french could be of help, here.

yeah see I pulled "mother" and "petite" from that. dang.

re:txtng: like, kite and avèk reads cool.

also, general q: my friend is planning on putting on the white coat and knocking on doors for PIH.

he's thinking about collecting cash, I think he should just hand out cards with links to PIH's donation page. If you, ilxor, had two "medical students" (who knows where they got those coats!) knocked on your door, what would make you more likely to give money or, at least, give a shit?