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Haiti chaos hampers aid delivery; death toll estimated at 200,000

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Haitians can't seem to get their act together. There wasn't so much chaos after earthquakes in other parts of the world.

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Haitians can't seem to get their act together. There wasn't so much chaos after earthquakes in other parts of the world.

get their act together?!? how sympathetic

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"billions of dollars more will be needed"

Who has it? Step up, please!

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Even so, the U.S. Army’s on-the-ground commander, Lt Gen Ken Keen, said the city is seeing less violence than before the earthquake. “Is there gang violence? Yes. Was there gang violence before the earthquake? Absolutely.”

Interesting point that. I for one haven't understood the focus on violence and the assumed potential for violence and unrest, that seems pretty secondary to getting the aid out as quickly as possible. Now maybe things are being done correctly and they have to get security in place and set up distribution networks, I get all that, but it sets up a real catch-22. The longer it takes to get things set up, the more potential you will have for violence. All I know is that when the big one comes, if I am a survivor and am there with injured family, friends, and neighbors, with no food, water, or medicine, and a helicopter is flying overhead, he'd better be coming to rush emergency supplies to us, and not to "assess" the situation and assuming that he can't drop supplies because we can't be trusted to deal with the supplies without violence. That might be the "correct" way to do things, but I sure wouldn't see it that way, no doubt Haitians don't either.

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Over 200,000 presumed dead, tens of thousands injured and 1.5 million without homes. This is going to be a monumental task to fix. I keep reading how bad the USA is doing and that they are hogging the airport and trying to run the disaster operation. Some one has to be in charge and the Haitian government is gone, the UN is useless as usual and no one else seemed to jump in to help until the USA got involved and pledges $100 million and thats all the thanks they get. If they did nothing, they get blamed, they do something they get blamed, maybe the USA should stop all overseas aid and spend it internally where it is really needed and let someone else take the load on their shoulders. Anyone else up to the task?

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Appears the guy I quoted, Lt. Gen Ken Keen, got edited out of the updated AP story that is now up. Also the quote from the guy who said he was drinking looted rum because getting drunk was the only way to make it through the day (or something like that) has been changed to "Police fired into the air as young men fought each other over rum and beer with broken bottles and machetes." You could suspect that one of the AP writers was not sticking to the approved narrative and script and so it was changed, but that would be getting into conspiracy land! I'm sure it was changed to make for a more effective and readable article.

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America can take some of its military budget and help out tremendously. No one else is up to the task at all.

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The arms supplies of the United Nations " Blue House" were heavily looted in the immediate aftermath of the quake. In addition all the baddies including many gang leaders escaped from the prison. Police are dealing with lots of stuff. All adds up to chaos. Some unbelievable video footage on CNN and You Tube. Unidentified bodies being poured off trucks into mass graves etc. Nice story in the middle of it all about some orphans whose "Americanisation" has been expedited by the quaqe

@bushlover "get their act together" No chance of that and that is what makes this quaqe so much worse than any other

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A tragedy for Haiti and members of the Haitian Diaspora, a field day for the kleptocrats and the voodoo practitioners.

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America can take some of its military budget and help out tremendously. No one else is up to the task at all.

Well theres China of course, but they're not exactly the most quick to respond in these circumstances.

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Well theres China of course, but they're not exactly the most quick to respond in these circumstances.>

Actually, they were one of the first teams to arrive. But they get bashed for that anyways.

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I was thinking about boiled potatoes, tons and tons of it to fill stomach of starving people to calm them down first...simplicity and quantity are so important .

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Haitians can't seem to get their act together. There wasn't so much chaos after earthquakes in other parts of the world.

<<<shakes head>>>

I'm not sure what the recent reports' preoccupation with rising crime in Port au Prince is. What do you expect? Desperately poor country with poor infrastructure and little law and order is devastated by one of the worst quakes ever seen. There's little food, water, or hope. What do you expect?

So awful. I hope more and more relief and medical care can get in and help.

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"Haitians can't seem to get their act together. There wasn't so much chaos after earthquakes in other parts of the world."

Bushlover as usual you show little empathy or historical perspective. Take some time to review the history of the people of Haiti and you will see why their "act" is not so together. You will also observe the relative lack of interest the global community has shown this small country. It certainly lacks the attention that some of the world's other poor nations have been able to gain.

