Anger at US builds at Port-au-Prince airport

[Bigjake]

Aw come on Bridgewalker.  You're spoiling a perfectly good game of "Those damn ungrateful furrin bastards." 

(Never mind that you're right.)

Send all of your money that you want to the Red Cross, whatever.  This ain't MY (as in tax dollars) mess to clean up.

I've got a tax happy government, crappy economy, rising costs of everything (Insurance being one of the biggest), all working against my business.  I'm more concerned about the 23 guys on MY payroll keeping their jobs.

 The Government is one of our biggest hurdles. Taxes,  pointless regulations that cost a pile of money to keep up with, you name it.  And now they want to take that money and piss it away on some foreign country?  No, HELL. NO.


Oh wait, I just hate them furrin types cause they're ungrateful and difernt' than me.. 

[Gewehr98]

They can be as pissed-off as they want - we'll just take our ball and go home.

The USAF controllers in charge of the airport (at the request of what's left of the Haitian government, btw) are making it known in no uncertain terms that incoming relief flights must have enough fuel on board the aircraft to return to their point of origin after dropping off their cargo.  Why?  Because there's no fuel available until an alternate logistical pipeline can be devised.  The port's destroyed, the airfield's maxed out on runway and ramp space, and the Navy is even having problems finding places for helicopters to land.  It's just that bad.

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton sez the American taxpayer is in for a long haul:

The overall goal is to help Haiti resume "as quickly as possible" its efforts to build a "strong, modern society" after decades of political and social instability that made it the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere before the earthquake, Clinton said.

Officials in Haiti fear more than 100,000 people killed in the disaster.

Clinton noted that Haiti already was working to overcome its problems before the latest crisis.

"They have an economic plan," Clinton said. "We're going to have to amend it now, and substantially, to take account of the damage done."

Simply restoring Haiti to its impoverished state prior to the earthquake would amount to failure, Clinton said.

[vaskidmark]

Would you like to get out of the suck and live in a better place?

http://www.oa2.org/forums/privmsg.php?folder=inbox

Senegal offers land to Haitians  
 
Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians could "return to their origin"
Senegal's president says he will offer free land and "repatriation" to people affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

President Abdoulaye Wade said Haitians were sons and daughters of Africa since Haiti was founded by slaves, including some thought to be from Senegal.

"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Mr Wade's spokesman, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye.

Tuesday's earthquake killed tens of thousands and left many more homeless.

Buildings have been reduced to rubble, the distribution of aid is slow, and people have been flooding out of the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince.

"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come," Mr Bemba Ndiaye said.

"If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region."

The spokesman emphasised that if a region was given, it would be in a fertile part of the country rather than in its parched deserts, the Associated Press news agency reported. [emphasis added]

I've got a crisp clean genuwine $20 Federal Reserve Note, currently worth about $17.07, that says there will be less than a score of folks that take the offer.

I keep coming back to the musings of folks like Peter ( www.bayourenisanceman.com ) and Kim Du Toit ( archived at www.theothersideofkim.com ) that the best way to deal with problems like Hati [as a near-replica of sub-Saharan Africa] is to leave them alone and let them collapse upon themselves.  As cruel as that may seem it is kinder than keeping them afloat in a cesspool of quicksand.

stay safe.

skidmark

*edited to add a commentary.

 

[Tuco]

The US embassy denied it was putting the evacuation of the approximately 40,000 to 45,000 American citizens in the country first.

Does this sound wrong to anyone else?   
I would hope the embassy would put evacuation of US citizens first.
What am I missing?

[thumbody]

Dozens of French citizens and dual Haitian-French nationals crowded the airport Saturday seeking to be evacuated after Tuesday's massive 7.0 earthquake, which leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince.


"They're repatriating the Americans and not anyone else," said Charles Misteder, 50. "The American monopoly has to end. They are dominating us and not allowing us to return home."

"I haven't been able to tell my family that I'm alive. The coordination is a joke," said Wilfried Brevil, a 33-year-old housekeeper.

"I was at the Christopher Hotel," said Daniele Saada, referring to the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, MINUSTAH.

"I was extremely shaken up. I was pulled out, the others weren't," added Saada, 65, a MINUSTAH employee.

"I decided to return to France. I have nothing and now I am stuck," she said, caught between fury at the chaos and sheer exhaustion.

The disorder even appeared to cause diplomatic ripples, with French Secretary of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet telling reporters he had lodged a complaint with the United States over its handling of the Port-au-Prince airport.

"I have made an official protest to the Americans through the US embassy," he said at the Haitian airport after a French plane carrying a field hospital was turned away.

Sounds like it's more the ungrateful French complaining than the Haitians

[Laurent du Var]

Of course we are, we need to hurry home to wave our white flags at the Germans   

[thumbody]

Of course we are, we need to hurry home to wave our white flags at the Germans   

Are you one of the ones complaining that the U.S. isn't doing anything? Are you one of the ones accusing the U.S of only assisting their own.
If so don't forget to drop your rifle before you wave your white flag!

