you guys laugh but i bet the people of haiti are seriously stressed right now
― max, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 10:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Miami Herald doing some solid work in the last week. Here's a piece on the loss of political activists, musicians, etc....(just the tip of the iceberg of course):
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/v-fullstory/story/1432784.html
― collardio gelatinous, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 14:24 (fourteen years ago) link
just went through the NYT slideshow
man
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 14:26 (fourteen years ago) link
The big picture has some strong stuff as well
― stet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:08 (fourteen years ago) link
My friend Kevin is a writer for Stars & Stripes, just tweeted this. The magnitude of this whole thing is incomprehensible to me.
Okinawa-based US Marine lance cpl's Haitian wife, 7 mos pregnant, slept outside w dead bodies, no food for days. http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67345
― Snake Effect Low (Pancakes Hackman), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 15:28 (fourteen years ago) link
many ppl I've talked to don't really have any idea just how bad it is. like think only a "few" thousand died not 200k
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 16:39 (fourteen years ago) link
http://twitter.com/PIH_org
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:13 (fourteen years ago) link
But United States officials say they worry that in the coming weeks, worsening conditions in Haiti could spur an exodus. They have not only started a campaign to persuade Haitians to stay put, but they are also laying plans to scoop up any boats carrying illegal immigrants and send them to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
....
The State Department has also been denying many seriously injured people in Port-au-Prince visas to be transferred to Miami for surgery and treatment, said Dr. William O’Neill, the dean of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, which has erected a field hospital near the airport there.
“It’s beyond insane,” Dr. O’Neill said Saturday, having just returned to Miami from Haiti. “It’s bureaucracy at its worse.”
From the New York Times
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:26 (fourteen years ago) link
get ready for another shameful few years of gitmo dudes
this shit is gonna morbs me right up
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:30 (fourteen years ago) link
urgh. btw thanks for the donation push, gbx. pih is great (i used to work at their US-based project). i also gotta rep for Oxfam America. first of all b/c my wife works there. second b/c they're v. good and v. efficient. they have a presence in haiti supporting & working with grassroots projects, and their focus in the immediate aftermath of the quake is simple: get clean water to the people. http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
― collardio gelatinous, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:35 (fourteen years ago) link
will check it out thx CG. did you know my pal j3ff k4hn (wrote the huffpost ed upthread)? he's worked in Haiti for a while but I think his time with pih was domestic. woulda been five years ago I think?
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:47 (fourteen years ago) link
What I'm wondering now is what is going to happen a month from now when most immediate health/resource needs have been taken care of? Where are people going to go? What exactly is going to happen? This seems like a really scary no-mans-land
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:51 (fourteen years ago) link
xp. the name rings a bell, gbx. program i worked in was based in codman square; and i didn't get to know all the folks working in pih's HQ.
― collardio gelatinous, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 20:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Stevie I wonder the same thing. xp
― collardio gelatinous, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:01 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah that is the $900m question.
ALL infrastrucure will have to be rebuilt in a city of four million. I don't have numbers, but I infer from the coverage that basically most buildings have collapsed and those that remain ought to be considered highly unstable and should be knocked down prophylactically. The streets are impassable and filled with the dead. Water is coming from...the country? Deforestation has iirc made Haiti a pretty arid place. Which also compromises the indigenous food supply (tho for all I know they've been importing food for ages per the usual World Bank schema).
If hundreds of thousands have died in the last week, that many again can expect the same if foreign powers don't make a concerted effort toa) accept refugees. likely permanently. b) aggressively rebuild (tho here you get into some shock doctrine territory)c) keep the peace during the very likely to be violent scramble for resources. d) forgive the debt incurred by this AND the one that has already accrued.
Otherwise, well, man.
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
also Stevie while I have heaps of faith in the medicos and orgs down there providing aid, there is no way haitis health problems are going away in a month or even six. Disasters always pull a train of secondary health problems, most (iirc) water related. Overlay that on a population that has a horrifying AIDS rate (and associated problems with TB) and you've got health problems to occupy a generation of physicians.