The reason so many people are dead from this quake can be tied directly to the problems we have seen in their economic history. No money = no capacity to establish building codes, develop local services, drive measures to assure that public and work spaces are safe.

Haiti lacks the tourism of some of the area's other nations. They have no strong educated population for the corporates to exploit, no natural resources and little strategic value. All this means Haiti's "act" is one of the great tragic situations in the western hemisphere, and a shameful one for the richer nations that allow it to continue in this manner.

Of course now everyone wants to make great headlines as the savior of Haiti. When what Haiti really needs today is a friend who will be there long after the bodies are dug up and the press attention turns to somewhere more worthy of tonight's prime time line up.

Let us hope that some nations take a greater role of responsibility to try to help Haiti be a better place.

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I really don't think anyone can have a "plan" to provide aid to a country that is literally rubble. Concepts like distribution fall by the wayside when things like roads and buildings don't exist anymore. Maybe the only solution really is to just drop supplies by air but do so in such large numbers that people aren't killing themselves over it. I'm sure there are people in Haiti who are a lot smarter than I am working on the problem.

Hopefully the US military is doing some good. Just like war, situations like this basically boil down to logistics and heavy lifting. That's why the US always takes the lead in NATO conflicts....the machinery and the people with know-how are centralized in the US...all part of that military budget that others criticize us for. Nice to see it put to positive use.

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Sarge,

"billions of dollars more will be needed" Who has it? Step up, please!

Billions of us have money to give. I'd hope some of the billionaire philanthropists (Gates Foundation etc.) can step up as well. If people won't spare some money to help people in a disaster like this then that money is worthless, to my eyes. Thankfully the worldwide response looks to have been both qick and sizeable, let's hope it makes it through.

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People are always saying China owns everything, but in situations like these they don't seem to come to mind. Why is that?

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Don't exactly with Bushlover BUT they need to "help" out as well by keeping looting and violence under control. The videos in the news of people fighting over things certainly isn't helping their case and I can understand why it is taking time as it does appear dangerous in some parts - not that it was ever "safe". How about the US and France pony up the money since they are the countries that basically left Haiti to rod after they got what they wanted from it?

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I believe China tied up the runway yesterday for an hour or two doing a photo-op. -at least that is what the American media said. Worst thing is to have these diplomats/celebs/media come in and screw-up the operation. 100 planes a day now is very good.

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http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/19079

While American missionaries, teachers, doctors and social workers have been aiding the people of Haiti for years and others have now mobilized to rescue and assist anyone and everyone they can, others seem intent on turning the disaster into a freakish sideshow or using it as a forum to score domestic or international political points.

The Chinese were first to arrive on Haitian soil, but they turned a supposed relief mission into a Communist Party photo-op, wearing matching red suits and carrying the Chinese flag, as if preparing to conquer. The Communist country of over one billion people initially offered a paltry half-million dollars in disaster aid, which was upped to a million after the US pledged 200 times that amount.

The very moment, that news of the disaster hit the airwaves, the loons began coming out of the woodwork:>

China was the first to "land" their plane. It seems though the Obama Lib (Clinton etc) media machine quickly took over though.

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The guttersniping begins: Americans are accused of taking over Haiti's airport and refusing entry to French and Brazilian planes. Chinese are accused of hogging the limelight with photo-ops.

Hope this isn't going to turn into a battleground for the US and China teams.

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Yosun, what has the US done in Haiti that is so awful? There has been no resource grab - there really aren't any resources. France was the colonial power. The US has lead UN peacekeeping forces once.

I am amazed that so many people are using this disaster to pillory the US for supposed ill behaviour.

In the meantime, with so much of the infrasctucture destroyed, especially the port, and gangs using violence to pillage, the relief effort is going to be slowed waaaay down. I think it's rather telling when the police are urging the citizens to "kill the criminals so they don't come back." What are the foreign aid people supposed to do under such circumstances?

Oh, right, start blaming the USA. How French.

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Yosun, what has the US done in Haiti that is so awful?

The US doesn't actually have to do anything. We'll be criticized for things that are possible, not for things that have actually happened. Last I checked we're taking heat for invading North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, etc. The invasion doesn't actually have to happen, but the bad feelings as if we invaded is what the radical Left is trying to create. That way they win either way.

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