I was not slamming all the French but I was pointing out that it did not appear to be the Haitians who were making the most ANTI-U.S. noise.
The direction this thread was taking was that the Haitians were the ones ungrateful ones while their country is the one benefiting most.
The situation is a cluster f*** and no matter what is attempted it is never enough for some people.

[MechAg94]

Are there really over 40,000 Americans in Haiti?   

[Harold Tuttle]

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/haiti_six_days_later.html

[Laurent du Var]

Are you one of the ones complaining that the U.S. isn't doing anything? Are you one of the ones accusing the U.S of only assisting their own.

No and no, I am somenone who thinks that the USA is doing a lot while you're posting brilliant oneliners.

Flying out 40 000 Americans, and I wonder if those numbers are correct,  of an airport which was used to handle 40 planes a day before the earthquake may appear to take a long time when you're waiting for food, medical assistance or for a flight home. I don't think the Haitian gouvernment gave the airport into American hands by accident so that is fine by me - their choice.   

Oh you even can help from home, hire an illegal Haitian !

Wikipedia:
in the U.S. Haitians were granted Temporary Protected Status that will allow about 100,000 undocumented Haitians in the United States to stay legally for 18 months, and will stop the current deportations of 30,000 more....




 

[Matthew Carberry]

Since we don't publically dance in the blood of the innocent like the Brady's et al I suppose we'll have to merely file this away for post-crisis, but once again we have a sterling example that, in the absence of armed good people, the young and strong with machetes and clubs rule the streets and steal supplies from those who need it most.

Glad to read some looters are being shot by the authorities, not so sanguine about the cops turning over looters to the mob for street justice (I like my vigilantism to be truly grass roots, not astro-turfed).

[Jamisjockey]

Easy on the ad hom and nastiness or I come back and axe it.

[Bigjake]

Glad to read some looters are being shot by the authorities, not so sanguine about the cops turning over looters to the mob for street justice (I like my vigilantism to be truly grass roots, not astro-turfed).

Hey, the cops come from the community, so it's not completely astro turfed. 

I'd love to see the sheriff turn burglars over to the folks living in the houses they robbed...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

They can be as pissed-off as they want - we'll just take our ball and go home.

That's just the thing, we won't take our ball and go home.

No matter how much these people piss on us for helping them out, we'll still do the right thing.

A little civility goes a long way.  Civility is even more important during a disaster, not less.  There's no excuse for not at least trying to be decent and civil to folks who are moving mountains to try to save you from squalor and misery.

[BridgeRunner]

 There's no excuse for not at least trying to be decent and civil to folks who are moving mountains to try to save you from squalor and misery.

We don't actually know who is trying is be decent and civil.  What we know is that there are fairly reports that some are failing at any such efforts that may be occurring.  An important distinction.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

shucks  having watched folks behavior at the airport in sioux fall when a blizzard hit these folks aren't that much worse. and there was no one worried about getting killed in south dakota

[slingshot]

I'd be a bit jumpy too if I was hungry and thirsty with no place to turn other than waiting for some plane to land with supplies.

The work there continues.  The US is playing a major part.  I noticed Hillary definitely has downplayed the role of the US in the whole effort in Haiti.  I sense some politics there.....  I'm concerned about what the US role will be in 12 weeks versus in the short term.  I support the current effort.  Not so sure about rebuilding their country or city with US tax dollars we don't have.  Guess that decision gets made later, but I know what it will be.

[Balog]

Tell me again why we have an obligation to save the world from itself again? I'm all for private charity, but given the rate fed.gov is bankrupting itself I see no reason to make that worse by using tax dollars to help out every 3rd world ****hole that will just respond by whining about how we aren't doing enough. Note I'm speaking about the corrupt .gov of that 3rd world hole, not necessarily all citizens.

[Seenterman]

We'll spend more effort helping these people than we did digging out the midwest last year during that bad ice storm.  Something isn't right here.

Bad comparison.
Earthquakes tend to be alot more destructive than ice storms, especially when they hit 7 on the richter scale. How bad was this storm? I don't even remember it.

[roo_ster]

Bad comparison.
Earthquakes tend to be alot more destructive than ice storms, especially when they hit 7 on the richter scale. How bad was this storm? I don't even remember it.

How about relative ot the flooding along the Mississippi a few years back?

[Seenterman]

How about relative ot the flooding along the Mississippi a few years back?

.                               Yea we got troops to Haiti faster then we did to the superdome but I highly doubt well spend more on their reconstruction then the reconstruction of NOLA. At this point it's just speculation.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

.                               Yea we got troops to Haiti faster then we did to the superdome

We did?

 

[Seenterman]

http://www.factcheck.org/article348.html. - Took us three days to reach the superdome but within 24 hours we were providing ATC to Haiti. Yea I would make the same face about our previous administrations handling of our own natural disaster but this has nothing to due with the current Haitian situation.   

[Sergeant Bob]

http://www.factcheck.org/article348.html. - Took us three days to reach the superdome but within 24 hours we were providing ATC to Haiti. Yea I would make the same face about our previous administrations handling of our own natural disaster but this has nothing to due with the current Haitian situation.   

Yeah, well, we could have had ATC at the Superdome within 24 hours...

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Air Traffic Control?