patrick.net

You know people are going to think ill of you, for thinking that.
But it goes along the lines of what I was thinking the other day.

Haiti is like an aging sibling that wasn't as successful as the other. Then one day that sibling gets sick and homeless and needs money and help. Do you or can you, just turn your back and tell your brother, "Well this is what you get for wasting your life, or not being productive."?

Or more in this case, why did they build so much with out any steel?

This disaster is one thing, but for that country to build so much with out any reinforcement steel, was the real crime here.

One of my band mates asked us over the week end, "What are yall doing for the relief?"

I personally feel that what is the most single important thing of all is rescue equipment.
The Army core of Engineers has two stations that are less than 120 miles from POP.
Puerto Rico and in Guantanamo Cuba, we should have had Normandy beach style invasion the very next day before the sun rose, with Caterpillars, bull dozers, Front end loaders, road scrapers, you name it. They were in need excavation equipment and earth movers.

We dropped the ball seriously on this, just like our government always responds as an after thought, we don't act on promises until the news has circulated the presidents promises for a week or two then we start to mosey on over and asses the damage. Long after any would be survivors are long dead.

Now human nature tells me, the lazy f@cksticks in this economy, lay and wait for these disasters. This where they get rich. CNN is touting 200 million has been raised. Which means Haiti should feel blessed after the administration and operating costs of these charity organizations gets their "PAY", "WAGES", "CUT" (what ever they like to call it) if they see 20 million.

I just don't feel charitable enough to line the pocket of a bunch of Liberal shitheads that will eventually pass along a small fraction of my donation.

Do I feel bad about the tragedy? Terrible, do I really believe any thing I contribute will trump the bureaucracy and red tape and fraud, that bound to entrenched in the relief effort?

Not as long we've got Katie Couric sleeping in a rubbish bin to bring us the latest breaking gore news from the island. There's enough bleeding hearts to fill the coffers of these charities and Haiti will be just a bad off or worse when all is said and done.

As far as tax dollars going to relief. That just might be the only money ear marked for the cause that more than 10% of actually will go to feeding them.

Tenouncetrout says

Or more in this case, why did they build so much with out any steel?

While it's understandable that regular houses would be built without steel re-enforcements, but Hospitals? Schools? Larger Apartment buildings? Stores? Hotels? Very few buildings remain intact due to the fact almost none of them bothered to use steel re-enforced concrete. The entire infrustruture in the capital collapsed, compared to the 1989 San Franscisco quake, coming in at 7.1 on the scale, only 62 people died. This clearly shows how much less damage would have been done to a city with better building pratices.

The presidental palace was built before 1918, so it's understandable how it faired, but I sure they could have retrofited it some to hold up better than it did.

I saw on the news that donating via cell phone means that the money won't get to them for 3 months due to billing cycles.

I think that the world has a responsibility to help out - and many countries are stepping up. If we had a disaster of that magnitude, they should help us too.

We need to give them a hand up - not a hand out. And it needs to be a coordinated effort, with an end-date.

Ellie the Army is just arriving, Aid is a political dog an pony show.

It's a waiting game, the longer they wait, the less people there will be to help. Either they died or moved on else were before they do die.