Part of me thinks that the best thing for Haiti would a diasporic (not a word?) release valve. Damaging culturally but while no one likes an immigrant, I still think many would be better of grudgingly accomodated by Western healthcare systems than they would by the nonexistent system in now and future Haiti.
lol tho of course this won't happen
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
oh God :(
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:56 (fourteen years ago) link
the more I learn the more saddo I get about this whole thing
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 21:57 (fourteen years ago) link
OMFG @ this: http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/01/a_father_in_haiti_works_to_fin.html
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:23 (fourteen years ago) link
well that's horrible
I dunno but this is affecting me way more than other recent horrible things (of which there is an unending supply). it's infuriating
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 22:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Journalist friend of mine told me earlier that a senior UN official is briefing that Haiti is essentially uninhabitable, and will be for the long-term foreseeable. He stopped short of the "and so should be abandoned" stuff that was bandied about after Katrina, though. Can't find a cite of it anywhere online.
― stet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Really said Haiti as a whole and not just Port-au-Prince?
― Alba, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:33 (fourteen years ago) link
I was wondering about that myself- was the rest of Haiti devastated like p-a-p?
― voices from the manstep (brownie), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:36 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, I asked that too, and he seemed positive it was Haiti in general.
― stet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:39 (fourteen years ago) link
There are certainly many refugees heading from the capital to more inhabitable parts ... and cruise liners docking.
― Alba, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:39 (fourteen years ago) link
I suppose the thinking being that if you abandon Port-au-Prince the rest becomes pretty untenable - the second-largest city after it had about 100,000 residents.
― stet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:42 (fourteen years ago) link
the justifications in the cruise story are so blindly self-serving it's like a bad black comedy dystopia.
― stet, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 23:43 (fourteen years ago) link
the only reason i can see why ~Haiti~ should be abandoned and not just PAP would be because, yeah, the city with half the country's population no longer functionally exists, and the rest of the country may not be able to pick up the slack. still, v strong words imo
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:06 (fourteen years ago) link
and yes, the cruise ship justifications are pretty....well, kinda lol, mostly despicable
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:07 (fourteen years ago) link
though i guess if i were already ON said cruise, i could see the human need to rationalize your existence, cuz otherwise it could be some bleak times w/r/t your self-worth
this might be of interest but i haven't listened to it and don't really feel like it :-/
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:25 (fourteen years ago) link
oh i thought it was a longer thing, n/m
― harbl, Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:26 (fourteen years ago) link
fucked up shit this century, mang, we've seen one major, classic city effectively destroyed by nature and now it's happened to an entire country.
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:30 (fourteen years ago) link
very impressed by gbx's fundraising.
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 8:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
yeah. the narrative coming from the left (see morbius upthread) is that this will be another case of shock doctrine. so if the us does try to help build (rebuild, up to a point) infrastructure, it'll be evidence of imperialism. but in the land of the sane, disengagement would be monstrous.
― free the charmless but occasionally brilliant Dom Passantino (history mayne), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:51 (fourteen years ago) link
btw would recommend reading Pathologies Of Power if yr feeling like you want to get more angry
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:52 (fourteen years ago) link
and thx, nrq, but all i did was send an email and have a willing donor to match
but yr right: the threat of the Shock Doctrine might be real, but disengagement of any kind is 100% not an option afaiac
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 00:53 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/18/world/americas/0118-haiti-assess-maps.html#tab=0
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:13 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe this was asked and answered already, but was there any major damage or any damage at all in the DR?
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:15 (fourteen years ago) link
not that i've heard. the DR isn't far (30 miles??) but i think the areas closest to the fault are sparsely populated
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
also god that boston.com big picture stuff is heartbreaking
heavy, nsfw
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
holy. that picture doesn't look real.
― cogito, ergo some dude (dyao), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:39 (fourteen years ago) link
j fucking c at that picture
― kate moss and heavy machinery in a dessert (Stevie D), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 01:56 (fourteen years ago) link
fuck
― ♖♕♖ (am0n), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 05:27 (fourteen years ago) link
oh my god, that is breaking my heart
― sedentary lacrimation (Abbott), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 05:30 (fourteen years ago) link
that is the world as it is, right now
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 05:44 (fourteen years ago) link
haiti, wtf
― mage pit laceration (gbx), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 05:45 (fourteen years ago) link
jesus
― Na'vi Girls (Need Love Too) (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 06:06 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
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.
― .....ooOO(( (Derelict), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 07:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Big aftershock being reported.
― Ned Trifle (Notinmyname), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 11:38 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Ned Trifle (Notinmyname), Wednesday, 20 January 2010 11:58 (fourteen years ago) link