Sunday, January 17, 2010

Idiocies

The international idiot brigade never sleeps, even when there is a tragedy like the one in Haiti.

The lame: some leftist rag, Morning Star, of the UK titles on line "Venezuela leads the solidarity relief effort". When you read the article you wonder what makes Venezuela such a leader. Planes took off first? Landed first? Could they have landed first because Venezuela is so close of Haiti? Is Venezuela sending more food, medicine, rescue workers than anyone else? In fact there is no such details in the rag, just the headline that we are, I suppose, asked to take on faith.

The truly idiot: Ortega of Nicaragua deserves the mention of idiot of the month.  He has been complaining that the US presence in Haiti is excessive, that they are taking advantage of the earthquake to take over Haiti with thousands of soldiers.  Of course, he does not offer any way on how to deal with incipient rioting in Haiti as the devastated infrastructure delays rescue effort to reach the victims and these ones, well, are getting restless, probably aggravating an already catastrophic situation.  I did not find anything in English, the International press has better things to report than the inanities of a pedophile and rapist president.  But of course Telesur does carry the item in Spanish. What is it with these people that cannot give their paranoia a rest? Why the hell would the US want to take over Haiti today? And, with an objective look, would that be bad if a group of wealthier countries were to take over Haiti administration and reconstruction for a decade? Is Ortega (or Chavez, or Evo, of Fidel) going to pay for Haiti reconstruction? Gimme a break!

On more serious matters.  I gave through a relative in Caracas for Haiti.  In Venezuela wisely the ambassador asked for specific donations such as soap, water, food, toilet paper, etc...  no money or clothing, just basics.  I gave through the Baruta mayor initiative since I do not trust chavismo with my donations: either they will steal it or waste it just as they wasted a lot of the help that came for the Vargas disaster of 1999.  Years after the event Puerto Cabello still yielded mysterious containers that were stranded with what appear to have been help for the Vargas victims. At least through the Baruta town hall administration I have more assurance that my token help (it seems considering the magnitude of the disaster that any help is doomed to be a mere token) will make it there , or at least go to the poor of Baruta if worse comes to worse.

By the way, I bet you that Port au Prince will be rebuilt much faster than Vargas state which is still half way at best, and an ill conceived reconstruction for that matter. We will see in 5 years form now...

21 comments:

  1. 1979 Boat People8:36 AM

    Oh God! Not this idiot Ortega again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mousqueton11:01 AM

    Dano:

    I will take your bet! From what I am seeing in the news the destruction of human life and infrastructure in Haiti is colossal. Further, there are other towns completely destroyed such Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake, that are not even being covered by relief efforts and/or the media. Scattered news from Leogane seem to indicate that the city is 100% destroyed and that there are more than 30,000 dead.
    Indeed a macabre situation.

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  3. Daniel: If I remember correctly, "Morning Star" in the UK is the Communist Party "official rag". I would not expect more from them, they still operate as if Pravda was writing their editorials.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mousqueton

    I suppose that Haiti should even consider returning its capital to Cap Haitien....

    This is the thing, Vargas was not as totally destroyed as the central part of Haiti and courtesy of international help Haiti could be rebuilt proportionally much faster than what Vargas was "rebuilt".

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  5. I don't understand why people want to send anything else but cash to Haiti. I get you cannot use your credit card in Vzla to donate to the red cross, doctors without borders, or the Clinton-Bush initiative for long term reconstruction. I also get that any Vzlan organization collecting cash would have to overcome the extra hurdle of exchanging bolivars to a hard currency; and that, obviously, nobody trusts the govt with money or anything else for that matter. My concern is that the toilet paper and food that you guys send from Vzla either would not make it out of the country or do not necessarily are the priority for Haiti in this moment. Why don't let the people leading the effort decide what they need (they are in the field and have a better idea, they know, they are the experts) instead of you guys deciding that what the Haitians really need is a clean butt. I am not trying to criticize I just sincerely don't get it.
    The only think I get is that this govt is making it more difficult for Vzlans to help Haitians in a effective and efficient way.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Charly4:23 PM

    Daniel, you may add Danny Glover to the list of idiots, he claimed that the Haiti event is a result of last month's Copenhagen climate conference snafu. How about that?

    ReplyDelete
  7. La Maga Lee4:54 PM

    Los gobernantes se glorifican de la ayuda que dan a otros cuando en realidad no son ellos sino los pueblos. Los venezolanos somos muy concientes de esto y tenemos mucho amor que dar a los demás sin pensar en retribución. En un caso como el de Haiti o Vargas 1999 no se puede mezclar la politica. Los americanos ayudan mucho porque tienen los medios, el aeropuerto de Port au Prince perdió su torre de control, todos tienen que entender que no es fácil, además el puelo haitiano esta desesperado, sin gobierno, (ver el palacio y los ministerios en foto de ahora). Dejemos los idiotas vanagloriarse, la mayoria sabemos que no es como ellos dicen.

