A trio of clowns from a nation that put the moi in l’etat:
Baby Doc Duvalier: back in Haiti, oh well, could be worse, could be another earthquake!
Marine Le Pen: the fascist daughter also rises!
Tunisia: still waiting for the Bastille crowd to show up!
Gorilla says: “Plus ca change…”
In Haiti, Idaho’s Christian and clueless are charged with kidnapping and child smuggling…
This is what happens at the intersection of American exceptionalism (“We’re all God’s children, but our God’s better”) and American pig ignorance.
Although this appears to have been nothing but stupidity on the part of the “missionaries”, many foreign aid programs administered by religious groups place equally unsubtle pressure on recipients to consider converting to the party line.
It’s one reason among many why there are supposed to be laws in America that clearly separate church and state.
If organized and disorganized religious leaders insist on faith-based bigotry, intolerance and discrimination, then their religions shouldn’t be funded by government, either through tax subsidy or foreign aid and other programs.
These groups could easily be replaced by secular, unemployed American workers, who might welcome the opportunity for a paycheck and a chance to do something worthwhile in places like Haiti.
Gorilla says: “These missionaries were not even useful idiots, Haiti and America don’t need any more of ‘em running around loose!”
Bring ‘em to Florida, and wait for the squeakin’…
The irony in the land of the free: Haven’t got enough money to care for these victims, sure, you could bring ‘em to other states, and they’d wince too…
Amorality is a one way street, why be good?
Gorilla says: “Health care reform is Haitian dust in the wind!”
Well, the senior Italian relief official in Haiti isn’t happy about the international community’s efforts!
“A truly powerful show of force, but it’s completely out of touch with reality”.
“They don’t have close rapport with the territory, they certainly don’t have a rapport with the international organisations and aid groups.”
Not that this should be surprising, how’s the US military doing at nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan?
It also doesn’t help that US policy is aimed solely at preventing Haitians from coming to the US. You don’t win hearts and minds when your forces don’t speak the language, your politicians aren’t honest about their objectives, and cover your ass is what passes for leadership.
Gorilla says: “Earthquakes are not preventable, but Pentagon incompetence always has been!”
In Haiti, our government is doing all it can: to keep Haitians out of the US, which remains our only policy objective pre- and post-earthquake.
The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, its capital destroyed, its infrastructure totally inadequate to support international assistance efforts, so what’s the answer?
Flying the sick and injured out of Haiti to any countries that will take them temporarily and treat them, including the United States.
Granting temporary asylum in any country in the hemisphere to all able bodied Haitians until their country is rebuilt.
Instead, we’re doing the “we care, but not all that much” dog and pony show.
It’s racist, it’s amoral, and it’s just what you’d expect.
Gorilla says: “Politics is bullshit by other means, you don’t need to read Clauswitz to understand that!”
The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, a disaster for which there are no great solutions, Gorilla knows it well, 3 or more hurricanes last year, an earthquake today, entirely denuded of trees, one road north and one road south, men stand by potholes with shovels asking for 50 or 100 gourdes to fill them in, the usual 10 families and 10 politicians gumming up the works, US policy is only and solely about keeping Haitians from coming over on boats to Miami (Cubans get a far better deal, they may be one of this week’s 14 magic terrorist countries, but so long as they don’t come by plane, they’re in for free and for good), and nobody cares long enough to make something lasting last…
Gorilla thinks: “When the Wolf Blitzers of the world decide to ask something other than what the time zone is in Port-au-Prince, Haiti will still be ignored!”
