U.S. troops protected aid handouts and the United Nations sought extra peacekeepers to bolster security in earthquake-shattered Haiti on Monday as marauding looters emptied wrecked shops and tens of thousands of survivors waited desperately for food and medical care.Hundreds of scavengers and looters swarmed over damaged stores in Port-au-Prince, seizing goods and fighting among themselves, but some signs of normality returned as street vendors emerged with fruit and vegetables for sale.
"We do not have the capacity to fix this situation. Haiti needs help ... the Americans are welcome here. But where are they? We need them here on the street with us," said policeman Dorsainvil Robenson, deployed to chase looters in the capital.
Crowds gathered to plead for food, water and jobs outside installations being used by the United Nations, U.S. military and international relief agencies. Jordanian peacekeepers kicked Haitians and fired in the air at a crowd clamoring outside Port-au-Prince airport, witnesses said.
MANY HAITIANS ARE BEHAVING AS BADLY AS PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS DID AFTER KATRINA.
SHAMELESS.
THIS LACK OF CIVILNESS IS ONE REASON WHY THE HAITIANS IN HAITI ARE SO POOR AND THEIR HOMES ARE SO CRAPPILY MADE - AND WHY SO MANY DIED.
THEIR ETHOS IS EFFED UP - AND HAS BEEN FOR CENTURIES.
WE MUST SAVE AS MANY AS POSSIBLE FROM THE HORROR OF THE EARTHQUAKE.
THEN WE MUST SAVE THEM FROM THEIR BELIEF AND VALUE SYSTEMS.
5 comments:
People encountering great difficulties as in Haiti earthquake and Katrina could have resorted to this behavior for fear of suffering further hunger and despair for the loss of a member/s of the family. They seem to lose control, esp if you lose sleep.
We have to pray to God to help both the help giver and the victim.
We can only sympathize for the giver and the recipient.
People in great distress, in despair for the loss of a member of a family/s, no food nor sleep, seem to lose control.
We pray to God to help both sides.
In the chaotic aftermath of a devastating earthquake, the bad elements will try to take advantage of the situation. To use the non-exemplary behavior of a few to promote your condemnation of the Haitian people that have suffered for so long under corrupt leadership is completely misguided.
Right here in the U.S. we remain vigilant against corruption and there is a constant stream of individuals ready to try our goodwill.
blaming their corrupt leadership is nonsense: what: are they mindless sheep unable to act in their own self-interest!?
they just have a warped sense of self-interest.
the ones who don't LEAVE.
the warped one are not warped due to their skin color.
it;/s their culture.
DAVID BROOKS AGREES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html
This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths.
... Third, it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth — with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other.
As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
I REST MY CASE!
When someone has a gun pointed at you and as you so well put it, and is acting in their own self-interest, indeed conditions will only get worse.
You are absolutely correct! It's not their skin color that makes them inept. It's their primitive culture. Besides our warped sense of self-interest here in the U.S. is so much more desirable.
And as for David Brooks - my favorite right wing expert on the influence of Voodoo on Haitian culture - thoughtful insights on the cultural malaise plaguing Haiti, I would add to that the introduction of good solid evangelical "christian" values to these deprived souls.
Only then will the Haitian people be able to add to their vast repertoire of human failings, intolerance for gays and protection for the sanctity of marriage they sorely lack.
I agree! Let's rest our case!
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