    ReplyDelete
  8. sheik yer Bouti6:25 PM

    we dont need Haiti......we already Puerto Rico......and Mexico...Honduras, belize, El Salvador

    ReplyDelete
  9. Skeptical

    There is nothing "to get".

    It was the words of the mayor of Baruta, Gerado blyde, who after the meeting with Hiati embassador in Caracas told us that they needed toilet paper, among many other items..

    I think a clean butt is a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. charly

    of coruse, global warming dilates the earth crust.

    i bet you he just watched 2012....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous9:13 PM

    The difference is that USA is allowed to help, every country, instead in Vargas, they dis not get permission to help the people.
    I few yars ago I checked the funds form the EU countries, they asked for the projects before to put the money in the government account and
    they didn't provide the info nor let the european community labour start with rebuilding Vargas, a lost help programm funds were raised to help the people not the president.

    claco

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ok. Let me try again. Let's suppose that what haitians need is toilet paper. You and other bunch of people buy some boxes and some other stuff ($100,000) and give them to Alcaldia de Baruta (AB). Now, AB has to send this stuff to Haiti, so it has to charter a small plane that costs $100,000 in order to deliver the goods. Wouldn't it be better if AB sends $200,000 (or just the $100,000 it collected) to the Red Cross or any other organization in order to help Haiti? (this organization, because they are buying in bulk, can get more stuff with the same amount of money). That is my point...efficiency.

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  13. 1979 Boat People11:15 PM

    THIS TIME, Pat Robertson stepped over the line and deserved to be in your list too.

    ReplyDelete
  14. sheik yer Bouti3:24 AM

    too funny

    http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100117-703649.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope

    ReplyDelete
  15. Daniel, you nailed it. They can't give their paranoia a rest.

    Question for you: Do any Vzlns or even Chavistas still believe it when Chavez uses the imperialist declaration? (The US will invade us, the US wants to invade everyone, The US is imperialist down here and I will save you). He's been saying that for years, yet no invasion or anything close.

    Do any Venezuelans still react to this made-up fear? Up here, people just yawn, and think the crazy man is rambling again.

    ReplyDelete
  16. skeptical

    i am sure that such provisions have been considered. besides the transport will not be made by chartered planes: there are army planes for that and the government is collaborating.

    i do not know about you, but there are times where toilet paper is essential, the more so when there is no running water, when there is no newspaper published that you can cut in little squares. having your butt clean can make up for a lot of inconveniences on occasion.

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  17. Charly4:13 AM

    Daniel, if there is no toilet paper to send, then let send PSUV manifests.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous5:32 AM

    In his book Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond writes an amazing chapter comparing Haiti and St Domingo, why their histories diverged when they started out from similar initial conditions. Absolutely amazing. If you read the book you will realize Haiti is no longer able to support human life, even without the earthquake. You see, there are no trees left, as they were all cut down for cooking fuel by the ravenous masses. The country looks like a moonscape. Once the trees were gone the water was gone. Take a look from Google Earth. Imagine now what life will be like after the earthquake. At this point throwing crumbs at Haiti is not going to work: the humanitarian, intelligent thing to do is declare Haiti unfit for human life and evacuate the entire population to countries in the region. So far, the only country that is considering offering refugee status to Haiti´s inhabitants is the U.S., even though that country is in terrible economic shape. Latin Americans, put your money where your mouth is and accept massive Haitian immigration.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous7:01 AM

    So far, the only country that is considering offering refugee status to Haiti´s inhabitants is the U.S., even though that country is in terrible economic shape. Latin Americans, put your money where your mouth is and accept massive Haitian immigration.

    What and actually doing the reverse of what they've doing for the last, oh, sixty-plus years and send people out? Think about that for a minute. Try imagining countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and even Venezuela considering taking hundreds of thousands of people in when they've been having a de-facto policy of encouraging their fellow nationals to move out. Even Cuba would be hard-pressed to take them in, and imagine the propaganda points the Cuban regime would win if they agreed to take in Haitian refugees.

    That and the attitude of many Latins towards taking in French-speaking "ni...ers" (their words, not mine).

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have to agree with Daniel; a clean butt is not to be overrated. Also, we have not yet seen the tip of the disease iceberg in Haiti; the number one killer of children worldwide is diarrhea (from many diseases), and with the widespread death and destruction, disease is coming soon.

    While not everyone is religious, I encourage all of us to donate money, and pray for the people there.

    As for Ortega, it's laughable. We want to invade Haiti as much as we want to invade Venezuela, or France, or England, or even California ;)

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  21. http://www.eldiarioexterior.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo=37462

    ReplyDelete

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